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THE NATIVE PROBLEM
IN AFRICA

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

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TORONTO

THE

JOHN CRERAR
LIBRARY

THE NATIVE
PROBLEM IN AFRICA

RAYMOND LESLIE BUELL

FORMERLY ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF GOVERNMENT
AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY

VOLUME I

ilgot*

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

1928

By THE BUREAU OF INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH OF
HARVARD UNIVERSITY AND RADCLIFFE COLLEGE.

Set up and printed.
Published March, 1928.

The Bureau of International Research has aided
the author in carrying on research and in publish¬
ing the results. The Bureau assumes no responsibility
for the statements or views expressed.

SCHOOL OP u-COLOGY
AT CLAREMONT

California

Printed in the United States of America by
J. J. LITTLE AND IVES COMPANY. NEW YORK

PREFACE

This report to the Committee of International Research of Harvard
University and Radcliffe College is based upon fifteen months’ investiga¬
tion abroad. Leaving the United States in June, 1925, I visited the Union
of South Africa, Portuguese East Africa, Basutoland, Southern Rhodesia,
Northern Rhodesia, the Belgian Congo, Tanganyika, Zanzibar, Kenya,
Uganda, French Equatorial Africa, the French Cameroons, Nigeria, the
Gold Coast, French Togo, French West Africa, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
I also visited the European capitals responsible for the administration of
many of these territories and returned to the United States at the end of
September, 1926. Upon instructions, I confined myself to the situation in
French, British and Belgian territory and Liberia.

Africa is the one continent of the world where by the application of
intelligence, knowledge and good will, it is not too late to adopt policies
which will prevent the development of the acute racial difficulties which
have elsewhere arisen, and the evils of which have been recognized only
after they have come into existence. In the larger part of the continent
of Africa the white man still has carte blanche, to avoid the mistakes of the
past committed in other parts of the world if he has will and intelligence
to do so. The purpose of this report is to set forth the problems
which have arisen out of the impact of primitive peoples with an industrial
civilization, and to show how and to what extent these problems are being
solved by the governments concerned.

It is of course impossible for a fleeting traveller to subject an entire
continent to an^ examination of value as long as he confines himself to
travel impressions and personal views. In an effort to avoid these dangers,
I have attempted to base the report upon a study of all available documents,
which have been interpreted in the light of observations and especially of
the consensus of opinion of the thousand or so residents on the spot with
whom I talked, and who represented every point of view.

I am under a debt to a large number of people, in Africa, Europe and
the United States, who obviously cannot be named, for information and
other assistance. I am also under a debt to the Committee of Inter¬
national Research of Harvard University and Radcliffe College for placing
every facility at my disposal for the completion of this report.

R. L. B.

New York City, December, 1927.

Withdrawn from Creras: U brm

CONTENTS

VOLUME I

SECTION I
SOUTH AFRICA

PAGE

Chapter i. The Union . i

i. A Little History. 2. The Union Government. 3. Population. 4. Eco¬
nomic Organization. 5. The Labor Supply.

Chapter 2. The Recruiting of Lador .20

1. Chinese Labor. 2 . Indian Labor. 3. The “W.N.L.A.” 4. Portuguese
Labor System. 5. The "N.R.C.” 6. Criticisms of Recruiters.

Chapter 3. The Industrialized Native.39

1. Physical Treatment. 2. Desertion. 3. Wages. 4. Deferred Pay.

5. Accident Compensation. 6. Social Results. 7. Urban Locations, o. Il¬
licit Liquor Trade. 9. Urban Areas Act.

Chapter 4. The Color Bar.58

1. Mines and Works Act, 1911. 2. The Rand Strike. 3. The Hildick-
Smith Case. 4. The Color Bar Bill. 5. Color Bar and Protection.

6. The Wage Act. 7. Social Discrimination. 8. The Pass System.

Chapter 5. The Native in the Country .71

1. Native Locations and Trusts. 2. Population and Native Land. 3. Con¬
dition of Farm Natives. 4. Native Squatters. 5. Native Land Act, 1913.

6. The Beaumont Commission and Local Committees. 7. European Lands.

Chapter 6 . The Transkei System.88

1. Administration. 2. Glen Grey Land Tenure. 3. The Bunga System.

4. The Conference of Magistrates. 5. Powers. 6. The Estimates. 7. The
Bunga Farm. 8. Medical Work. 9. Dipping. 10. Demand for Native
Self-Government, it. Increased Power of Chiefs. 12. The Economic

Factor. *

Chapter 7. Native Administration .m

1. The Judicial System. 2. Compulsory Labor in Natal. 3. Taxation.

4. The Native Affairs Act, 1920. 5. Native Taxation and Development

Act, 1925. 6. The Act for the Better Control of Native Affairs, 1927.

Chapter 8. Native Discontent.118

1. Native Education. 2. The Israelite Movement. 3. The African Na¬
tional Congress. 4. The Bantu Union. 5. Military Revolt. 6. Native
Strikes. 7. Bantu Communism. 8. The “I.C.U.”

Chapter 9. The Hertzog Native Policy.. . . . 131

1. The Cape Policy. 2. Compulsory Segregation. 3. Differentiation.

4. The Hertzog Program. 5. Criticisms. 6. Dangers of the Hertzog Pol¬
icy. 7. The “Crofter” System.

Appendix I. The India South Africa Agreement, 1927.155

vii

CONTENTS

viii

SECTION II
BASUTOLAND

PAGE

Map—South Africa and the Rhodesias .162

Chapter 10. The Contest with the Boers .163

1. Moshesh and the Boers. 2. Annexation by the Cape.

Chapter ii. The Country and Its Government .170

1. Population and Trade. 2. Administration. 3. The Native Govern¬
ment. 4. Criticism of Basuto Courts. 5. The Laws of Lerotholi. 6. Land
Tenure and Tribute. 7. The Pitso. 8. Powers. 9. The Development
of Native Life. 10. Medical Work. 11. Education.

Chapter 12. Relations with the Union.190

Appendix II. Note on the Swaziland Concessions.197

Appendix III. Native Welfare Expenditures, Basutoland, Swaziland and

Bechuanaland.201

SECTION III

THE RHODESIA^/AND NYASALAND

Chapter 13. Souther* Rhodesia.205

1. Lobengula and the South Africa Company. 2. The Settlers and the
Company. 3. Status of Unalienated Land. 4. Native Reserves. 5. Na¬
tive Land Purchases. 6. Rhodesia’s New Constitution. 7. Distribution
of Natives. 8. Pass Law. 9. Native Administration. 10. European De¬

fense.

Chapter 14. The Labor Situation .224

1. The Native Labor Bureau. 2. The Mozambique Convention. 3. De¬
mand for Government Aid. 4. Condition of Labor.

Chapter 15. Northern Rhodesia .234

1. Company Administration. 2. The Land Settlement. 3. Native Policy—
the Barotse Kingdom. 4. Native Taxes. 5. Native Welfare. 6. The
Watch Tower Movement

Chapter 16. Nyasaland.244

1. The Protectorate. 2. Certificates of Claim. 3. The Chilembwe Rising.

4. Land Commission of 1921. 5. The Question of Native Reserves.

6. Cotton Cultivation. 7. The Settlers’ Protest. 8. Conclusion.

Appendix IV. Nativb Welfare Expenditures—Nyasaland .256

SECTION IV
KENYA

Map—British East Africa.258

Chapter 17. The European Occupation of East Africa.259

1. The Arab Invaders. 2. The Slave Trade. 3. The British Fight
Against the Slave Trade. 4. The Chartered Companies. 5. The Ten-
Mile Strip. 6. Zanzibar. 7. Uganda.

CONTENTS

Chapter 18. Population—the Indian Question .285

1. Constitution. 2. Population. 3. The Indian Population. 4. Discrimina¬
tion Against Indians. 5. The Franchise Question. 6. The 1921 Settlement.

Chapter 19. Land Hunger.298

1. The Highlands. 2. The Crown Lands Ordinance, 1902. 3. Crown
Lands Ordinance, 1915.

Chapter 20. Native Reserves .305

1. Native Land Rights. 2. The Case of the Kikuyu. 3. Gethaka Titles.

4. The Akamba and the Nandi. 5. The Masai Move. 6. The Reserve
Policy. 7. The European Opposition to Reserves. 8. Guarantees. 9. The
Adequacy of Reserves. 10. Squatters.

Chapter 21. Kenya’s Labor Problem .329

1. History of the Labor Question. 2. Taxation and Labor. 3. The Northey
Circulars. 4. The Attack Against “Neutrality.” 5. Imported Labor. 6.
Labor Pressure. 7. Labor Recruiting. 8. The Labor Supply. 9. Labor-

Saving Devices. 10. Limiting the Demand.

Chapter 22. The Treatment of Labor.351

1. Masters and Servants Ordinance. 2. Female and Child Labor.

3. Government Labor.

Chapter 23. Kenya Native Policy.360

1. Administration. 2. Native Headmen. 3. Native Courts. 4. Native
Councils. 5. Native Obligations. 6. Native Opposition. 7. Inter-Racial
Crime. 8. Poor Whites.

Chapter 24. The Dual Policy.381

1. The Doctrine of Trusteeship. 2. Education. 3. Medical Work.
4. Native Agriculture and Transport. 5. Dual Policy and the Labor Sup¬
ply. 6. European Opposition to Dual Development. 7. Social Effects of
the Kenya System.

Chapter 25. The Demand for Self-Government.399

1. Convention of Associations. 2. The Elected Members. 3. Protective
Tariffs. 4. The Fear of Revolt. 5. Kenya Finances. 6. Racial Con¬
siderations.

Appendix V. Despatch on Native Labor.417

Appendix VI. Offences under East Africa Masters and Servants Or¬
dinances .421

Appendix VII. Native Welfare Expenditures on All Races, Colony of

Kenya, 1926.422

Appendix VIII. Colonial Loans.422

SECTION V

TANGANYIKA TERRITORY

Chapter 26. The Establishment of the Mandate .425

1. German Rule. 2. The East Africa Campaign. 3. The Establishment
of a Civil Administration. 4. Early Difficulties. 5. Ex-Enemy Property.

6. Colonial Loans. 7. The Indian Question. 8. War Claims. 9. The Re¬
turn of the Germans.

CONTENTS

PAGE

Chapter 27. Native Administration. 445

1. The Masai. 2. The Zulu Invasions. 3. German Policy. 4. British
Policy. 5. Traditional Authority. 6. Native Courts. 7. Native Treas¬
uries. 8. Tribal Amalgamation. 9. The School for Sons of Chiefs.

10. Government Labor. 11. Communal Labor.

Chapter 28. The Improvement of Native Life.469

1. The Medical Service. 2. Sleeping Sickness. 3. Veterinary Work.

4. Native Agriculture. 5. Education and Missions. 6. Missionary Spheres
of Influence.

Chapter 29. White Settlement in Tanganyika.486

1. German Plantation Policy. 2. Tanganyika Land Ordinance. 3. The
Fight over White Settlement. 4. Protests Against Native Coffee. 5. Set¬
tlement in the Southern Highlands. 6. Native Labor. 7. The Labor Law.

8. Desertion. 9. Social Results of Recruiting. 10. The Labor Supply.

11. Labor “Pressure.”

Chapter 30. A Dominion of East Africa.511

1. Federation Schemes. 2. The Policy of Coordination. 3. The Eastern
Africa White Paper. 4. Protective Tariffs. 5. The “K. A. R.” 6. Rail¬
way Policy. 7. Kenya’s Missionary Spirit. 8. The Tukuyu Conference.

9. Encircling Tanganyika. 10. The "Contact” Theory. 11. Economic
Gains of White Settlement. 12. Climate.

Appendix IX. Trade of the German Colonies, 1912. 543

Appendix X. German Colonial Loans, 1908-1920. 544

Appendix XI. Article 22 — Covenant of the League of Nations 545

Appendix XII. British Mandate for East Africa.546

Appendix XIII. Land and Labor Resolutions, Conference of Governors of

the East Africa Dependencies.550

Appendix XIV. Agriculture and Labor—Instructions of the Tanganyika

Government.554

SECTION VI
UGANDA

Chapter 31. Uganda Administration. 559

1. Population. 2. Native State Agreements. 3. Administrative Organiza¬
tion. 4. Courts. 5. Native Advisers and Lukikos. 6. Taxation. 7.
Kasanvu Labor. 8. Communal Labor.

Chapter 32. The Native Kincdom of Bucanda.571

1. The Clans. 2. The Kabaka’s Kingdom. 3. The Uganda Agreement,

1900. 4. Present Organization. 5. Salaries. 6. The Lukiko. 7. The
Lukiko Court. 8. The Lukiko Offices. 9. The “Luwalo” Budget. 10. The
Second Budget, n. Demand for Reform.

Chapter 33. Land Policy in Uganda.590

*• Buganda Land Tenure. 2. The Land Settlement, 1900. 3. Titles.

4. The Butaka Question. 5. Transfer Restrictions. 6 - Rent and Tithes.

7. Crown Land.

CONTENTS _xi

PAGE

Chapter 34. Population, Health, and Education .602

1. Vital Statistics. 2. Sleeping Sickness. 3. Venereal Disease. 4. Native
Maternity Work. 5. Dispensaries. 6. Missions. 7. The Malaki Reli¬
gion. 8. Education.

Chapter 35. Native Production and Its Results.617

1. Cotton. 2. Cotton Marketing. 3. Native Coffee. 4. Social Results.

5. The Labor Situation.

Appendix XV. The Uganda Agreement —1900.633

SECTION VII
NIGERIA

Chapter 36. General Administration .645

1. Population. 2. Administrative Organization. 3. The Judicial System.

4. Revenue and Trade. 5. Taxation. 6. Medical Service. 7. Compulsory
Labor.

Chapter 37. The Colony of Lagos.660

1. King Docemo. 2. Lagos Town Council. 3. The Eleko Question.

Chapter 38. The Protectorate of Southern Nigeria.668

1. The Yorubas. 2. The Agreements of 1893 and I 9 ° 4 - 3 - Egba Inde¬
pendence. 4. The Kingdom of Benin. 5. The Eastern Provinces.

Chapter 39. Northern Nigeria. 679

1. Its History. 2. The Royal Niger Company. 3. The Protectorate.

Chapter 40. The British Cameroons.685

Chapter 41. Indirect Administration.688

1. The Native Authority Ordinance. 2. Native Courts. 3. Native Prisons.

4. Native Treasuries. 5. Native Administration Estimates.

Chapter 42. Native Self-Government in Nigeria.700

1. The Kano Emirate. 2. The Yoruba States. 3. The Egba Government.

4. The Eastern Provinces.

Chapter 43. Conclusions as to Indirect Rule .717

1. Its Aims. 2. Abuses of Indirect Rule. 3. Future Development.

Chapter 44. Education and Missions.728

1. In the Southern Provinces. 2. In the North. 3. A Comparison. 4. Mis¬
sions in Northern Nigeria.

Chapter 45. Native Politics and Religion .738

1. The Educated Classes. 2. The Nigerian Council. 3. Elected African
Members. 4. African Political Parties. 5. Native Churches.

Chapter 46. Land Policy.750

1. Native Land Customs. 2. The Northern Nigeria Land System. 3. Land
in Lagos. 4. Land in Southern Nigeria. 5. Forest Reserves. 6. Native
Lands Acquisition Act. 7. Individual Titles. 8. Mines.

Chapter 47. Native Agriculture .766

1. Exports. 2. The Demand for Palm Concessions. 3. Governor Clifford’s
Argument. 4. Improvement of Native Production. 5. Produce Inspection.

Appendix XVI. Niceria Labor Legislation. . 781

CONTENTS

xii

SECTION VIII
THE GOLD COAST

PACK

Chapter 48. The Ashanti Wars .785

1. Native Institutions. 2. The Ashanti Invasions. 3. The Resolution to
Withdraw. 4. The Golden Stool. 5. The Bond and the Poll Tax Or¬
dinance. 6. The Fanti Confederation.

Chapter 49. Native Policy.799

x. The Native Jurisdiction Ordinance. 2. By-laws. 3. The Forest Ordi¬
nance. 4. Native Tribunals. 5. Interference with Native “Rights.”

6. The Native Administration Bill, 1927.

Chapter 50. Land and Labor.812

1. Cocoa. 2. The Middleman. 3. The Export Duty. 4. Effect on Land
Tenure. 5. The Public Lands Bill, 1897. 6. The Concessions Ordinance.

7. The Mines. 8. Free Labor.

Chapter 51. Home Rule on the Gold Coast.829

1. African Civil Servants. 2. Aborigines’ Rights Protection Society.

3. African National Congress. 4. Local Self-Government. 5. The New
Constitution. 6. Attack Against the Provincial Councils. 7. A Gold Coast
Nation.

Chapter 52. Social Development .845

1. Health. 2. Education. 3. Achimota. 4. Technical Training. 5. Gold
Coast “Extravagance.”

Appendix XVII. Average Revenue and Expenditure, 1899-1927 ... 856

Appendix XVIII. Average Annual Trade, 1899-1926.856

SECTION IX
SIERRA LEONE

Chapter 53. The Protectorate .g 59

1. Origins. 2. The Tribes—the Human Leopard Society. 3. Hut Tax
War. 4. The Protectorate Ordinances. 5. The Bo School for Chiefs.

6. Agriculture—Palm Concessions. 7. Produce Inspection.

Chapter 54. The Colony. .

1. The Creoles. 2. The Syrians. 3. Kru Labor. 4. Tribal Administration
in Freetown. 5 * The Legislative Council. 6. The Freetown Municipality.

7. The Railway Strike.

Appendix XIX. Native Welfare in British West Africa.895

1. Native Welfare Expenditures—Sierra Leone. 2. Native Welfare Ex¬
penditures—British West Africa. 3. Medical Work—British West Africa.

4. Native Education—British West Africa.

Appendix XX. A Statistical Comparison of British West Africa and Brit¬
ish East Africa. 8?

CONTENTS

xiii

SECTION X

FRENCH WEST AFRICA

PACE

Map—West Africa.900

Chapter 55. The French Occupation of West Africa.90 1

1. The Native Population. 2.The Occupation of Senegal. 3. Cap Vert.

4. General Faidherbe. 5. The Sudan. 6. The Volta and Guinea. 7. The
Ivory Coast. 8. Dahomey. 9. Tibesti. 10. An Empire Occupied.

Chapter 56. The Federation of West Africa.923

1. Its Establishment. 2. The Government-General. 3. Decentralization.

4. Senegal’s Opposition. 5. Federal Finance. 6. “Mise en Valeur.”

7. Results of the Campaign.

Chapter 57. The Black Citizens of Senecal.946

1. Naturalization. 2. Citizens of the Four Communes. 3. The Citizenship
Law of 1916. 4. The “Jugement Suppletif.” 5. The Senegal Deputy.

Chapter 58. The “Communes”.958

1. The “Communes de Plein Exercice.” 2. Local Finance. 3. The Im¬
perial City of Dakar. 4. The Mixed Communes.

Chapter 59. The Colonial Council.967

1. The General Council, 1879-1920. 2. The Colonial Council. 3. Powers.

4. The Council at Work. 5. Chiefs v. Citizens. 6. Conclusions as to the
Council. 7. The Native Electoral College.

Chapter 60. Native Policy.983

1. Administration. 2. The Use of Native Chiefs. 3. The School for Sons
of Chiefs. 4. Results. 5. The Ponty and Van Vollenhoven Policies.

6. The Councils of Notables.

Chapter 61. The Administration of Justice.1002

1. “La Justice Frangaise.” 2. “La Justice Indigene.” 3. The Present Sys¬
tem. 4. Lack of Penal Code. 5. Safeguards Against Abuse. 6. Homol-
gation. 7. Criticisms. 8. Disciplinary Penalties or the Indigenat.

Chapter 62 . French Land Policy.1021 ‘

1. Native Land Customs. 2. French Land System. 3. The Lebou Land
Question. 4.*Private Titles. 5. The States and the Unearned Increment.

Chapter 63. Native Obligations.1035

1. The Tax System. 2. Prestations. 3. Requisitions. 4. Compulsory Labor
for Public Purposes.

SECTION I

SOUTH AFRICA

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

SECTION I
SOUTH AFRICA

CHAPTER 1

THE UNION

Numerous and diversified as are the racial problems of the world, the
color question in the Union of South Africa is unique. Perhaps the
United States, with 12,000,000 negroes constituting a tenth of the total
population, offers the closest parallel. But in South Africa, the non-
European population outnumbers the white nearly four to one. As a
result, the European population, just large enough to give a definite
imprint to the country, is haunted by the fear of being eventually engulfed
by the growing numbers and power of the natives. Both communities
regard South Africa as their home. Both intend to make it their home
in the future. The whites have no intention of surrendering the economic
and political control which they now possess; while the blacks are coming
to demand a greater share in the government and in the economic life.
This conflict of economic and political interests is intensified, if indeed it
is not caused, by the grim factor of race. So far in history, the gulf be¬
tween white and black has seldom been bridged.

I. A Little History

South Afric^ has become the home of the European not only because
of its wealth, but also because of its climate. Bathed by the breezes of
three seas, and having throughout forty per cent of its area an elevation
of more than 4000 feet, South Africa has a temperature cooler than that
found in European countries located the same distance—22 to 35 degrees—
from the equator. The center of this sub-continent is the Rand mining
area, located in the High Veld which includes southern Transvaal and
part of the Orange Free State. The city of Johannesburg resembling, in
some ways, an American metropolis, lives a windy and frosty existence—
some 6000 feet above sea-level.

Discovered in 1487, about the time Columbus discovered America,
South Africa was occupied by the Dutch under Van Riebeek in 1652.
While since then, America has become one of the largest and richest coun-
3

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

tries in the world, South Africa, during the same period, has acquired only
one seventy-seventh as many whites as the United States.

Numerous reasons account for this striking difference in development.
The area of South Africa is only a sixth of that of the United States. 1
While the United States has been under a single government, South
Africa, until 1900, was divided between the two British colonies of Cape
Colony and Natal on the one hand, and the two Boer republics, the
Transvaal and the Orange Free State, on the other. But even more im¬
portant is the fact that, unlike the United States, the white settlers of
South Africa have been confronted with an overwhelming majority of
relatively primitive inhabitants of the soil.

In defense of the European occupation of Africa, a number of English
writers point to the occupation of North America by European colonists.
If the occupation of the United States by European settlers who subjected
the aboriginal inhabitants was justified, is not the occupation of Africa
by Europeans similarly justified? The analogy is, however, far from
perfect. While the continent of Africa to-day (excluding North Africa) is
inhabited by at least a hundred million natives many of whom have a
fixed idea of property in the land, that part of the continent of North
America which is now the United States was, according to the best esti¬
mates, never occupied by more than a few hundred thousand Indians, most
of whom were nomadic. 2

In other words, the American continent was practically vacant. 8

Moreover, the Europeans who occupied and developed the American
continent did not rely upon primitive labor as the basis of their existence,
as have the Europeans who have entered Africa. This is a fundamental
difference, the importance of which will be realized only after an ex¬
amination of the effect upon native and European life of an industrial
system based upon primitive instead of upon European labor.

First colonized by the Dutch who imported slaves from their Eastern
possessions—the descendants of whom are known as Cape Malays—the Cape
of Good Hope passed to the British as spoils of war in 1814. Unable to
tolerate the ways of Englishmen, the Boers, as the Dutch came to be called,
started a great trek in 1833 which led to the establishment of independent

1 The area of the Union of South Africa i9 472,347 square miles; that of the
mandate of South-West Africa is 322,450 square miles; that of the United States is
2,970,230 square miles.

“Livingston Farrand, Basis of American History, New York, 1904, p. 100.

The Puritans who settled New England purchased their land from Indians.
According to the Supreme Court of the United States, “friendly Indians were pro¬
tected in the possession of the lands they occupied.” Cf. M. F. Lindley, The
Acquisition and Government of Backward Territory in International Lavs, Lon¬
don, 1926, pp. 338 ff.

THE UNION

governments in Natal, the Orange Free State, and the Transvaal. Fol¬
lowing disturbances which the Boer authorities did not suppress, the Cape
Government occupied Natal which in 1843 became a Crown Colony.
Similar efforts of annexation having failed in the Orange Free State, the
British Government recognized its independence in 1854. 4

After signing a treaty with the British Government which promised not
to interfere with the affairs of the Boers north of the Vaal, the Boers estab¬
lished an independent government in the Transvaal which came to be
known as the South African Republic in 1858.°

During the next twenty years, the Republic engaged in a series of wars
with Zulu and Bechuana chiefs, which produced such a regime of disorder
that the British Government, to stop the bloodshed, annexed the Trans¬
vaal in 1877. But as a result of a revolt of the freedom-loving Boers,
the British in the Pretoria Convention, in 1881, guaranteed the Trans¬
vaal Boers complete self-government on condition that their foreign rela¬
tions should be controlled by the British Government. A British resident
was to have a certain authority in regard to the protection of the natives;
i.e., no enactment specially affecting the natives could have any force
without his consent. 0

In 1884, another convention was signed at London which, according to
the Boers, terminated British suzerainty—an interpretation which the
English Government declined to accept. The treaty, however, did do
away with the British Resident and all outside control over native affairs.
Nevertheless, the Republic could not make treaties with any State, except
the Orange Free State, nor with a native tribe, without the consent of the
British Government. 7

With the discovery of gold in the Transvaal, further difficulties arose
over obstructions placed by the Boers in the way of developing the mines
by foreign capital—obstructions which, according to the British Govern¬
ment, violated the provisions of the treaty of 1884. 8

The eventual up-shot of these grievances was the Anglo-Boer War—

4 The convention of Bloemfontein, February 23, 1854. E. Hertslet, The Map
of Africa by Treaty, 2nd edition, London, 1896, p. 814. In 1876 another convention
was signed at London settling boundaries, in which Great Britain paid the Free
State 90,000 pounds for the abandonment of Free State claims ta certain diamond
areas. Ibid., p. 818.

‘The Sand River Convention, January 17, 1852; Ibid., p. 839.

‘Convention of August 3, 1881, G. W. Eybers, Select Constitutional Documents
Illustrating South African History, 1795-1910, London, 1918, p. 455. The pro¬
visions of this Convention in regard to land are discussed in Vol. I, p. 74.

7 Ibid., p. 469.

8 We have no time to go into Dr. Jameson’s attempt to overthrow the Dutch
Republic by his famous raid. Cf. Ian Colvin, The Life of Jameson, London, 1922,
Vol. II, Ch. XXV, XXVI. Neither have we time to go into the causes of the
Boer War.

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

the South African Republic and the Free State, bound by an alliance of
1889 amended in 1897, against the British Empire. After a stubborn
defense, the Boers were obliged to surrender in the Peace of Vereeniging,
May 1902, subject to the concession that the Dutch language would be
taught in the public schools in the Transvaal and the Orange River Colony
where the parents desired it, and would be used in the courts of law. The
question of granting the franchise to the natives was not to be decided until
after the introduction of self-government. 9

After a transitional period marked by the partial restoration of racial
goodwill, the Crown granted responsible government to both the Free
State (1906) and the Transvaal (1907), subject to the restriction that
the Governor should reserve any law imposing disabilities upon persons of
non-European descent which did not apply to Europeans. 10 This pro¬
vision did not, however, affect existing legislation. Likewise, the Governor
was obliged to reserve any law providing for the introduction of contract
labor from outside South Africa. 11

In both cases, however, the franchise was restricted to “white” male
British subjects.

Under the leadership of Lord Milner and General Louis Botha, efforts
were made to bring about a federation of these four different colonies, each
of which already had responsible government. 12 Perhaps the most serious
problem which had to be solved was that of native policy. Largely
because of the fact that Natal and the Cape of Good Hope had always
been British colonies, little frankly discriminatory legislation against the
blacks was on their statute books.

On the other hand, the Boers of the Transvaal and the Free State had
not been subject to the control of a European colonial office. Engaged
with the blacks in a constant struggle for existence, they sincerely believed
that the native was, in the eyes of God, inferior to the white man. The
Grond-wet of 1858—the Transvaal constitution—frankly said that “The
people desire to permit no equality between coloured people and the white

'Treaty of May 31, 1902, Eybers, cited, p. 345.

“These restrictions were modelled after those to which Natal was subjected in
1893. In Instructions to the Governor of Natal it was provided that the Governor
should not assent to any Bill whereby persons not of European birth or descent
may be subject to any disabilities to which persons of European birth or descent
are not also subject. Eybers, cited, p. 212.

11 Transvaal Constitution of December 6, 1906, Statutory Rules and Orders,
x 9o6, p. 895, Art. XXXIX. Orange River Constitution of June 5, 1907, Ibid., 1907,
Art. XLI, p. 1165.

“The first move in this direction was taken by Sir George Grey in 1858. For
the correspondence, cf. A. P. Newton, The Unification of South Africa, London,
1924, Vol. I, pp. 1-10.

THE UNION

inhabitants, either in Church or State. 13 The Orange Free State Con¬
stitution, 1854, limited the franchise to white persons. 14

2. The Union Government

In 1903, an inter-colonial commission was appointed to study native
affairs, with a view to arriving at a common understanding upon questions
of native policy in view of the coming Federation. It made a number
of recommendations, especially in regard to a limited representation of
natives in the Legislature. 18 But in view of the divergent native policies
of the four different colonies, the South Africa Act, 1909, establishing the
Union, scarcely mentioned the native population. It merely provided that
half of the eight senators nominated by the Government should be chosen
on the ‘‘ground mainly of their thorough acquaintance . . . with the
reasonable wants and wishes of the coloured races in South Africa.”
Members of the Senate and of the Assembly must, however, be of Euro¬
pean descent. While parliament may by law prescribe voting qualifica¬
tions for members of the Assembly, “no such law shall disqualify any person
in the province of the Cape of Good Hope” who, under existing laws, is
eligible to vote, "by reason of his race or colour only,” unless the bill be
passed by a two-thirds majority at a joint sitting of parliament. 10 On the
other hand, the anti-color bar provision inserted in the constitutions of the
Transvaal and the Free State in 1906-1907 were omitted from the Act
of Union. 17 Legally, therefore, the position of the natives in these terri¬
tories is less secure now than it was before the Union.

As a result of the Act of Union, the four colonies became provinces,
each governed by an administrator and a provincial council, with power
to make ordinances upon thirteen different subjects, subject to the veto of
the Governor-General. Each province is entitled to receive a grant from
the Union primarily for educational purposes; while it may also levy and
collect certain local fees and taxes. 18 In view, however, of the unlimited

“Article 9, text in G. W. Eybers, cited, p. 364.

“Text in Ibid., p. 286.

” Report of the South African Native Affairs Commission, 1903-1905, Cd. 2399,
(1905) p. 70.

“Articles 24, (ll) 35, (1). The schedule to the South Africa Act is discussed

in Vol. I, p. 190. Article 147 of the Act provides that the control and

administration of native affairs and of matters specially or differentially affecting
Asiatics throughout the Union shall be vested in the Governor-General in Council,

who shall exercise all special powers in regard to native administration hitherto

vested in the Governors of the Colonies or exercised by them as supreme chiefs,
etc. In view of the fact that the Governor-General is now a figure-head, this
article appears unimportant.

" These provisions led to a protest from a native delegation to the King.

“ Financial Relations Act, Statutes of the Union of South Africa, 1913, p. 100.
Provincial Subsidies Act, 1925, ibid., p. 852. The subsidy now amounts to about
5,400,000 pounds.

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

legislative power of the Union parliament, the provincial councils have so
little discretion and they expend so much money that their suppression is
being advocated in some quarters.

In addition to a Governor-General appointed by the Crown, 19 the Union
government consists of a prime minister and cabinet chosen from a parlia¬
ment composed of a Senate and an Assembly. The Senate has thirty-two
elected members, eight from each province, holding office for ten years,
together with eight nominated senators. In 1926, an act was passed vir¬
tually providing that the term of the nominated senators should expire
with the termination of the government appointing them. 20 The Assem¬
bly, representation in which is on a population basis, contains one hundred
and thirty-four members, fifty-one from the Cape, seventeen each from
Natal and the Free State, and forty-nine from the Transvaal. 21 In the
event of disagreement between the Assembly and the Senate, a joint sit¬
ting may be held at the next session, at which a bill may be passed by
majority. 22 This procedure was resorted to for the first time in 1926,
to secure the passage of the Color Bar Bill. 23 Both English and Dutch
are the official languages.

So far, the controlling factor in the political history of the Union has
been the relationship of Britisher to Boer, which in turn affects native
policy. Of the 1,519,500 Europeans in the Union, a little more than half
are estimated to be of Dutch extraction. 24 Boers are believed to out¬
number the British in every province except Natal. All of the prime min«-
isters so far have been Boers and all have been generals in the Anglo-Boer
War. The first two ministries were headed by General Botha, in power
until 1919; the third by General Smuts who lost the election of 1924; and
the fourth by General Hertzog. Political parties originated along racial
lines. The British elements formed the Unionist party; while most of the
Boers, led by Generals Botha and Hertzog, formed the South African
party—the descendant of the “Bond,” a party established by Hofmeyer in
the South African Republic to bring about unity between the two white
races. In November, 1912, the two Boer leaders came to a fundamental

18 His duties as Imperial High Commissioner are discussed in Vol. I, pp. 168,
206.

“The Governor-General is authorized to dissolve the Senate within 120 days
dissolution of the House in which case the nominated members shall vacate their
seats. Statutes, cited, 1926, p. 825. The occasion for the passage of this act is
discussed in Vol I, p. 62.

21 Parliament of 1920-1924. Official Year Book of the Union of South Africa,
No.^ 7, p. 92. Hereafter cited as Year Book.

The joint sitting may be held, however, only after the Assembly passes the
bill again. Article 61, South Africa Act.

* Cf. Vol. I, p. 58.

** Curiously enough, neither the South African Census for 1921 nor the Year
Book contains any figures as to the racial origin of the European population.

THE UNION

disagreement over the racial question. Botha advocated a “One Stream”
policy, the aim of which was to unite the Dutch and English elements into
a single South African nation; while Hertzog advocated a “Two Stream”
policy which aimed at keeping the Dutch and English nationalities dis¬
tinct. 26 Because of this division, General Hertzog was forced out of the
Botha ministry. He thereupon formed the Nationalist party, which de¬
manded the creation of a South African republic, free from the imperial
connection. Upon the outbieak of the European war in 1914, the more
extreme Boer elements, led by General de Wet, attempted an “armed pro¬
test” which was, however, quickly squelched by the Botha government.
Botha and the succeeding prime minister, General Smuts, both rendered
signal services to the Allied cause during the War and at the Peace
Conference.

In the elections of 1924, General Hertzog, leading the Nationalist
party, and forming a coalition with the Labor party, succeeded in cap¬
turing a majority of the seats in the Assembly, as a result of which Gen¬
eral Smuts and the South African party, which by this time included the
old Unionist members, were obliged to retire from power. As the new
government depended for a majority upon the Labor party—composed
largely of English artisans believing in the Empire—it was obliged to give
up its talk of independence. But it manifested its nationalistic feeling
through the enactment of high protective tariffs, and through more stringent
enforcement of the requirement that Afrikaans as well as English should
be taught in the schools and that all officials should know both languages.
Afrikaans is not, however, the Dutch of Holland. It is a distinct lan¬
guage resembling “low Dutch,” which is understood in no place in the
world except South Africa. Consequently, strenuous efforts are now being '
made to produce a local Afrikaans literature. In 1926, the government in¬
troduced a bill providing for a South African flag from which the Union
Jack was to be omitted—a bill which raised such a furor that it was tem¬
porarily withdrawn. Despite the efforts of a special commission no agree¬
ment had been reached by June, 1927. It appears that the new definition
of the British Commonwealth of Nations adopted at the Imperial Confer¬
ence of 1926 was due, 20 originally, to the pressure of the South African
Government. Partly because of this new definition, both of the Nation¬
alist leaders, General Hertzog and Mr. Tielman Roos, have apparently

“Cf. Earl Buxton, General Botha, London, 1924, Ch. X, p. 15.

“The definition is as follows: “They [the Dominions] are autonomous Com¬
munities within the British Empire, equal in status, in no way subordinate one to
another in any aspect of their domestic or external affairs, though united by a
common allegiance to the Crown, and freely associated as members of the British
Commonwealth of Nations.” Cmd. 2768, (1926).

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

given up their former advocacy of complete independence. Mr. Tielman
Roos, the leader of the extreme Nationalists, said: “We are absolutely
satisfied. . . . There is no question of secession in South Africa.” 27

Upon arriving at Cape Town from the Imperial Conference, the
Prime Minister, General Hertzog, declared that as a result of its de¬
cisions, “We are an absolutely free people, a free nation, to exercise our
will as we might, and as we may think best in our interests in the future;
and it has by its decision made it clear to us why it is no longer necessary
to quibble about whether we shall remain in the Empire, or whether we
shall secede from the Empire. . . 28

The native policy of South Africa is controlled by the fact that
the majority of the European population are Boers or “Afrikanders,” as
they prefer to be called—people who, for the most part, still cling to the
traditions of the Transvaal and the Free State. The Boer was a farmer
who—naturally, in a new country—was more interested in the acquisition
than in the development of land. Living a pastoral life, the Boer soon
cut himself off from the currents of the outside world. And it is only
within recent years that this isolation has begun to break down. The
Dutch Reformed Church—which has about 8oo,ooo European members
and adherents—is attempting to change the prevalent attitude toward the
native by convening “European and Bantu” Conferences where white
and black members have spoken sympathetically and frankly. Three con¬
ferences have been held. Such leaders as General Hertzog are fully aware
of the necessity of adopting a program which will take into consideration
the needs of the native race. But this leaven works among the leaders
much more rapidly than it does among the masses—especially where a
racial issue is involved. General Hertzog constantly finds himself check¬
mated, by the extremist Nationalists.

3. Population

The population of South Africa falls into four main groups: (1)
European, (2) Asiatic, (3) Colored, (4) Native. In addition to the
Boers and the English, there is a small Huguenot element in the Euro¬
pean population which also includes a growing number of Jews. 29 Be-

” Cape Times, December 3, 1926, p. n. Despite this statement, the Nationalist
party has decided to retain Article IV of its constitution which provides for the
establishment of “sovereign independence.”

a Ibid., December 14, 1926, p. 11. He went on to say that secession “is a
question which we shall have to decide according to the dictates of the interests of
our country, and if those interests in the years to come were to show it would be
best, then it is not for you or me to say it shall not be done; in other words, we
can leave that to the future.”

“For an interesting description of these different groups, see Gertrude Millin,
The South Africans, New York, 1926, Parts VI and VII,

THE UNION

tween five and ten per cent of the European population consists of what
are called Poor Whites—Europeans who because of a general lack of
education and efficiency have been unable to live up to the high Euro¬
pean standard. Hitherto, many Poor Whites have eked out an existence
as tenants or bijwoners on European farms. Especially since the War,
the Poor Whites have been moving to the cities where many of them have
been living side by side with the natives in abject poverty.

Practically all of the 166,000 Asiatics in the Union are Indians, whose
exact status is discussed elsewhere. The Asiatic population, which in¬
creased 8.89 per cent between 1911 and 1921, is growing much less
rapidly than the European or native population. 30

The third racial group in South Africa includes the half-casts, Hotten¬
tots, and the Cape Malays. The larger part of the half-cast population
appears to be the offspring of European marriages with Hottentots, who
are now called Cape Colored people. At the present time, the mixed and
colored population of South Africa numbers nearly 546,000, or 7.9 per
cent of the total. Between 1911 and 1921, the colored population in¬
creased only 3.73 per cent, 31 which is considerably below the normal in¬
crease. While this class is being recruited from the offspring of present
mixed unions, the main body of colored people belongs to the compact Cape
Colored group, which dates its existence back to the original European
occupation. Apparently this group, which contains some of the leading
non-Europeans of South Africa, is beginning to degenerate. 32

The fourth racial group, which constitutes 67.8 per cent of the total
population, consists of natives who during the last two hundred years
came pouring out of central Africa and literally exterminated the aborig¬
inal inhabitants, the Hottentots and the Bushmen.

The following table purports to show the increase of the population of
South Africa.

Increase of Population

Year

European population

1871

294,000

1891

620,619

1911

1,276,242

1921

1,519,488

Non-European population

2»779»i87
4 , 697.152
5,409,092 "

According to these figures, the European population in South Africa
doubled itself between 1871 and 1891. It also doubled itself between
1891 and 1911. But in the ten years preceding 1921, it increased only
90 Cf. Vol. I, p. 23.

11 Report, Third Census of the Population of the Union of South Africa, 1921,
Pretoria, 1024, p. 30.

" Ibid., p. 226.

Ibid., p. 27.

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

nineteen per cent—a significant diminution in the rate of increase. On
the other hand, the non-European population increased only sixty-nine
per cent between 1891 and 1911, and only fifteen per cent between 1911
and 1921. Thus, the non-European population has increased less, pro¬
portionately, than the European population. While native increases have
been due to birth within the Union, more than fifteen per cent of the
present European population entered the country as immigrants. 34 At
the present time, more than half the Europeans live in cities—an unhealthy
condition for an undeveloped country. 38 Upon the basis of the 1921 cen¬
sus figures, the director of the census wrote, “It will require very little
calculation to show that if the White race is to hold its own in South
Africa, it will be necessary to secure an immense development of White
civilization during the next fifty years, or perhaps, only the next twenty-
five years. . . . The European race can only hold its own numerically by
seeking accessions from abroad. Failing this, it must forever abandon the
prospect of maintaining a White civilization except as a proportionately
diminishing minority. . . . Long before the progression of the Native
population reaches the numbers indicated . . . there must be clash and
collision. . . .” 80

He estimates that if the past rate of progress is maintained, in fifty
years South Africa will have a population of 6,500,000 Europeans
(2,500,000 of whom will be immigrants or the children of immigrants)
and 16,500,000 blacks. 37

There appears to be little connection between these predictions and
the census figures which show that the European rate of increase is higher
than the non-European rate. Moreover, while it is relatively easy
to make an accurate count of Europeans, this is almost impossible in
the case of the blacks. No attempt was made to enumerate the natives
before 1891. As the Census Report says, “It is not known to what extent,
if any, the Native populations were displaced, or reduced, nor what rate
of increase, if any, prevailed prior to their contact with White civili¬
zation.” 38 Neither the 1911 nor the 1921 census can claim accuracy,

84 The European birth rate in South Africa is 27.5 per thousand, which is a little
higher than that of Canada, New Zealand, and the United States. The crude
death rate is 9.5 compared with 10.6 in Canada, 11.4 in the United States, and 12.8
in England and Wales. The infant mortality rate per thousand births is 73 com¬
pared with 72 for the United States, 77 for England, 115 for France, and 169 for
Japan. Year Book, cited, pp. 150, 158, 167. It thus appears that the movement
of European population in South Africa is about that of the older and more indus-
trialized countries in Europe and America.

**Cf. Vol. I, p. 14. " Census, cited, 1921, pp. 27-29.

” Ibid., p. 28. He works out other rates, one of 4,000,000 Europeans and
19,000,000 blacks, and another of 3,650,000 Europeans and 24,000,000 blacks.

“ Ibid., p. 27.

THE UNION

as far as the native is concerned. 30 If the Bantu population increased
only 16.89 Per cent between 1911 and 1921, according to the census, it
is doubtful whether there was a real increase of importance from natural
causes, in view of the fact that in 1921 the census was taken more thor¬
oughly than in 1911, and also in view of increases by immigration from
Portuguese East Africa, which must have been considerable. Any con¬
clusions—upon the basis of existing census figures—that the native popu¬
lation in South Africa is increasing have little foundation. Even if these
figures are accurate, attempts to work out future increases upon a geo¬
metric basis are notoriously untrustworthy.

In order to make the permanence of white civilization more secure,
many South Africans have advocated increased immigration. While no
limitations are placed on the entry of ordinary Europeans, 40 the Union
Government has not encouraged immigration largely out of fear that the
British would gain at the expense of the Dutch elements. 41 In 1922 the
Union suffered a permanent loss of departures over arrivals of 1380, which
was due to the repatriation of twenty-four hundred Indians. The Natural¬
ization and Status of Aliens Act, 1926, requires a residence of one year
in the Union and previous residence either in the Union or in some other
part of the British Empire for four years within the last eight years before
application, as a condition of naturalization; 42 payment of fees of six
and a half pounds is also required. Except for 1920 when 1845 aliens
were naturalized 43 the number of naturalizations average about three
hundred annually. 44 While increased white immigration would in one
sense make white civilization more permanent, it would also necessarily
increase racial tension. The fundamental reason why immigration and
European population do not increase naturally is the economic organiza-

" One census supervisor, in explaining the increase in the Transvaal Bushveld
says: “I think that a great portion of the increase can be attributed to the fact that
the natives are gradually overcoming their suspicions in connection with the taking
of the census, and are presenting themselves for enumeration, which they had not
previously done. You will, I am sure, readily understand that it is a physical
impossibility for enumerators to visit every Native kraal ... as much of the
country is wild and inaccessible except on foot, and the natives in many parts are
as wild as the country, and take to the bush immediately on the approach of a
European.” Ibid., p. 44.

40 The Immigrants Act of 1913 defines, however, certain classes of prohibited
immigrants. In 1923, 1946 such prohibited persons were disposed of. Year Book,
P- W-

A commission from Holland visited South Africa in 1927 with a view to
studying the possibilities of Dutch settlement which would relieve crowded con¬
ditions in Holland.

"British Nationality in the Union and Naturalization and Status of Aliens Act,
Statutes, cited, 1926, p. 136.

** Of whom 1442 were Russians.

**Year Book, cited, p. 146.

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

tion of the country which restricts the scope of European enterprise—an
organization which will now be briefly discussed.

4. Economic Organization

The Economic and Wage Commission in its report published in 1926, 45
estimated the net product of South African Industry in 1923 to be
186,000,000 pounds, of which agriculture represented 47,000,000, mining
37,000,000, manufactures 31,000,000, transport i6,ooo,ocfo, and com¬
merce and finance 12,000,000 pounds. The Commission estimated that
the per capita (including natives) income in South Africa was much lower
than in Australia, Canada, or the United States, and upon the same level
as the income of Germany or Italy. South Africa has an income per occu¬
pied person of only forty-three pounds. 40 These figures would indicate,
therefore, that the country is under-developed. But on the other hand,
real wages of Europeans in South Africa are higher than in any place else
in the world except in the United States, Canada, and Australia. Wages
in England are 30 per cent less, in Amsterdam nearly 40 per cent less,
in Paris and Berlin 50 per cent less than real wages in South Africa.
Thus while the capacity of South Africa to pay wages is much lower than
that of many other countries, the wages actually paid are among the highest
in the world. In fact, the average wage, which in other countries is
usually half the average per capita income, in South Africa is above the
average per capita income. While in England, the weekly wage of an
engineering artisan equals the pithead price of three tons of coal, in South
Africa, it equals the price of twenty to twenty-five tons. Thus skilled
wages take a much larger share of the product of industry than in other
countries. The explanation for this state of affairs is to be found in the
fact that unskilled labor in Africa is invariably performed by natives who
are paid much less, in relation to skilled laborers (who, because of the
color bar, are always white), than unskilled workers in other countries. 47

But this difference is not proportionate to difference in skill, primarily
because native wages in South Africa are not subject to the law of supply
and demand, but, as far as mining labor is concerned, are fixed by the two
recruiting organizations of the Transvaal Chamber of Mines. The other
employers follow suit, or even pay lower. 48

45 Report of the Economic and Wage Commission (1925), U. G. 14-1926, p. 217.

41 Australia has an income per occupied person of one hundred and seventy-eight
pounds; Canada of two hundred and sixty pounds; the United States of three
hundred and thirty-eight pounds.

41 In England, the ratio of the unskilled to the skilled labor wage is 11 to 15 in
the building trades; but in South Africa, it is 1 to 6. U. G. 14-1926, p. 19.

48 Cf. Vol. I, p. 76.

THE UNION

On the other hand, wages of Europeans are unduly high not only be¬
cause native wages are unduly low, but also because the rapid development
of the mining industry placed a premium on white personnel. White wages
—now averaging about a pound a day—levelled themselves up generally
to the wages paid skilled artisans on the mines. Today the average earn¬
ings of European employees, including officials in the mines, is two hun¬
dred and eighty-eight pounds a year, although the average net product
per capita of the mining industry is only one hundred and thirty-two
pounds. Since out of the net product all charges for profits, interest, and
taxes must be defrayed, it is obvious, says the Economic and Wage Com¬
mission, that the present high level of European wages is due to the low
level of native wages; “and neither can be increased except at the expense
of the other unless there is an increase in production per head.” 49

As a result of this wage system, South African industry tends to organ¬
ize itself on a basis of a small number of highly skilled Europeans and a
large number of cheap native laborers. Moreover, in the absence of a large
middle class of artisan population, the openings in the professions and other
activities serving such a class are necessarily limited. As long as this sys¬
tem remains, and because of the land system which restricts agriculture, 80
there is no incentive for immigration. Immigrants can find no means of
making a living. Indeed, some alarm is already felt lest the European
generation now finishing school should not find suitable employment. Al¬
ready the less capable Europeans who cannot qualify for jobs requiring
a high level of efficiency find difficulty in fitting themselves into the indus¬
trial organization. Some of them must perform some form of unskilled
labor. Even though they are more efficient than the native, they cannot
live on the wage which industry can afford to pay the white man in com¬
petition with the black. The result is that the inefficient Europeans swell
the Poor White class. The lower the native wage, the greater the danger
to the white man not efficient enough to occupy a position at the top.
The Hertzog government has made strenuous efforts to alleviate the Poor
Whites by the so-called “civilized labor” policy, employing these people
at a “civilized wage” in place of black manual laborers on government
plantations, railways, and public works. So far, these openings have been
too limited to help many Poor Whites, the employment of whom in the
place of the natives has led to increased costs. 81 The black population

*U. G. 14-1926, cited, p. 88. 80 Cf. Vol. I, p. 85.

“The Union Post Office recently found that in construction work, the cost of
white labor at first was as much as one hundred and fifty per cent more than
if the work had been performed by natives. The Public Works Department
allowed ten per cent more on building contracts when whites were employed in
place of natives; while the Railway administration found that while, adult white

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

protests against the “civilized labor” policy on the ground that it bars
them from yet another avenue of opportunity. It appears that the Poor
White problem will be solved only by a fundamental reorganization of
South African industry.

Another accompaniment of this type of racial-industrial organization
is an artificially high cost of living. According to the Economic Com¬
mission, which reported in 1914, the cost of living in South Africa, par¬
ticularly on the Witwatersrand, was about forty per cent higher than in
America and about eighty per cent higher than in any European country. 82
This cost of living is high partly because South Africa is obliged to import
fifty per cent of the wheat and flour consumed. According to the Eco¬
nomic Commission, a leading cause of high rents is the “division of the
South Africa community into two distinct social strata with widely dif¬
fering standards of living and purchasing power. The class of house con¬
sidered is provided only for the whites, and as the latter are comparatively
limited in number, the supply is subject to all the uncertainty of a small
market. The position is radically different from that in an all-white
community where, whatever the resources and standards of living, there
is a continuous series of such individuals with standards of living ranging
from the highest to the lowest, and shading off into one another. In such
a homogeneous community of one race, there are no gaps between the
various strata, so that if any vacancy either in occupation or residence
occurs anywhere except at the bottom of the social scale, it is filled without
disturbance or dislocation. . . . This is not so in South Africa where
what one witness called the lowest efficient man in the white scale is
soon reached. If he does not require the particular housing provided, it
has either to remain vacant or to be occupied by the colored man or native
whose standards of living are on a much lower level. ... If in England
working-class families tend to under-house themselves, in parts of South
Africa, they would certainly seem to make the mistake of over-housing
themselves in view of the cost of living. . . . The white man is expected
and expects to be domiciled in a fashion unmistakably superior to that of
the non-white.” B3

5. The Labor Supply

Little manual work in South Africa is performed by Europeans other
than by an increasing number of Poor Whites. Practically all such labor

laborers were perhaps fifteen per cent more efficient than native laborers, their
wages were one hundred per cent higher. U. G. 14-1926, p. 84.

Report of the Economic Commission, U. G. 12-1914, p. 16. Wages at that
time were forty per cent higher than in America and two hundred and twenty
per cent higher than in Europe.

" Ibid., p. 22.

THE UNION

is furnished by the natives, and, in the case of the Natal coal mines, by
Indians. The average numbers of natives employed in the Transvaal

labor districts between

1911 and

1923 have been as

follows:

1911

301,852

1918

268,412

1912

314218

1920

284,169

* 9*3

289,279

1921

274,665

* 9*4

243.509

1922

276,826

* 9*5

260,495

1923

303,230“

These figures show that the

'average number

of laborers employed

between 1911 and 1923 on the Transvaal has remained practically sta¬
tionary, if, indeed, it has not declined. Nevertheless, the production of gold
in the Transvaal has increased from 7,527,108 ounces in 1910 to 9,148,771
in 1923. The production of diamonds, on the other hand, has declined
one-half. 65

Periodically since 1903, European employers have complained of a
labor shortage. The Transvaal Labor Commission of 1903 estimated that
the demand for labor was in excess of the supply to the extent of 129,000
laborers, and that a further number of 196,000 would be needed in the
next five years. 88

With this finding the Native Affairs Commission, reporting in 1905,
agreed. It declared that to meet a demand for 782,000 native laborers,
474,500 men were available, leaving a shortage of 307,500. The Com¬
mission estimated that the males between fifteen and forty constituted one-
fifth of the population—or about 899,000 men, but that only half of this
number could be expected to work at any one time. 67

In 1926, the Economic and Wage Commission said,

“In every district your Commission visited, with the exception of Cape Town,
and in every industry from which we heard evidence, we were met with a
complaint of a shortage of native labour. Even the sugar industry of Natal
told us that ‘notwithstanding the large native population of Natal, it is doubt¬
ful whether the Province provides as much as a quarter of the labour require¬
ments of the sugar industry. With the steady disappearance of Indian labour
following the repeal of the immigation laws, recruiting for natives had to be
extended to other Provinces.’ And we were also informed that the cotton
industry was apprehensive about the shortage of native labour and that one
proposal had been made to apply for permission to import East Coast natives.

“Year Book, cited, p. 873. The total number of natives under European em¬
ployment throughout the Union is apparently unknown; it is estimated, however,
that 888,000 natives inhabit the towns, of whom 590,000 are men who are pre¬
sumably under employment. Ibid., p. 124. Cf. the table on p. 491.

“ Ibid., pp. 496, 515. The decline in diamond production may, however, be due
to the international control on output which diamond companies, aided by the
government, now impose in order to keep prices up, instead of to a labor shortage.

“ Transvaal Labour Commission, Cd. 1896, (1909). w Cd. 2399, cited, p. 55.

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

The mining industry, with its better organization and greater resources, draws
natives from agriculture and other industries to the detriment of the latter.
But even this resource would have only a limited field; for it was made plain
to us that the native shows only a partial and imperfect response to pecuniary
incentives; his choice of employment is affected less by the rate of wages
offered than by the nature of the employment and the custom of his tribe
and district; so that only a minority would be attracted away from their cus¬
tomary occupations to the mines. On the other hand, many of those who at
present seek employment on the mines would probably contract for shorter
terms of service and return to the locations sooner than they do at present,
if they were enabled to earn the sum which at present they take back with
them in a shorter time.” “

The supply of labor for European industry depends also upon the state
of native production in the reserves. In famine years, or in times of
drought, the number of natives seeking employment has increased. In the
Transkei, the most intelligent and the most prosperous natives, such as
the Fingoes, do not seek European employment to such an extent as the
Pondos, a less intelligent people.

In 1924, there was a shortage of some 16,000 laborers at the mines,
mainly because of “the exceptionally good harvest in most Native areas,
which largely relieved the natives of the economic pressure which alone
induces them to seek employment, and to the increased labour needs of
industrial and agricultural enterprise.” 50

This experience in South Africa would thus, it appears, disprove the
theory now being advanced in Kenya that the more production in the re¬
serves is encouraged, the greater will become the number of natives who
will also seek outside work. 80

Possessed of sufficient land to supply his wants, no native would vol¬
untarily seek underground employment on a European mine several hun¬
dred miles away from his home, nor any other kind of European employ¬
ment where he would be obliged to live under unnatural conditions. As
the South African Native Affairs Commission said in 1905, “The normal
condition of Native Life is that of a small cultivator and herdsman, and
the circumstances of their history have never developed among them a class
accustomed to, and dependent upon, continuous daily labour.” 81

“ U. G. 14-1926, cited, p. 148. In November, 1926, there was a drop in the
profits of the six mining groups of £25,625, which was due to “serious shortage of
native labour.” Cape Times, December 13, 1926, p. 17.

“ Report of the Native Recruiting Corporation, September, 1925, p. 3.

*®Cf. also the evidence in the Report of the Native Grievances Inquiry,
1913-1914, U. G. 37-1914, p. 82, where a witness says that “only ten percent
consists of natives who might live at home but come out of a desire to earn wages.”

“Report of the South African Native Affairs Commission, Cd. 2399 (1905)
P- 57 -

THE UNION

Consequently, in order to get the native into European employment,
the Cape Province enacted in 1894 a labor tax, imposing a tax of ten
shillings on native males who had not been in employment outside of their
district for three months during the year—a tax which was repealed, how¬
ever, in 1905. 82

In 1908 the Transvaal government also imposed a tax of two pounds
upon each native unless he were a farm laborer, in which case he only
paid a pound. A farm laborer was defined as a native who furnished at
least ninety days’ service a year to the farm owner. 83

In order to increase the actual supply of labor, the Chamber of Mines
increased the length of contract from six to nine months, in 1922-1923.
According to the Report of the Native Recruiting Corporation, 84 “It is
hoped that the institution of the nine months engagement period for con¬
tracted natives will serve to check the seasonal efflux of natives which
hitherto has seriously disturbed the labour force in the early months of the
year.” Thus some of them will be prevented from going to their homes
in the planting season.

The fact that the South Africa natives do not possess enough land
to provide themselves with food is a fundamental reason why they must
seek European employment—a factor discussed elsewhere. But of per¬
haps equal importance is the recruiting system which will be discussed in
the next chapter.

"Cf. Vol. I, p. 85.

" Statute La<w of the Transvaal, Vol. Ill, p. 1963.

**Report of the Native Recruiting Corporation, September, 1924, p. 3.

CHAPTER 2

THE RECRUITING OF LABOR

One of the unexpected results of the Boer War, fought in order to
remove restrictions upon the exploitation of the Rand mines, was the de¬
cline in 1903 of the native labor employed on these mines to one-half of
what it was in 1899. 1 In order to meet present needs and make expansion
possible, an increased supply of labor became necessary. With this end
in view, the mines organized the Witwatersrand Native Labor Associa¬
tion as early as 1900. But the efforts of this organization, which will be
described later, did not meet the need. Consequently, a “labor crisis”
arose in 1903. 2

I. Chinese Labor

Asserting that native labor was insufficient to meet the requirements,
the mine operators demanded the importation of Chinese. In 1903, the
Witwatersrand Native Labor Association sent a representative with this
in view to the Far East and to China; an important inter-colonial con¬
ference at Bloemfontein supported the principle of indentured labor; and
at about the same time, the Chamber of Mines organized a Labor Impor¬
tation Association. The Boer population, led by General Botha, took the
view that the mines had exaggerated the shortage of native labor, that
more natives would accept employment if the conditions under which
they worked could be improved, and that if a shortage really existed, the
mines should retard development, rather than introduce a disruptive factor
into the social life of the country.

While Lord Milner, the Imperial representative, favored the impor¬
tation of Chinese labor, he was unwilling to authorize it unless a Com¬
mission first showed that the labor required for mining development could
not be obtained from Africa. Such a Commission was thereupon ap¬
pointed. As anticipated, the Majority reported that there was an urgent
labor shortage. It declared that the native labor supply was closely con¬
nected with the tribal land system of South and Central Africa. Until
the conditions affecting the native in his home could be changed, no great

1 Report of the Transvaal Labour Commission, Cd. 1896, p. 15.

J For an admirable account, see Persia C. Campbell, Chinese Coolie Emigration,
London, 1923, Ch. IV.

THE RECRUITING OF LABOR

change in the labor supply could be expected. It did not believe that the
weapon of heavy taxation should be used as it could hardly be “dis¬
tinguished from forced labour.” 3

The Commission did not believe that it would be possible to introduce
white labor to perform manual labor on the mines. Instead of this being
profitable, it reported that “there are facts indeed which tend to show
that an exactly contrary displacement of white by black labour has been
in progress.” 4 The Commission found that there was no adequate supply
of labor in Central and Southern Africa to meet the requirements of agri¬
culture and the present and future demands of the mining industry. The
Minority, however, declared that the Chamber of Mines had exaggerated
the shortage and that the expansion of the mining industry should not
proceed at a rate incompatible with the sound and permanent prosperity
of the inhabitants of the Transvaal, both white and colored. 5 In its
opinion, the policy of the Chamber of Mines was directed toward the per¬
petuation of the “Inferior Race Labor System by the importation of
Asiatics,” which was in opposition “to the growth of a large working
British population.”

Upon the basis of the Majority report, the government, in 1904, se¬
cured the passage of the Transvaal Labor Importation Ordinance, 0 which
provided that imported laborers could be engaged in unskilled work on
the Rand Mines only under contract for a period of three years which
might be renewed for an additional three years, but that they should be
repatriated at the expiration of this period. Lord Milner forwarded the
ordinance to London with his blessing. But stirred up by opposition in
the Transvaal, Liberal and Labor members in the House of Commons
moved that it was inexpedient to sanction the ordinance until the ap¬
proval of the colonists had formally been ascertained—a motion which was
defeated. 7 Nevertheless, Mr. Lyttelton, the Secretary of State for the
Colonies, insisted that the regulations controlling the recruiting of Chinese
should be drafted before the ordinance was approved. 8 Later, Sir H.

‘The Transvaal and the Cape had imposed such taxes with the labor supply
in mind.

4 Cd. 1896, cited, p. 40. * Ibid., pp. 43 ff.

*For the text, cf. Transvaal Labor Importation Ordinance, Cd. 2026 (1904),

p. 12.

House of Commons Debates, February 17, 1904, Cols. 80, 124. Hereafter cited
as H. C. Deb.

"Regulations are printed in Transvaal Labour Question, Cd. 2026, cited, p. 1,
Cd. 1986 /(1904), p. 8. Cf. also Emigration Convention of May 13, 1904 between
Great Britain and China. Ibid., p. 57. Emigration from China was placed in the
hands of a British Emigration Agency, working with a Chinese inspector. Emi¬
grants were examined medically and also to determine whether or not they under¬
stood the terms of the Indenture. Regulations prescribed accommodation on board.

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

Campbell-Bannerman moved a vote of censure on the Balfour government
for wishing to introduce servile labor in the wake of the Boer war. 9

Meanwhile, the Labor Importation Agency, after making elaborate
arrangements, had begun the importation of its coolies. It appears that
more attention was paid to the food and health of the Chinese workers
than to that of native laborers. 10 But difficulties of a more serious nature
arose. Unlike the natives, the coolies would not submit to bullying by
white overseers—a fact which led to disturbances. Disputes over the
method of reckoning wages also occurred. Owing to a shortage of in¬
spectors, the employer in many cases did not fulfil the terms of the
contract with the Chinese who had no means of redress other than de¬
sertion. But desertion was a criminal offense. Nevertheless, in the first
year, more than twenty-one thousand out of the forty-three thousand coolies
recruited, unlawfully absented themselves from work. To escape arrest,
the Chinese deserters were obliged to keep under cover in daytime; and
in order to keep from starvation, they were obliged to steal at night. Thefts
increased without number; in 1905-1906, 13,532 laborers were convicted
of offenses. Twenty-six coolies were convicted of murder. According
to General Botha, the volume of outrages committed by the Chinese
coolies led Europeans to desert their farms. 11

Although the regulations allowed the entrance of families, only five
women and thirty-one children accompanied the coolies to the Transvaal.
The social life of the Chinese compounds was what might therefore be
expected. Gambling became universal, followed by wholesale indebted¬
ness. Nine-tenths of the deserters were victims of gambling. Opium
was surreptitiously smoked, while the House of Commons was shocked
to learn that sodomy was secretly practised in almost all of the com¬
pounds. 12 In December, 1905, the Colonial Office ordered that no fur¬
ther licenses for the importation of Chinese be issued until the establish¬
ment of Responsible Government. While the 1906 election campaign in
England was fought partly over the question of tariff reform, the Lib¬
erals really drove the Conservatives out of office on the ground of this

rations, etc. The Chinese government was authorized to appoint a consul to watch
over the interests of the laborers in South Africa.

It cost £11, 10s to import each Chinese coolie and £6 to repatriate him. Labour
on the Transvaal Mines, Cd. 2786 (1905), p. 25.

"The motion was defeated, 299 to 242. H. C. Deb., March 21, 1904, cols. 252
and 368.

10 See the Earl of Selborne’s report, Labour on the Transvaal Mines, Cd. 2786
(1905), P- 2 5 -

Campbell, cited, pp. 194, 209, 213.

u //. C. Deb., cited, Nov. 15, 1906, cols. 202-203.

THE RECRUITING OF LABOR

Chinese policy. The Transvaal Constitution, granted in 1906, brought
the regime to a definite end. 18

Despite the protest of the Chamber of Mines that vested rights were
being infringed, the Chinese coolies were now repatriated at the end of
their contracts, and the importation of further laborers stopped.

2. Indian Labor

In originally insisting upon the repatriation of these coolies, the Trans¬
vaal Government had in mind the experience of Indian Labor in Natal.
Between i860 and 1866, the sugar planters of Natal, dissatisfied with the
native labor supply, imported Indian indentured labor. 14

In 1866, the entrance of Indian laborers to Natal was suspended,
but because of the demands of planters, it was again permitted in 1874,
and continued without obstruction until 1911, when the Government of
India prohibited it. In 1909, a Natal Commission declared: “Absolutely
conclusive evidence has been put before the Commission that several in¬
dustries owe their existence and present conditions to indentured Indian
Labour, and that if the importation of such labour were abolished under
present conditions the industries would decline, and in some cases be aban¬
doned entirely.” 16

Instead of returning to India, the majority of laborers either signed
new contracts at the completion of their original five-year contracts or
entered farming or trade—becoming, “free Indians.” At the request of a
Natal deputation in 1894, the Indian Government agreed not to raise
an objection to the insertion in labor contracts of a clause to the effect
that coolies must return to India at the end of their indenture, provided
that failure to comply should not constitute a criminal offense. To carry
out this understanding, the Natal Government passed an act in 1895
stating that if the coolies failed to return to India or to re-indenture in
Natal, they would be subject to an annual tax of three pounds a head. 19
In 1903, the government passed another law declaring that if the children
of immigrants did not sign an indenture or return to India, they would
also be liable to the tax. 17 In 1907, the Transvaal Government passed

a Sec. L, Transvaal Constitution Order in Council, Statutory Rules and Orders,
1906, p. 909.

“Indian immigration was supervised by an Indian Immigration Trust Board.
The interests of the immigrant were also watched over by a Protector of Indian
Immigrants. Law No. 20, 1874; Law No. 25, 1891, Statutes of Natal, 1845-1899,
Vol. I.

“Quoted in Report of the Indian Inquiry Commission, Cd. 7265 (1914).

“ Act 17, 1895, Statutes of Natal, cited, Vol. I.

"Act 2, 1903, Ibid.

24 THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

a law requiring the registration of Asiatics. At this time, all the various
colonies had laws restricting Asiatic immigration. This end had been
achieved in Natal by an Immigration Act, first passed in 1897, which
authorized the government to restrict immigration through imposing an
education test in the characters of a European language. The movement
of Indians from one province to another was also restricted.

A number of difficulties over the status of Indians soon arose. Only
a certain percentage of the Indian men were liable to pay the license tax,
while the wealthier Indians, who had never been indentured, escaped scot-
free. Further difficulties came into existence over the status of Indian
marriage. In 1910, the Searle judgment held that a marriage contracted
according to the Indian rites recognizing polygamy, even if in fact monog¬
amous, was illegal, and all children born of such marriage were illegitimate
—a judgment regarded by the Indians as a slur upon their women. Oppo¬
sition to compulsory registration in the Transvaal led to the first passive
resistance movement of the Indians, starting in 1906, which was finally
brought to an end in a 1911 “settlement” between Gandhi and General
Smuts. In 1913, however, parliament passed the Immigration Regula¬
tion Act, which classified among prohibited immigrants any person or
class of persons deemed by the Minister on economic grounds or on account
of standards or habits of life to be unsuited to the requirements of the
Union or any particular province thereof. This Act is administered to
exclude all Asiatic immigrants, except wives and children of domiciled
residents. 18 The Indian community did not object so much to this type of
prohibition 19 as to the effect of the Act upon the rights of Indian resi¬
dents and upon the admission and status of Indian women married in
accordance with the rites of the Indian religion. 20 Consequently, the

** Statutes of the Union of South Africa, 1913, p. 214.

“The Indians did object to open exclusion by law. In a despatch of October 7,
1910, Lord Crewe, Secretary of State for Colonies, quoted the Minister of the
Interior of South Africa to the effect that as there must be differential treatment of
Asiatics desiring to enter the Colony, it was on all grounds preferable to provide
for such treatment by law and not to leave it to administrative action. “On
grounds of logic and simplicity,” says Lord Crewe, “there is doubtless much to be
said in support of this contention. It must, however, be remembered that there is
on record the statement . . . that the leaders of the Indians will acquiesce in
differential treatment, so long as it is secured by executive action and as the law
does not enact a colour bar. . . .” His Majesty’s Government only ask “that the
exclusion of such immigrants shall not be provided for in a manner which subjects
them to unnecessary humiliation.” In order to satisfy these considerations, the
Union Government drafted an Immigrants’ Restriction Bill in 1911, embodying the
Natal dictation test. But this was later abandoned in favor of the provisions
above mentioned in the 1913 Act. Cf. Correspondence, etc., U. G. 7-1911. The
Indian government did protest strongly, however, against certain provisions in the
1913 Act. Cf. Immigration Regulation Act, Cd. 7111, 1914.

23 A detailed account of this controversy will be found in Report of the Indian
Inquiry Commission, Cd. 7265, cited. Cf. also Cds. 5579, 6283, 6940 and 7111.

THE RECRUITING OF LABOR

Indian community again embarked on a passive resistance campaign. In¬
dians illegally crossed into the Transvaal, while four thousand struck on
the Natal coal mines. In a collision with the police, nine of them were
killed. A Commission of Inquiry, after exonerating the police, examined
the grievances of the Indians, and recommended, among other things, the
repeal of the license tax of three pounds. “We have to realize the fact
that the indentured Indians have been brought here to serve our own
needs, that for better or for worse the majority of them have come to stay,
and that in the interests of good government it is desirable to remove as
far as possible any causes of irritation.” 21 To carry out these recommen¬
dations, parliament passed the Indians Relief Act 22 which authorized the
Minister of the Interior to appoint priests of any Indian religion as mar¬
riage officers with authority to solemnize marriages according to the Indian
religion; provided for registration of Indian marriages in fact monoga¬
mous; admitted a wife of an Indian resident in the Union notwithstanding
the fact that he might be married to other wives in India; and repealed
the provisions of the laws relating to yearly passes and license taxes on ex-
indentured Indians. It also provided for the voluntary repatriation of
Indians at South Africa’s expense.

As a result of these measures—the prohibition of new immigrants,
repatriation, etc.—and of the fact that Indian men greatly outnumber the
women (the ratio is 142.32 to 100) the Indian population in the Union
has shown only a slow increase, from about 150,000 in 1911 to 161,339
in 1921, or 8.89 per cent. This rate is much less than that of the Euro¬
pean or native populations. Between 1911 and 1921, a total of 26,782
Indians were repatriated. 23 Seven-eighths (or 141,280) of the Indian
population are found in the province of Natal where Indians outnumber
Europeans. About 13,400 Indians are found in the Transvaal, and sixty-
five hundred in the Cape Province. As a result of a rigid policy of
prohibition, only a hundred Indians have taken up their residence in the
Free State. 24 If the Indian population originally imported to work on
the Natal estates had been obliged to return at the end of their contracts,
the present Indian population would not be nearly as large as it is.
102,000 of the 161,000 Indians were born in South Africa.

The treatment of Indians in South Africa has been necessarily influ¬
enced by the fact that India is a member of the British Commonwealth
of Nations. In 1918, the Imperial Conference passed what was known
as the Reciprocity Resolution. This resolution affirmed the right of each
community of the Commonwealth to control, by immigration restrictions,

n Ibid., p. 29. n Statutes, cited, 1914, p. 136.

** Census, 1921, cited, p. 22s. ** Ibid., p. 240.

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

the composition of its own population; but recommended that facilities
should be given to Indians for visit and temporary residence; that domi¬
ciled Indians should be permitted to import their wives and minor chil¬
dren; and that the removal of disabilities upon Indian residents should
be considered. In 1921, the conference, with South Africa dissenting,
reiterated these principles, and also expressed the opinion that the rights
of Indians lawfully domiciled in the various parts of the Empire to cit¬
izenship should be recognized. 25

During the World War, the Indians who had been gradually acquiring
wealth began to compete in trade and agriculture with the white men.
In Natal, no restrictions existed upon the acquisition of land, and Indians
enjoyed the municipal franchise. In the Transvaal, however, they could
neither vote nor own land 20 —the latter a provision Indians evaded by the
formation of companies, the number of which increased from three in
1914 to one hundred and fourteen in 1918. In 1919, the Transvaal en¬
acted a law prohibiting companies controlled by Asiatics from acquiring
land. 27 Indian traders also had difficulty in obtaining trading licenses.
As a result of renewed anti-Indian feeling in South Africa, the govern¬
ment now appointed an Asiatic Inquiry Commission, which reported in
1921. 28 It recommended the retention of the Transvaal law prohibiting
ownership of land and proposed that Indians should be allowed to acquire
farming land only in the coast belt of Natal. It also recommended the
encouragement of voluntary repatriation and of voluntary separation under
which municipalities could set aside residential areas for Asiatics. As a
result of the protests of the Indian Government, South Africa did not
enact the proposed legislation. But Natal, becoming more and more restive,
enacted several anti-Indian ordinances, one of which deprived the Indians
of their municipal franchise. Although the Union Government twice
vetoed this legislation, in 1925 it accepted the Boroughs Ordinance pro¬
viding that no one in the future could be enrolled for municipal elections
who did not possess the parliamentary franchise.

The Color Bar Act 28 passed by the Union Parliament in 1925 author¬
izes the government to discriminate against Asiatics if it wishes to do so.
In 1924, the Smuts government introduced the Class Areas Bill, which
authorized the establishment of separate residential and trading urban
areas for persons other than natives, having common racial characteristics.

M Cmd. 1474 (1921), p. 8.

**In 1920, the Transvaal Provincial Division Court handed down a decision
which endangered certain rights which it was understood had been secured by an
agreement between General Smuts and Gandhi in 1911.

11 Asiatics (Land and Trading Amendment) Act, No. 37 of 1919.

" Year Book, No. 4, p. 989. ®Cf. Vol. I, p. 63.

THE RECRUITING OF LABOR

If enacted, the government could have enforced a policy of segregation
which it was believed would ruin a number of Indian traders. Conse¬
quently, the Government of India and Indian organizations made a vig¬
orous protest. Because of the unexpected dissolution of the Assembly in
April, 1924, the bill temporarily lapsed.

In July, 1925, the new Hertzog government introduced an even more
severe measure—the Areas Reservation Bill which provided for segrega¬
tion, and for the more stringent enforcement of immigration restrictions.
In particular it prohibited after 1930 the further entry of women and
children of Indians domiciled in the Union.

Supported by the outcries of Indian leaders, the Indian Government
asked the South African Government to discuss the proposed legislation
in a Round Table Conference. The Hertzog government finally agreed
to the principle of the Conference, provided that it discuss the possibility
of a plan of voluntary repatriation which the Indian Government should
assist by holding out the inducement of land to Indians returning home.
At first, the Indian Government declined to consider this possibility, and
consequently, the Hertzog government re-introduced the Areas Reservation
Bill, in 1926. 30 But following the visit of several unofficial and official
deputations from India to South Africa, and of a deputation from South
Africa to India, the Indian Government finally agreed to discuss the plan
of assisted emigration, whereupon the South African Government agreed
to a Round Table Conference. 31

The Round Table Conference took place at Cape Town between De¬
cember 17, 1926, and January 11, 1927. As a result of discussions which
were held behind closed doors, a “Gentlemen’s Agreement” was reached
between the Indian and the South African Governments which was an¬
nounced on February 21, in the South African Parliament. In this
Agreement, both governments “reaffirm their recognition of the right of

10 House of Assembly Debates, February 8, 1926, p. 330.

“We had a right to say to the Government of India that any interference from
outside in our domestic affairs would be tolerated neither by the people of South
Africa as a whole nor by the bulk of the followers of any political party in the
country. For this reason, and under these circumstances, we intimated to the
Government of India that we were not in principle opposed to the holding of a
round-table conference, but if we did hold one, then in the proposed discussions
must be included this particular point, that the Government of India shall be asked
to be willing to co-operate with the Government of the Union to assist the Govern¬
ment in making the scheme of voluntary repatriation more effective than it is. We
more particularly thought of the possibility of holding out with the assistance and
co-operation of the Government of India an additional inducement to the Indians
to leave the country by holding out to them the possibility of an advantageous land
settlement in India or adjacent territories.” Statement of the Prime Minister,
Ibid., February 17, 1926, p. 671, introducing the Areas Reservation Bill.

M Cf. the statement of the Prime Minister, ibid., April 23, 1926, p. 2718.

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

South Africa to use all just and legitimate means for the maintenance of
Western standards of life.” 32

The Government of South Africa “decided” to drop the Areas Reser¬
vation Bill, and to organize a system of assisted emigration in which it
agreed to furnish free passage and a bonus of twenty pounds to any Indian
in South Africa wishing to be repatriated. It also agreed to take certain
steps to improve the condition of those Indians wishing to remain in South
Africa.

In announcing the terms of this agreement, Dr. Malan, Minister of
the Interior of the Government of South Africa, said: “Throughout the
Conference there was a remarkable absence of the spirit of bargaining.
The decisions taken were arrived at solely and wholeheartedly with a view
to a comprehensive, effective, and peaceful settlement.”

This agreement met with the disapproval of extremists in both India
and South Africa. Natal farmers, Durban Indians and members of par¬
liament protested. 33 But the majority in both India and South Africa,
realizing that some compromise had been necessary, loyally accepted the
agreement. Mr. Gandhi took this position; while the Times of India
declared that the agreement was a triumph of Imperial statesmanship, and
that the changed attitude of the Nationalist Government in South
Africa was largely due to the results achieved by the last Imperial Con¬
ference. In a leading article, the Cape Times (South Africa) said:
“In bringing this about, the Union Government has done good service
to. South Africa, to the world, and to the cause of the Empire. The
friendship of India is a moral and material asset that South Africa will
never regret possessing; she has shown the world that it is possible for
East and West to meet and talk and understand, even when vital issues
are concerned. ... In solving her share of a problem that is destined in
various forms and guises to be one of the most vital and difficult that
mankind will have to face during the next ioo years, South Africa has
vindicated her young nationhood and taken her place among the advanced
peoples of the world. It is, too, let us hope, a happy augury for the manner
in which she will yet be given the grace and wisdom to handle a still
greater problem and one in respect of which she will again find herself the
agent of mankind—the Native problem.” 34

3 . The “IV. N. L. A."

Having found Chinese and Indian labor unsatisfactory, South African
industry has come to rely upon native labor, part of which is obtained from

”The full terms of this Agreement are in Appendix I.

Cape Times, cited, March 14, 1927, p. 13; ibid., March 22, 1927, p. 10; ibid.,
March 25, 1927, p. 9. * Ibid., Feb. 12, 1927.

THE RECRUITING OF LABOR

the Union and the protectorates of Basutoland, Swaziland, and Bechu-
analand, and part from Portuguese East Africa. 35 At present there are
about 80,000 East Coast boys at work in the Transvaal.

In 1896, the Portuguese Government authorized recruiting for the
Rand mines; and in 1901, the Portuguese and Transvaal Governments
drew up a modus vivendi regulating such recruiting. 30 This modus vivendi
was succeeded by a convention of April 1, 1909, 37 in which the Portuguese
Government agreed to permit recruiting for the Transvaal mines within
the territories under its direct administration—which thus excluded re¬
cruiting in the areas administered by the Mozambique and Nyasa com¬
panies. The Mozambique Government reserves the right to prohibit re¬
cruiting by or for a Transvaal employer who, upon a joint investigation
of the two governments, is found to have failed to live up to his obliga¬
tions. Recruiting licenses are issued by the Mozambique Government to
applicants certified by the Secretary for Native Affairs of the Transvaal—
now of the Union. Before leaving the province, every laborer shall be
supplied with a passport available for one year, for which a fee of thirteen
shillings shall be paid to the government by the employer. Laborers shall
not be engaged for a longer period than one year, but they may be re¬
engaged for a further period of one year.

The Portuguese Government appoints a Curator who is an official
charged with the functions of a consular officer with respect to such
natives and is authorized to issue Portuguese passes to natives; to collect
fees; to organize a Deposit and Transfer Agency for money which Portu¬
guese natives may wish to send home; and to approach the Transvaal

ss The Witwatersrand Association, following the Boer War, scoured the whole
continent—German East Africa, Uganda, British West Africa, Liberia, Sene-
gambia, Egypt, Belgian Congo, Madagascar, Somaliland, and Morocco—for sources
of labor. Report of the Witiuatersrand Native Labour Association, 1904, pp. 7-8.

30 Convention of December 18, 1901. British and Foreign State Papers, Vol. 95,
p. 931; an addendum was made June 15, 1904. In 1903, the members of the
Witwatersrand Native Labor Association recruited a total of 47,197 laborers of
whom 41,956 came from Portuguese East Africa. Transvaal Labour Commission,
Cd. 1896, p. 28.

” British and Foreign State Papers, cited, Vol. 102, p. no. This Convention
also provided for cooperation between the two governments in regard to the
development of the import and export traffic to and from the Transvaal via
Louren»;o Marques; provided for the fixing of railway rates, and established a
Joint Board, containing two representatives of the Transvaal Government and
two from the Mozambique Government, having a Portuguese Chairman. This
Board must act by unanimous vote. If delegates do not agree, the matter is re¬
ferred to the two governments, and failing to reach a mutual decision, the resolu¬
tion of the Board is maintained.

Part III of the Convention provides that the products originating in Mozam¬
bique shall not be liable to payment of customs in the Union, and vice versa.
Merchandise imported at Louren?o Marques for South Africa and exports from
South Africa are also exempt from duties—the principle of freedom of transit.

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

authorities with a view to arriving at an understanding in matters relat¬
ing to the natives in the Transvaal. He is entitled to receive a fee of
is 6d for every three months in respect of every Portuguese native who
has been in the Transvaal for more than one year.

Each native laborer is permitted to carry home sixty kilos of baggage
free of duty; and the amount of dutiable merchandise which may be im¬
ported beyond this figure is limited. In consideration of these provisions,
the Transvaal Government pays to the Mozambique Customs 6d per boy
returning from the mines. Every Portuguese native must have a Portu¬
guese pass, and is exempt from the native tax in the Transvaal.

While the original convention contained no provision for compulsory
deferred pay, the Portuguese Government insistently demanded it in order
to insure the return of Portuguese natives to their homes. The Chamber
of Mines finally consented to this system in an agreement signed in 1912,
which provided that half of the native wages should be paid to a Portu¬
guese curator who would see that it would be paid to natives upon reach¬
ing home. In return, Portuguese natives would be recruited for an
eighteen-month period, only the first twelve months of which would be
on the deferred pay system. 88 The Union Government declined, however,
to approve this agreement, and the former system remained in effect.

The life of the convention of 1909 was fixed at ten years; thereafter,
either party could give one year’s notice if it wished to terminate it. On
April 1, 1922, the Smuts government served such a notice; but negotiations
for a new agreement, in which the Union asked for increased control over
the railway and port of Lourenqo Marques ended only in a deadlock.
It was arranged, however, that Part I of the convention dealing with native
labor, should be provisionally continued, subject to six months’ notice.

This recruiting in Portuguese territory is carried on by an organization
established by the Chamber of Mines called the “Witwatersrand Native
Labor Association.” This association, which has a district manager at
Lourenqo Marques, has about seventy-five stations in Mozambique, where
it employs about thirty Europeans and two hundred and fifty native re¬
cruiters, as well as two hundred native runners who receive a fee of ten
shillings for each native recruited. Unlike recruiters of the Native Labor
Corporation which operates in South Africa, the recruiters of the W. N.
L. A. are paid a salary and devote their whole time to the job. The
W. N. L. A. makes no advances to natives as does the Native Labor
Corporation. 39

**Report of the JVitvuatersrand Native Labour Association, cited, 1913, p. 6.

"Cf. the Report of the Native Grievances Inquiry, 1913-1914, U. G. 37-1914
para. 531.

THE RECRUITING OF LABOR

A native in Portuguese territory wishing to work at the mines goes
to one of the stations of the W. N. L. A., where he is kept until a batch
of recruits is collected. Walking from station to station under a con¬
ductor, these recruits finally arrive at a divisional camp where they are
forwarded, sometimes by rail and sometimes by steamer, to the frontier
station of Ressano Garcia.

4. Portuguese Labor System

While the success of the W. N. L. A. in recruiting has been partly
due to efficient and sympathetic management, it has also been partly due
to the labor policy of the Portuguese Government.

Until recently the Portuguese Government, alone among the govern¬
ments of Africa, openly enforced compulsory labor for private purposes. 40
Under the best administration, such a system of legalized compulsion
was open to grave abuses; and as applied in the Portuguese colonies, it
was repeatedly and harshly criticized by foreigners. 41

Apparently as a result of this criticism and of the influence of the
League of Nations, the Portuguese Government in 1926 abolished com¬
pulsion for private purposes and declared that forced labor could be em¬
ployed only when “absolutely indispensable for the public good and in
very urgent cases.” 410

If this new decree is really enforced, the W. N. L. A. may find diffi¬
culty in recruiting labor. Under the old system many natives preferred
to escape the rigors of the Portuguese regime by accepting employment
on the Transvaal mines.

The question as to whether or not the importation of Portuguese
labor is socially desirable from the standpoint of Mozambique and of
South Africa has been frequently debated. Before 1914, the W. N. L. A.
recruited labor in Mozambique north of twenty-two degrees south latitude.
But such natives could not stand the semi-temperate climate of the Rand
plateau, and many died. The mean death rate between 1905 and 1912
was 88.13 per thousand. The death rate of the tropical natives was five and

40 The Decree No. 951 of October, 1914, authorized the government to place
natives, not otherwise employed, at the disposition of colonists or merchants. Cf.
Compila^do de todas as disposi(des legais em vigor referentes a indigenas, in-
cluindo 0 Regulamento da Secretaria dos Negocios Indigenas, Regulamento de
Trabalho Indigena, A cor dos e Convenqoes, Concessao de Terranos, etc., 1919
Lourenqo Marques, p. 73.

“One of the latest criticisms is contained in the report by Professor E. A. Ross,
on Employment of Native Labor in Portuguese Africa, New York, 1925. The
Portuguese Government denied the accuracy of the charges in a document submit¬
ted in 1925 to the Temporary Slavery Commission of the League of Nations, called
Some Observations on Professor Ross's Report.

Decree No. 12,533 of October 23, 1926, Boletim Oficial da Provincia de
Mozambique, November 27, 1926, p. 351.

32 THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

a half times as great as that of the Cape natives. 42 Following a debate
in the Union parliament in 1914, the government prohibited recruiting in
areas north of this parallel. Several commissions have since stated, how¬
ever, that in view of the discovery of a pneumoccal vaccine and the general
advance of hygienic conditions, the mortality of these tropical natives would
not now be abnormal and that the reason for maintaining the embargo
has therefore disappeared. 43

Following the failure of crops in 1922, and a general depression of in¬
dustry, the Union Government asked the W. N. L. A. to restrict the
recruiting of Portuguese natives, in order to make room for Union natives
out of a job. As a result, the number of Portuguese recruited in 1922-1923
fell off by 16,000. In February, 1924, the Union Government asked that
recruiting be stopped altogether. In May, the government again author¬
ized it, but on a limited scale. 44

A number of witnesses before the Economic and Wage Commission
in 1925 urged the exclusion of all East Coast natives on the ground that
it artificially depressed the Union labor market. 45 But the Commission
declared that in view of the manifest labor shortage in South Africa, this
action would be very costly. Moreover, the mining industry, which em¬
ploys Portuguese labor, is an “industry steadily exhausting the material
on which it depends, and therefore destined at some time to disappear.”
It continued: “From an exclusively Union point of view it would appear,
therefore, to be expedient to work it in part by imported labour, which
will not remain as a liability when the industry declines. . . .” The
mines prefer to employ Portuguese labor rather than Union labor because
it costs less, it is not so likely to desert, and because it is more steady in
supply. The Chairman of the W. N. L. A. recently stated that “From
the length of service standpoint, the contracted Portuguese native is ap¬
parently the equivalent of two contracted Union Natives.” 44 The maxi¬
mum and minimum number of Portuguese natives employed has never
varied more than eleven thousand, while the number of Union natives em¬
ployed has varied nearly forty thousand. 47

It would appear, however, that the employment of Portuguese natives

0 Report of the Tuberculosis Commission, U. G. 34-1914, p. 199.

Report of the Low Grades Mines Commission, 1921, paras. 113 and 114;
Report of the Mining Industry Board, U. G. 39-1922, paras. 158 and 159.

It is believed that the Union Government imposed these restrictions also to
bring the Portuguese Government to accept its terms in regard to the control of
Lourenco Marques. Cf. R. L. Buell, “The Struggle in Africa,” Foreign Affairs,
October, 1927.

44 U. G. 14-1926, cited, par. 267.

“Report of the Board of Management, JVitwatersrand Native Labour Associa¬
tion, cited, December, 1924, p. 23.

” Ibid., 1922, Chairman’s speech.

THE RECRUITING OF LABOR

lessens the bargaining power of Union labor. The Minority of the Eco¬
nomic and Wage Commission declared that the effect of “importation is
to keep down the standard of living of the native workers of the Union.”
It further stated: “This, in turn, keeps down the standard of wages for
unskilled white workers, who, if they wish to compete with natives, must
take a wage which compells them to. live as what are popularly known as
‘white kaffirs.’ . . 48 Despite the fact that the Portuguese Government

derives a revenue of about eighty thousand pounds annually 40 from emi¬
gration fees, some Portuguese have pointed out that Mozambique is
really impoverished by this export of labor to the Transvaal mines. For
the last several years, the Portuguese Government has employed British
engineers to install an irrigation project in the basin of the Limpopo river.
It is believed that the area made available for agriculture by this project
will absorb at least a hundred thousand natives—or more than the num¬
ber of Portuguese natives now employed on the Rand mines. It is pos¬
sible, therefore, that the Portuguese Government, foregoing revenue from
emigration in favor of this new and more profitable project, will prohibit
emigration in the future.

Ordinarily, a native would be better off working at home than in a
foreign country. But because of the reputation of the Portuguese Gov¬
ernment for its treatment of native labor, this principle does not necessarily
apply here, since the native on the Rand mines is treated comparatively
well.

Nevertheless, the mortality rate of the East Coast boys is about twice
that of Union natives, which shows the effect of working a long distance
from home. 60

More than two-thirds (one hundred and twenty-five thousand out of
one hundred and seventy-five thousand) of the laborers employed on the
mines comes from the Union of South Africa and the Protectorates. About
eighty-five thousand out of the one hundred and twenty-five thousand
natives come from the Cape Province, chiefly the Transkei. About eighteen
thousand come from Basutoland and about ten thousand from the Trans¬
vaal. The native territory of the Transkei and, to a lesser extent, of

48 U. G. 14-1926, p. 325.

40 Fixa a Despesa e Or(a a Receita da Provincia de Mozambique, 1925-1926,
Vol. II, p. 19.

80 Between 1912 and 1918, the mortality rate of the Union native ranged from
12.6 to 14.67; of the British Protectorate native, from 27.9 to 22.51; of the Portu¬
guese native, from 32.9 to 29.09. Report of the Department of Native Affairs,
U. G. 7-1919, p. 115. In 1921, the death rates for the East Coast and Union boys
were 15.20 and 8.12 respectively. Ibid., U. G. 34-1922, p. 36. In 1926, the death
rate of East Coast natives was 11.24; of Union natives, 6.36; of British Protecto¬
rate natives, 11.42—an average for all natives of 9.05 per thousand.

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

Basutoland is the chief labor reservoir, since the recruiting of natives
living on European farms is virtually prohibited by law. 51

5. The N. R. C.

The recruiting of labor within these British territories is in the hands
of the Native Recruiting Corporation, an offshoot of the Witwatersrand
Native Labor Association, which came into existence in 1904. While the
organization is not allowed to pay dividends, it can make refunds to its
shareholders—the mines—of capitation fees, and it has established a Re¬
serve Fund. 62 Each member deposits a certain amount in accordance with
its labor complement or needs, and pays capitation fees fixed by the asso¬
ciation for each unit of labor received. Both the Native Recruiting Cor¬
poration and the W. N. L. A. are subsidiaries of the Chamber of Mines,
and between them, they hold a recruiting monopoly of mine labor.

This association has divided up part of the Cape Province and Natal
into recruiting districts. The agents who actually do the recruiting are
usually traders, assisted by native runners. They are paid a commission
of two pounds a boy, out of which they pay their runners. The laborers
thus recruited sign a contract before an administrative official who must
see that they understand its terms. They then receive a medical exami¬
nation; and after being given rations and a blanket, they are put on a
train for Johannesburg. The cost of transportation and rations is de¬
ducted from their wages. Five labor trains run to Johannesburg a week—
two from the East Coast and three from the Cape. Upon arriving, the
boys of both the W. N. L. A. and the N. R. C. are sent to a Central
Depot, which handles from two thousand to six thousand boys a week.
Here a Native Affairs officer again explains the contract to the boys;
their clothes are fumigated; they give themselves a thorough washing, and
are given a medical examination and vaccination for smallpox. After
having their finger prints taken, the boys are sent to a mine needing labor.
At the mine, a company doctor gives each boy another examination; and
if passed, he is given a number and a pay book, and after a short rest,
goes to work.

6 . Criticisms of Recruiters

Because of unscrupulous recruiters, among other factors, the recruit¬
ing of labor in South Africa has been subject to many abuses in the past.
An attempt to minimize these abuses was made by the Native Labor Regu-

n The Native Labor Regulation Act, 1911, para. 13 (e) says that no person
shall enter upon private property for the purpose of recruiting without the previous
consent in writing of the owner or occupier. The effect of recruiting upon the
Transkei and Basutoland is discussed in Vol. I, pp. 105, 186.

“Articles of Association, para. 3 (25).

THE RECRUITING OF LABOR

lation Act, 1911, which provided for the annual licensing of all labor
agents 53 at the discretion of the Director of Native Labor, at a fee varying,
in accordance with the nature of the license, from one to fifty pounds.
An agent must also secure permits from the magistrate for his runners.
Each agent must sign written contracts with the laborers whom he recruits,
attested by an official, and every native laborer must be registered in
the name of the person on whose behalf he is employed. No person shall
make contracts for labor with any owner of land on which natives reside,
misrepresent terms of employment, or induce natives already under em¬
ployment to break their contracts. 64 No labor contract may require a
laborer to work more than three hundred and sixty working days. Not¬
withstanding these legal safeguards, “a considerable number of false rep¬
resentations and unfulfilled promises” have been incidents of the recruiting
system in South Africa. As long as they are on a commission basis, re¬
cruiters are not likely to be "too scrupulous” as to the methods used in
recruiting labor. The attesting of contracts by officials, according to an
authority, 65 is largely a meaningless formality; the real protection against
misrepresentation is common knowledge of the conditions of employment.
While labor recruiters in the Union do not use the methods of compulsion
employed elsewhere in Africa, they have ensnared natives by means of cash
advances. They will loan natives a sum of money; and in order to repay
such an advance, the natives must in most cases go to work on the mines.

In 1918, a Natal committee said: ‘‘A system of making advance payment
of wages to natives obtains in the Natal Province to an extent unknown in
other parts of South Africa and which has its parallel only in the conditions
in Pondoland in 1906, when the Government of the Transvaal and the Cape
intervened to stop the disgraceful and demoralizing practices connected with
advances in cattle which were given to mine labourers at the time of
recruitment.

“At almost every centre visited, witnesses testified to the fact that some
ninety per cent of the permanent labourers employed had been given advances
against wages ranging from small sums to twenty pounds. . . . Although
witnesses, both Europeans and natives, almost unanimously condemned the
system, they indicated their inability to depart from it without prejudicing
the labour supply. . . . Clearly, when capital is absorbed in respect of unearned
wages it is not being utilized to the best advantage.” “

“As well as compound managers. Persons employing natives in agriculture or
less than twenty natives do not require licenses personally to engage natives for
their own employment.

“Articles 4-13. For the act and commentaries, cf. C. G. Wiggett, The Native
Labor Regulation Act, Cape Town, 1924.

“ Report of the Native Grievances Inquiry, U. G. 37-1914, cited, pp. 72 ff.

"Quoted, Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee on the Native Pass Laws,
1920, U. G. 41-1922, p. 17.

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

The effect of advances upon the number of natives recruited is shown
by the fact that, following regulations restricting advances in 1914, the
number of laborers recruited fell from one hundred and fifty thousand to
one hundred and thirty-three thousand. The President of the Native Re¬
cruiting Corporation said 07 that since the regulations were declared ultra
vires by the Supreme Court, “the effect of them has happily been less
formidable than might otherwise have been the case. . . He further
stated: “The present is a time when an ample and consistent supply of
labour is of vital importance . . . and at this juncture, therefore, I feel
that it is unfortunate that the Native Affairs Department has seen fit
to risk the consequences of a change in these regulations.”

Boys who have accepted advances have a greater incentive to desert
than other boys, since the- former have nothing to work for except to
pay off bad debts—the sums being deducted from their pay. Some natives
accept advances from a number of recruiters—a practice which breeds dis¬
honesty. In an effort to reduce these abuses, parliament passed the Natives
Advance Act in 1921, under which regulations were issued limiting ad¬
vances to two pounds. 58 The act also limits advances to natives under
employment. This act did not prohibit, however, a trader-recruiter from
extending credit to natives and after a few months obliging them to go
to the mines in order to pay their bills. An African speaker at the fourth
African Labor Congress, 60 said:

“After the reaping season, the Magistrates compel people to pay their
taxes, knowing full well that they had no money, and that they would be
compelled to sell their mealies for eight shillings per bag or even less; and
in many cases they were compelled by circumstances to exchange bags of
mealies for worthless shop-goods. At least four bags have been sold to pay
the Government tax. Shortly after reaping season, the Native has no food,
and is forced to buy his own mealies back at one pound for a half-filled bag.
He goes on buying his mealies back on credit until he is hopelessly in debt.
The trader, who is also a recruiter, now steps in and demands his money.
The position is obvious; the man has either to go to the mines or have his
cattle sold. Of the two evils, most Natives go to the Mines.”

This picture is over-painted, since the government fixes the date for
the collection of taxes after the harvest. It nevertheless shows the ad¬
vantage which trader-recruiters may take of native improvidence. This
same practice of credit exists in Basutoland. Legislation similar to
that adopted in Tanganyika making debts of natives to non-natives non-

m Report of the Native Recruiting Corporation, 1916, p. 11.

“ Unless the contract is for nine months, when it may be three pounds.
Wiggett, cited, p. 33.

“ tVorkers' Herald, May 15, 1926.

THE RECRUITING OF LABOR

enforceable in the courts would do away with this abuse, which is appar¬
ently as great an abuse as advances were before the Act of 1921. 00

Moreover, according to the Native Grievances Inquiry held in 1914,
“There is obvious danger of illegitimate influence being brought to bear
upon natives through their chiefs so long as there is any pecuniary ad¬
vantage to be attained; but I have no positive evidence that this is, in
fact, being done.” 01 Owing to the decreasing power of the chiefs, this
type of influence now seems to be on the wane.

Government regulations provide 02 that the holder of a Labor Agent
License shall not engage in the sale of intoxicating liquors. Nevertheless,
charges have been made that recruiters get natives under the influence of
liquor.

These efforts to induce laborers to go to the mines are an expensive
business. 03 The total expenses of the Native Recruiting Corporation
were nearly three hundred and twelve thousand pounds in 1925, and those
of the Witwatcrsrand Native Labor Association were one hundred and
fifty thousand pounds, or six pounds a man—sums which would be saved
under a system of purely voluntary labor.

Because of the abuses of recruiting and the wage monopoly which has
accompanied the system, demands for its abolition have been made. In an
editorial, an extremist native paper declared, “This criminal recruiting
system must go at once.” 04 At a conference of the African Industrial
and Commercial Union, a resolution was passed asking the Government to
convene a round-table conference “with a view to abolishing the recruit¬
ing system.” 05 The Director of Native Labor, a government official,
declared in 1922 that the present system of recruiting was “an expensive
system for the mines and bad for the natives.” 00

According to the mines, the ultimate aim of the industry is “as far as
possible to obtain its supply of native labour without the assistance of re¬
cruiters.” 07 But they are afraid that with the abolition of the recruiting
organization, some natives would stop coming to the mines. This is an
admission, of course, that the present labor supply is subject to some form
of pressure. 08 It appears, however, that the growing pressure on means

“For the resolutions of the Transkei Council, see Vol. I, p. 107. For the
Tanganyika law, cf. Vol. I, p. 476.

“ Report, died, p. 77. “Government Notice 2091, December 17, 1924.

“The cost of recruiting has, however, considerably declined, from 83s rod per
native in 1913 to 629 7d in 1922. Mining Industry Board, U. G. 39-1922, cited,
p. 19.

84 IVorkers’ Herald, dted, July 21, 1923. M Ibid., April 28, 1926.

“ Quoted, Report of the Mining Industry Board, U. G. 39-1922, cited, p. 19.

“ Ibid., p. 19.

“The number of deserters on the mines had, however, decreased from 5.9
per cent of the supply in 1912 to 2.21 per cent in 1918, (Report of the Department

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

of subsistance in the reserves will force the natives out in the future, with¬
out the aid of a recruiting organization. Already about sixty per cent of
the Union natives are “volunteers.” But the mines are not yet willing to
rely upon this pressure alone, because of the chronic labor shortage. 00

From the native standpoint, the recruiting organizations offer facilities
for going to the mines and returning to reserves, which would not exist
under a purely voluntary system. But the establishment of government
labor exchanges would furnish the same conveniences, without the abuses
of the present system. 70 The majority of the Economic and Wage Com¬
mission did not, however, share the belief that the recruiting system should
be abolished. It declared that the recruiting system was inevitable, unless
the industries that depend on the labor of natives drawn from districts
outside the area in which they are carried on are to be sacrificed; or unless
natives brought their families and settled permanently in the mining dis¬
trict. “Neither alternative can, in our opinion, be recommended.” 71 The
Commission did not give any reasons for this statement. But if the re¬
cruiting system is to be maintained, its abuses could be still further
minimized by abolishing the system of advances and credit to natives
and by placing all recruiters on a fixed salary.

The effect upon the native of recruiting and of working in European
centers will be considered in the next chapter.

of Native Affairs, 19x3-18, U. G. 7-1919, cited, p. 1x4,) which indicates less in¬
voluntary employment than on the Katanga mines where the desertion rate is
fifteen per cent and twenty per cent. Cf. Vol. II, p. 554.

“ Cf. Vol. I, p. 17.

10 The Minority of the Economic and Wage Commission favored such a pro¬
posal. Report, cited, p. 332.

“ Ibid., p. 157.

CHAPTER 3

THE INDUSTRIALIZED NATIVE

When a boy arrives at a mine from the Central Depot, he usually
works underground eight hours a day . 1 The rest of the time he
ordinarily spends in what is called a compound. A compound is a bar¬
racks, composed usually of a quadrangle of long brick buildings, which
encloses from four to ten acres of land, and which accommodates from one
thousand to five thousand native laborers. Within the buildings are long
tiers of bunks, usually made of cement, with a “Perfecto” surface, upon
which the natives sleep. Every compound has its kitchen where a special
native staff prepares food, subject to government requirements, and issues
kafir beer. In the “open compounds,” boys may go into the towns after
work provided they receive passes, which are freely given. In the so-
called “closed compounds,” which prevail on the diamond mines, the mines
forbid boys to leave the compound until the end of their contracts, out of
fear of the theft of diamonds. When their contracts are terminated, they
are even given a purgative to make certain that no diamonds are carried
away inside! Despite the fact that the closed compounds impose greater
restrictions upon the native than the open compounds, employment with
the Kimberley mines—where this system prevails—is popular. Amuse¬
ments are provided within the compound; and the boys are spared some
of the vices and the wasteful expenditures of the outside world.

I. Physical Treatment

Conditions of labor on the mines are controlled, to a certain extent,
by the provisions of the Native Labor Regulations Act, 1911. This act
applies, however, only to labor districts proclaimed by the Governor-Gen¬
eral. In 1924, there were sixteen such districts in the Transvaal, four in
the Orange Free State, two in Natal, and two in the Cape Province—
a total of twenty-four. The act does not apply to agricultural labor. 2

Regulations issued under this act require employers to provide hospital
accommodations sufficient for per cent of the total number of men
under employment at any given time. For each patient, eight hundred

l This does not include the time consumed in going and coming.

3 Wiggett, cited, p. 88.

40 THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

cubic feet of air space should be provided. This hospital accommodation
is gratuitous.

Regulations also prescribe a minimum ration scale, composed of twenty-
four ounces of mealie meal, six ounces of bread, three ounces of beans or
peas a day, with three-fourths of a pound of meat a week, and other ele¬
ments. In the compounds, two hundred cubic feet of air space for each
laborer must be provided, and not more than two tiers of bunks. 3

As a result of the combined efforts of the mine operators 4 and the gov¬
ernment, the physical living conditions on the Transvaal mines are prob¬
ably as good as they are anywhere in Africa. This is demonstrated by
the great decline in mortality rates. In 1903, the average native mortality
rate was 71.75 per thousand, 5 but in 1919, it had fallen to 16.74; * n 1920,
it was 18.24; in 1921, 14.70; in 1923, 14.37; and in 1924, 12.39;® and
in 1926, 9.05 per thousand. In England, the mortality rate for all in¬
habitants is 12.2 per thousand, while in France it is 17.3 per thousand. 7
Of the Transvaal rate, in 1924, 2.90 deaths per thousand were due to
accidents and 9.49 to disease.

Before the World War, a great many complaints were made regard¬
ing the treatment of native labor on the mines. Following a native strike
in 1913, the government appointed a commissioner to inquire into native
grievances. He found that a complaint which was all but universal
throughout the mines was that “natives are frequently assaulted by Euro¬
peans, generally underground.”

"A certain number of such cases seems inevitable when the conditions
of the work are considered. The mines consist of an enormous mileage of
tunnels, in which a number of Europeans, many of them of no high standard
of education or ethics, are each in practically unchecked control of several
members of a subservient race. As a rule, neither the master nor the servant
understands the other’s language, yet the master has to give directions and
the servant to obey them. Both parties are working under unhealthy and
unnatural conditions. In these circumstances, the temptation to and the
opportunity for assaults on the servant by the master are constantly present;
and these circumstances may perhaps be modified, but cannot be altogether
removed.” *

Since this report, the rigorous attitude of the mine managers has
brought about a reduction in the conditions giving rise to these complaints.

] Special regulations for different districts are also laid down. Ibid., p. 81.

‘Before the War, Surgeon General Gorgas and other American experts studied
health conditions on the mines at the request of the Chamber of Mines.

‘Return 205, Accounts and Papers, LXI (1904), Diagram No. 1.

* Annual Report, Transvaal Chamber of Mines, 1924, p. 35, also Report of the
Native Affairs Department, U. G. 34-1922, cited, p. 35.

’Annuaire Statistique, published by the French Ministry of Labor, 1924, p. 202.

Report of the Native Grievances Inquiry, U. G. 37-1914, cited, p. 7.

THE INDUSTRIALIZED NATIVE

According to the Native Labor Regulations, every case of assault
should be reported to the Native Affairs Department of the government,
which maintains labor inspectors in the mining area. Likewise, the Cham¬
ber of Mines maintains a European supervisor underground to hear com¬
plaints.

Every compound is in charge of a European manager assisted by a
number of native “indunas” and police boys. 9 Inasmuch as one European
manager is in charge of several thousand boys, he is obliged to rely on
these native police for maintaining discipline. According to the Native
Grievances Inquiry, 10 “Allegations of habitual assaults are common. . . .
There were also many complaints that the compound police took too much
upon themselves, interfering with natives who wished to speak to the com¬
pound manager, and generally usurping the latter’s functions. This must
always be the tendency of a body of this kind; and it is an abuse which
needs constant watching by compound managers.” According to one
opinion, even the best of the native police “degenerate”; consequently,
frequent changes are desirable.

While it appears that conditions in these respects have improved within
recent years, the Industrial and Commercial Workers’ Union 11 presented
a charge that indunas accepted bribes from natives in return for certain
privileges. In the last few years, however, the government has been obliged
to prosecute only one compound manager for corruption upon whom ex¬
emplary punishment was imposed.

The Economic and Wage Commission reported:

“Complaints of unjust, harsh and illegal treatment of natives in various
industries and compounds were made to us. . . . Into a number of these cases
the Director of Native Labor, or his department, had made inquiries and
several were found to have been correctly stated. ... It was not within our
sphere to make a detailed examination of these complaints. Even if there is
no ground for them, the fact remains that a belief in their reality does exist
in the minds of a number of natives. There is always a danger, when large
numbers of persons have to be dealt with, of treating complaints in an off¬
hand manner. Any discontent on the part of the natives with the treatment
meted out to them is bound to affect their willingness to come out to work and
their efficiency. From every point of view, it is desirable that the most
generous and careful consideration should always be given to complaints by
natives.” 14

* At the Robinson Deep mine, one police boy is in charge of four barracks, each
containing forty men. The induna is a sort of chief of native police.

10 Ibid., p. 19.

“Commonly called the “I. C. U.” Cf. Vol. I, p. 128 13 U. G. 14-1926, p. 332.

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

2 . Desertion

A native working on the mine, under a contract, cannot “desert” with¬
out committing an offense and becoming liable to a fine not exceeding ten
pounds or, in default of payment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding
two months. While in European and American countries, an employee
who breaks a civil contract is liable only to civil action, the South African
native is liable to imprisonment. 13 Between five and six thousand
natives desert in the proclaimed labor districts of the Transvaal annually
—about 2.25 per cent of the number under employment. Between fifty and
sixty per cent of the deserters are recovered by the police. 14 This penal
sanction makes illegal a strike of native laborers—a fact of importance in
connection with the organization of native labor unions. 18

The Minority of the Economic and Wage Commission declared that
as a result of these anti-desertion provisions, a “feeling tends to be estab¬
lished that the manual worker—whatever his colour—belongs to a dif¬
ferent species of animal from other human beings.” It continued: “Those
provisions also help to maintain the tradition that manual work is degrad¬
ing for white people which . . . has had serious consequences in the creation
and continuance of the poor white problem. Economically, these Acts
operate to prevent natives as a class from bettering their position. . . . ie
The Minority was of the opinion that the penal sanction embodied in
these acts was “economically and socially unsound. . . It believed that
these provisions should be gradually repealed.

Moreover, a native in employment is guilty of an offense 17 if he
neglects to perform any work which it is his duty to perform; unfits him¬
self for work by being intoxicated during working hours; refuses to obey
the lawful command of his employer; uses insulting or abusive language to
his employer or any person in authority; or commits a breach of any rules
prescribed for good order, discipline or health. Violations of these offenses
are punishable by a fine not exceeding forty shillings, which is deducted
from the native’s wage.

13 For a further discussion of the penal sanction, cf. Vol. I, p. 500.

14 Report of the Native Affairs Department, U. G. 34-1922, cited, p. 35.

“Cf. Vol. I, p. 125.

18 Report of the Economic and IVage Commission, U. G. 14-1926, cited, p. 329.
The Minority states that most of the farmers testified that they never invoked these
provisions because prosecution involved them in waste of time. They believed the
system should be continued, however, because of its moral effect upon their laborers.
But one witness testified that in the Western Province the Masters and Servants
Act was harshly enforced. Professor Radcliffe-Brown stated that under native law
there was no such thing as contract, the nearest approach to it being debt. The
native therefore felt no stigma in going to jail for violating a contract.

17 Cf. Paragraph 19 (3), Native Labor Regulation Act.

THE INDUSTRIALIZED NATIVE

On the other hand, the employer is obliged to feed, house, and provide
medical treatment for his employees. If he, without the consent of the
director of native labor, withholds wages from any native laborer, or makes
illegal deductions, he is liable to a penalty, at the discretion of the mag¬
istrate, who may also give judgment for the amount of wages wrongfully
withheld. Neither the act nor the regulations provide penalties for abusive
treatment of labor by the employer. Presumably, they are covered by other
laws.

In order to secure the application of these labor regulations, the gov¬
ernment has made provision for a Director of Native Labor, who is an offi¬
cial in the Native Affairs Department. Under him are three native sub¬
commissioners who in turn supervise the work of a number of inspectors
and “pass” officials who periodically visit the compounds and mines. These
inspectors have the power to arrest and impose fines up to forty shillings
upon natives for committing the offenses mentioned above; but they appar¬
ently have no jurisdiction over employers. 18 The latter are subject to
penalties prescribed in particular regulations.

3. Wages.

As early as 1897, the mines agreed upon a uniform wage for native
labor. At that time, the average wage paid on the mine was about two
shillings a day. 19 But at the present time, the average rate of pay per
day for all classes of native labor is only 2s. 2d. 20 Thus the average native
wage per day on the Transvaal mines to-day is about the same as it was
in 1897. Moreover, it appears that the schedule adopted in 1897 reduced
previous wages about one-third. 21 It would therefore appear that native
cash wages to-day are much lower than in 1896, particularly as a native
wage is now subject to deductions for transport, which originally were
borne by the employers. Real wages are even lower in view of the dimin¬
ished purchasing power of the shilling. In 1913, the Economic and Wage
Commission verified these conclusions by stating that “although fluctua¬
tions have occurred, the rates are lower than in 1896 in spite of the greater
efficiency of the native and the increasing economic pressure upon him due
to expanding wants, the imposition of taxes, and other incidents.” In
contrast, the annual earnings of Europeans on the mines have increased

“Art. 19, Native Labor Regulation Act, 1911. Cf. the index to Wiggett, cited,
“Offenses.”

“This is the average of about forty-five different kinds of work. See Annexure
xi, U. G. 37-1914, cited, p. 36.

* Report of the Mining Industry Board, cited, p. 32. The Minority report of the
Economic and Wage Commission puts it at 2s. 2.8d, which includes piece work.
Cf. the Report of the Economic and Wage Commission, U. G. 14-1926, cited, p. 351.

* l U. G. 37-1914, cited, p. 36.

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

from three hundred and fifty-two pounds a year in 1907 to four hun¬
dred and ninety-five pounds in 1921. 22 The Low Grade Mines Commis¬
sion declared that to increase native wages to the extent to which Euro¬
pean wages increased during the War—or forty per cent—would impose
a burden on the mines of two million pounds a year. 23

The contrast between native and European wages is not as great as
these figures would indicate, however, because the European as a rule
feeds and houses himself, while this burden in the case of the native is
borne by the employer under the compound system. Even taking this
factor into consideration—and it is a factor which may easily serve as a
pretext artificially to depress wages—it appears that natives working on
the mines are still underpaid, due to the labor monopoly of the recruiting
corporations, the “color bar,” and the land situation. 24 The government
does not fix a minimum wage for natives. While it has the power to impose
such a wage under the Wage Act, 25 any such action is subject to the fact
that much of its revenue comes from mining activities, whether in the form
of taxes on profits or income, or of government royalties. 20

The establishment of a native minimum wage would not only increase
efficiency and remove a grievance, but it would also relieve the pressure
on the “Poor White” who is being gradually reduced to the natives’
level. 27

A good deal of the labor employed on the mines is paid not by the day
but by piece work. In exceptional cases, a native working by this arrange¬
ment can make ten shillings a day, although the average of all wages
is between two and three shillings. The extension of piece work is more¬
over curtailed by the “maximum average” clause in the rate schedules issued
by the Native Recruiting Corporation, which provides that the average
earnings of natives engaged on piece work in shovelling and tramming shall
not exceed a given amount. If these average rates are exceeded, the mine
may be fined by the controlling authority. The object of the “maximum
average” is to prevent one mine from offering higher rates for piece work
than other mines, to entice outside labor. But the effect of the clause
has been that “whenever the general run of natives on this work becomes

32 Year Book, cited, p. 490. For some reason, the average dropped to three
hundred and seventy pounds in 1923. ** Report, cited, para. 19s.

14 Cf. Vol. I, p. 76. A few native servants in Johannesburg receive, however, as
much as six pounds a month, which is as much as white servants receive in
England.

* Cf. Vol. I, p. 66.

2 " The government received in 1914-15 mining revenues amounting to 1,877,349
pounds; in 1920-21, 4,738,988 pounds; and in 1922-23, 2,593,494 pounds. Year
Book No. 5, p. 810. Year Book, (No. 7), cited, p. 741. In 1922-23, the total revenue
was 27,234,515 pounds; of which the customs produced about 5,761,563, and an
income tax, 5,205,038. Part of this income tax is, however, included in the mine
revenue. * Cf. Vol. I, p. 85.

THE INDUSTRIALIZED NATIVE

more efficient, the management is compelled to reduce the rate, thus
actually penalising efficient work.” 28 As a result of the maximum average
clause, the rate of lashing and tramming has been reduced from 8s to
is 9-2d per shift. In another case, a mine reduced its tramming rate from
is per truck to only 5d per truck—which led to the loss of a thousand
laborers. Occasionally the maximum average is increased; but it appears
that the last time that this was done was in 1918. It was the opinion of
the Mining Industry Board that while under existing rates natives so
far had not been prevented from earning high wages, “native efficiency
and output of work will be so improved that many miners will find it
difficult, if not impossible, to keep within the limits imposed by the ‘maxi¬
mum average’ clause, without introducing a cut in their rates of native
pay for piece work.” It believed that the mines should increase the
“maximum average” with the increased efficiency of the labor. 29

The Economic Commission, in 1913, also said: “Your Commission¬
ers feel no doubt that the productive powers of the native are being held
in check, while at the same time, a sense of injury is being generated by
the device of the maximum average in particular, and in general by a
failure on the part of the gold mines to pay natives more frequently on a
system which furnishes an incentive.” 30

It appears that the demand for higher pay among the natives is well-
nigh universal. The Native Grievances’ commissioner said: “The only
mine where this claim was not put forward was one where, a month before
my visit, the natives had actually gone on strike for an increase.” 31 In
1922, the Mining Industry Board reported that certain witnesses declared
“there was great discontent amongst the natives regarding the insuffi¬
ciency of their pay; and that an increase would be more than compensated
for by an improvement in efficiency. Some witnesses went so far as to
suggest that unless something were done in the matter, there would be a
grave danger of a strike for higher wages.” 32 The same complaint was
made before the Economic and Wage Commission by the “I. C. U.” in
1925. The dissatisfaction of the native is increased by the fact that on
semi-skilled work such as drill-sharpening he receives only 3s a day,
while a European, doing the same work, receives 20s.

4. Deferred Pay

To encourage the natives to save their money instead of spending it
riotously in Johannesburg, the Chamber of Mines has inaugurated a sys-

28 Native Grievances Inquiry, cited, p. 37. “ Report, cited, p. 33.

30 Report, U. G. 12-1914, cited, para. 54.

31 Report of the Native Grievances Inquiry, cited, p. 36.

” Report, U. G. 39-1922, cited, p. 32.

46_ THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA _

tem of voluntary deferred pay. Under this system, the mines will, at the
request of a native, withhold a portion of his wages to be paid upon his
return home. In 1925, 31.2 per cent of the natives (excluding the Portu¬
guese) took advantage of the system; and deferred sums amounted to
94,546 pounds. In 1924, the percentage fell to 29.4 per cent, but the
sums increased to 148,063 pounds.

The native has made more use of the Remittance Agency established
by the mines, a sort of money order arrangement whereby he may trans¬
mit money home without charge, than of the system of deferred pay. In
1925, 33,728 remittances were issued for a total amount of 122,284
pounds. 33 The Portuguese Curator also maintains a Remittance Agency
for the Portuguese natives. Thus out of total wages amounting to about
6,800,000 pounds, natives saved through these two means about 217,000
pounds. Many of them, however, take money home with them.
Estimating the situation conservatively, one may say that the natives
spend half of their earnings in labor areas in uneconomical if not harmful
ways.

According to a recent report of the Native Recruiting Corporation,
“it is regrettable that the Voluntary Deferred Pay System has not devel¬
oped as was anticipated. . . . This system was established with the view
to encouraging thrift—a virtue in which the natives are notoriously want¬
ing. . . .” 84 In view of the great temptations to spend money in Johannes¬
burg the installation of compulsory deferred pay might be desirable. It
would, however, be strenuously opposed by the European commercial and
trading interests on the Rand.

5. Accident Compensation

In the event of accidents, employers are liable to pay compensation
assessed by the Director of Native Labor. Payments may range from one
to twenty pounds in cases of partial incapacitation, and from thirty to
fifty pounds, for permanent incapacitation or death. 85 Under these pro¬
visions, a totally incapacitated native receives compensation, if the max-

u Report of the Native Recruiting Corporation, cited, 1925, p. 9.

“Chairman’s address. Ibid., p. 9. While a native himself does not receive
interest on deferred pay, interest on global sums is paid into a fund for the im¬
provement of native life in the compounds.

“Native Labor Regulation Act, para. 22. Prior to 1914, a family received only
ten pounds for the death of a native. Regulations provide that the estate of a
native who dies at work should be administered, on behalf of his family, by
officials.

If an employer disputes the compensation payable or fails to pay, the matter
shall be determined by a board composed of the magistrate, a nominee of the
employer, and a medical practitioner. Natives do not come under the Workmen’s
Compensation Act, 1914, which applies only to Europeans.

THE INDUSTRIALIZED NATIVE

imum is paid, equal to wages for only twenty months’ continuous work,
in comparison with a totally incapacitated European who receives as com¬
pensation the equivalent of his salary for three years’ continuous work.
Making allowances for differences in wages and the free transport and
hospital treatment which the native receives, the compensation paid the
native is only about half that paid the European. Moreover, the maximum
sum payable to a native is fifty pounds, compared with seven hundred and
fifty pounds payable to a European. When it comes to temporary in¬
capacitation, the native is better off. He gets two-thirds of his pay during
an unlimited period of time, while the European gets half of his pay for
six months only. 30 Perhaps the most dreaded by-product of the mining
. industry is miners’ phthisis, or tuberculosis. Since 1912 legislation has
provided for liberal compensation for European miners contracting this
affliction, who may receive eight pounds a month, the total not to exceed
three hjndred pounds. 37 Until 1919, however, natives contracting
phthisis merely received the compensation payable for incapacitation. Thus
the European received about ten times the compensation of the native for
the same disease. 38 This discrimination was rectified by the passage of the
Miners’ Phthisis Act in 1919, which provides for more adequate pay¬
ments. 39 In 1924, eight hundred and fifty-five Portuguese natives received
compensation under this act amounting to nearly 49,450 pounds, in com¬
parison with six hundred and ninety-one such natives who received nearly
11,797 pounds as accident compensation. 40

** Report of the Native Grievances Inquiry, cited, p. 50. No compensation is
paid when the accident is due to “serious and wilful misconduct,” which includes
drunkenness, and the wilful contravention of any safety law or regulation.

"Miners’ Phthisis Act, Statutes of the Union of South Africa, 1912, p. 420,
ibid., 1916, p. 816.

“Before 1914, compensation for the death of a native was twenty pounds less
than for permanent incapacitation, which led some mines to neglect to report
cases until after the victims died.

"Art. 39. (1) “When any native labourer who has not received benefits under
this Act or the prior law is found by the Bureau to be suffering from silicosis,
there shall, subject to the provisions of this Act, be paid to the Director on behalf
of such native labourer—

(a) if the native labourer is in the ante-primary stage, a sum calculated in
the manner set out in the First Schedule to this Act;

(b) if the native labourer is in the primary stage, a sum calculated in the
manner set out in the First Schedule to this Act but with an addition of fifty
per cent, thereto;

(c) if the native labourer is in the secondary stage, a sum calculated in the
manner set out in the First Schedule to this Act but with an addition of one
hundred per cent, thereto.”

First Schedule. “Twelve times that part of the miner’s or native labourer’s month’s
earnings which did not exceed £29 3s. 4d; and six times that part of his month’s
earnings which exceeded £29 3s. 4d. but did not exceed £37 xos.; and three times
that part of his month’s earnings which exceeded £37 10s.”

Miners’ Phthisis Act (No. 40 of 1919) Wiggett, cited, pp. 164, 166.

40 Report of the fVitioatersrand Native Labour Association, cited, 1924, p.

48 THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

6. Social Results

From the standpoint of food and housing, living conditions on the mines
have greatly improved, being much better than similar conditions in the
towns. Nevertheless, compound natives are subject to the same moral
temptations as city natives, since they may go into the towns at night and
for the week-end. Few of the mine natives bring their wives to the
mines with them. Their families remain in the native territories; and
the husband, returning at the end of his nine-months contract, keeps in
contact with the country. On the other hand, the town native living
and working outside the compound has become, as a rule, completely de-
tribalized; to him the town has become a permanent abode. Consequently,
his influence is usually limited to an urban circumference. It is quite other¬
wise with the mine native. He enters the town, becomes acquainted with
European vice and other less desirable aspects of “civilization,” 41 and
then returns to the reserve, a detribalizing influence. All mine natives are
medically examined prior to discharge which gives the country natives
some protection. But tubercular natives are repatriated to their homes,
where they may give this disease to others.

Furthermore, the mining compounds—in which thousands of men live
together under regimented conditions—have become the center of unnatural
vice, a native form of Sodomy, called Isokothana. “This loathsome
survival of Sodom appears to have reached Rand by way of East Africa,
where it is believed to have been introduced by foreigners. Until recent
years, cases were so exceptional and the custom so abhorrent that Natives
referred to it only in whispers. But such has been the spread of the prac¬
tice that it is now not only common talk, but money (lobolo) is paid for
youths as wives, and Sodomites, impersonating girls in dress and figure
sometimes participate in compound dances.” 42 The Commission on As¬
saults on Women was furnished with evidence that “mine boys indulge
in certain evil and loathsome practices to satisfy their passions. Such
practices can only be checked by enabling laborers to lead a family life.” 43
Likewise, as we have seen, the recruited natives live under a regime which
restricts their movements, prevents them from going home till the end of
of their contracts, and pays them inadequately. The Minister of Mines
frankly said in the color bar debate of 1926, “The native is preferred by
the mining companies owing to the compound system, pass laws, ap-

41 Cf. Vol. I, p. 53.

43 F. B. Bridgman, “Social Conditions in Johannesburg.” International Review
of Missions, July, 1926, p. 575.

" Report of the Commission on Assaults on IVomen, 1913, U. G. 39-1913, para.

44 -

THE INDUSTRIALIZED NATIVE

prenticeship, right of prosecution for desertion, and so on. In fact we
cannot deny that the natives of the Witwatersrand—nearly 190,000—are
there really in a semi-servile condition, and I have never heard hon. mem¬
bers opposite protest against that.” 44

In order to remedy this situation, General Gorgas, in his report on
the mines, advocated the establishment of villages to which mine laborers
should be encouraged to bring their families and become permanent, instead
of transient laborers. Such an experiment is now being tried in the
Belgian Congo. 45 A number of mines on the Rand attempted to carry
out this idea by establishing native married quarters. But in the great
majority of cases, they have degenerated into brothels and blind-pigs. The
sentiment of the mines appears to be against the attempt. Moreover, the
present price of land makes any scheme providing for small holdings for
natives, not to mention Europeans, impracticable. 40 It is doubtful whether,
in view of their attachment to their land and to their fears of city life,
natives could ever be persuaded, at least for several generations, to bring
their families to town, and cut loose from all contact with the country.
Despite strenuous efforts, the experiment in the Congo has not yet proved
a success.

A number of South Africans have, as another alternative, proposed
that the native laborer be replaced by the white man who, due to his long
experience with industrialized conditions, can adapt himself better to this
regime than a native. But government commissions and the mine operators
have repeatedly declared that the mines could not operate if they were
required to pay European wages. 47 The same considerations, according to
the mines, prevent them from paying higher native wages. It is gener¬
ally admitted that the mines, which are low-grade, have a limited life-time.
Increased labor charges would mean that some mines would go out of
business at once, which would automatically curtail government revenue
and reduce European and native employment. It thus appears that the
interests of the mine owners and of the natives are incompatible. 48

44 Joint Sitting of Both Houses of Parliament, May 7th to May 12th, 1926, col.
130.

Cf. Vol. II, pp. 362, 590.

4 *Cf. the Report of the Small Holdings Commission, U. G. 51, 1913, which
pointed out these difficulties in the case of Europeans.

47 The Transvaal Mining Industry Commission is an exception. Cf. the Report
of the Mining Industry Board, cited, paras. 35-36.

“The Low Grade Mines Commission declared: “Although the conditions under
which natives are employed are continually being improved, as, for example, in
such large industries as mining ... it is clear that the well-being of the native in
its fullest sense is not sufficiently considered by the white population of South
Africa or the conditions under which they are employed. The chief consideration
is the profit and convenience of the European, and the native is beginning to feel

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

7. Urban Locations

Altogether, about 890,000 natives, or about sixteen per cent of the total
native population, live in the urban areas of South Africa. About five
hundred thousand of these live in the Witwatersrand, as the Johannesburg
area is called, together with 227,000 Europeans. Those natives who do
not live in mining compounds 49 live theoretically on government loca¬
tions, or on private premises usually rented from a European landlord.
Each South African city has its native location in which the native popu¬
lation must supposedly live, and in which houses are usually rented from
the municipality. But until recently, these locations have been uncon¬
trolled, and living facilities have been inadequate for native needs. It is
generally admitted that the natives in the large mining compounds receive
better treatment than natives living under individual European masters. 00
Conditions became particularly bad in Cape Town following the World
War. Before 1919, the native population was confined in the Ndabeni
location, about four miles from the center of the city, built twenty years
previously for “temporary” uses following a plague. But as a result of
the large demand for dock labor, the number of natives in Cape Town
increased. As there was no place for them in the location, three or four
thousand of them moved into the city. Many of them rented rooms in the
famous “District Six” from colored people and the native voters. Ac¬
cording to an investigation made by the Cape Times 01 in some places
as many as ten to twenty natives of both sexes and all ages lived in one
room, in a community where illicit liquor selling, prostitution, and in some
cases opium dens, operated by Cape Malays, prevailed. In an effort to
clean up these conditions, Cape Town is now building a new location at
Langa at a cost of 250,000 pounds.

The infant mortality rate of non-European children between 1913
and 1919 in Cape Town was considerably more than twice the European
rate—only in one year did the non-European rate fall below 200 per thou¬
sand ; in 1918-1919, the influenza year, it rose to nearly 299 per thousand. 02

and to say, with considerable justice on his side, that he is being exploited.”
Report of the Low Grade Mines Commission, cited, para. 137.

"According to the 1921 census, (p. 361), there are 173,000 mine laborers in the
Witwatersrand area, and 56,000 mine laborers inside the municipality.

“There are nine municipal locations along the Rand having a total population
of about 24,000. The Rand also has five native townships where natives may buy
land and erect houses. About five thousand natives live in some sixty private
compounds in Johannesburg; while the city maintains ten compounds to house its
native employees. Bridgman, cited, International Review of Missions, July 1926,
P- 576.

81 See a series of articles, “The Underworld of Cape Town,” Cape Times,
February, 1922.

■’ s Appendix III, Report of the Housing Committee, 1920.

THE INDUSTRIALIZED NATIVE

In Kimberley, the infant mortality rate was 298.1 per thousand for
colored people in 1914, compared with 113 for Europeans. In 1917, the
figures were 274.8 and 98.4; in 1918, the influenza year, they were 461.6
and 98.4. In the location near Port Elizabeth and at East London, the
ratio was about the same. 83

A government housing committee reported that “persons suffering from
consumption and other infectious diseases are compelled to live and sleep
in the same rooms as healthy persons and young children; there can be no
privacy or decency in life when a whole family . . . practically all the
poorer colored people and many of the poorer white people in Cape Town
today are living a family in a room.” 84

While overcrowding may be primarily responsible for disease found
in the cities, “The mere change from kraal life to the environment of the
labor centre,” according to the Report of the Tuberculosis Commission,
“adversely affects the health of the average raw native; how much this
is due to change of climatic conditions, aggregation, often, in over-crowded
compounds, alterations in dress or diet, restriction of freedom, unaccus¬
tomed physical strain, or exposure to organisms harmless to ordinary indi¬
viduals but pathogenic to the uninured raw native, it is difficult to say.” 88
The same commission reported in 1914 that tuberculosis was from four
to six times as prevalent among colored people as among Europeans in
South Africa. 88 This commission declared, “. . . From the point of view
of the health of the native, the change which is taking place from bar¬
barism to a condition of semi-civilization is detrimental ... ; an in¬
creased amount of tuberculosis must be looked for as the process
continues.” 87

While better housing conditions would undoubtedly improve condi¬
tions of health, the wages paid natives in the cities are so low that, accord¬
ing to the Native Affairs Department, “It is impossible to build and hire
houses at an economic rent or to require the Natives in building their
own to conform to proper standards. . . 58 The Housing Committee of

1919 intimated the same thing when it said, “It is practically impossible
to dissociate the subject of housing of the poorest classes from the question
of a minimum wage.” 80

" Ibid., p. 20. 84 Ibid., 1920, p. 12.

According to the 1921 census (p. 315), “In Cape Town ... 69 per cent of all
occupants of one-room houses were crowded on the average to the extent of 4.5
persons per room, in Durban 73 per cent with 4.7 persons per room, and Pretoria
75 per cent with 5.3 persons per room. In two-room houses conditions were far
worse. In the four areas a far larger number of houses (2,400) involving 15,284
persons, showed the extraordinary average of 3.2 persons per room. . . .”

“ Report of the Tuberculosis Commission, U. G. 34-1914, para. 190.

“ Ibid., para. 230. ” Ibid., para. 201.

“ U. G. 34-1922, cited, p. 14. " Report, cited, para. 203.

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

This over-crowding not only produces disease but also immorality and
crime. According to the report of a committee to the South Africa Mis¬
sionary Conference, in regard to Natal, “Prostitution among Native girls
is rampant, and in some places just outside Durban there are houses
where Native girls are kept for immoral purposes. ... In Maritzburg
many well-furnished rooms, owned and kept by Native women, are known
to be the dwelling place of Europeans while they are living in town. . . .
It is said by those who are in a position to speak with authority that
there are very few respectable and pure Native girls in the town, while
venereal disease is on the increase and is becoming a positive danger in
many homes where Native female servants are employed. Respectable
Native parents whose homes are in the country would rather ‘see their
girls dead than that they should work in town.’ . . .” 60

A leading missionary and social worker, in an article written just
before his death, said that in looking to the moral side of the Johannes¬
burg locations, “it is impossible to escape a sense of depression. The
wretchedness and squalor of the environment but too truly typify the
poverty and misery of the soul-life of the inhabitants. Drink and the
illicit traffic in liquor, together with prostitution, are the overwhelming
evils. . . . Fatal brawls are not infrequent; while it is generally admitted
that in the average location at least from fifty to sixty per cent of the
births are illegitimate.” 01 He went on to say that “Johannesburg to¬
day possesses slums that for squalor and utter wretchedness can scarcely be
rivalled. ... A comparison of the crime records between 1911 and 1921
(taking only three classes of crime—assaults, thefts, and liquor) shows
an increase of eighty per cent. . .. The mixture of races is startling, Chinese
and Indian often living with white, Coloured, or Native, while Coloured,
Native and low whites mingle indiscriminately. Three, four, or even
five children born of the same mother each have a different and unnamed
father. In one school of one hundred children, only fifteen or twenty of
the fathers can be discovered. . . . Some of the young boys are developing
the worst traits of the London street arab. Ready lying, expert thieving
and worse are becoming common.”

Another aspect of these conditions was pointed out by the Commission
on Assaults on Women, which said: “Narrow passages, or so-called yards,
exist, into which open the doors of small single rooms which are often let
at twenty shillings a month or more each; and in these dwell whites,
Chinese, Indians, Natives, and others, on terms of equality, whilst the

40 Report of the Proceedings of the Fifth General Missionary Conference of
South Africa, Durban, 1922, p. 79.

"Bridgman, cited, p. 578.

THE INDUSTRIALIZED NATIVE

latrines provided are for the common use of all. ... It has been pointed
out that a class of poor white is becoming more and more degraded; pov¬
erty drives them to seek their living by undesirable methods. On the
other hand, it is asserted that whilst these whites are sinking in the scale,
the natives are rising, and that the poor white children are becoming the
dregs of the population.” 62

8. Illicit Liquor Trade

In the Transvaal, the sale of European liquor to natives is prohibited
by law, as it is in Natal. Nevertheless, there is a large illicit trade. 03
In 1923, four hundred and twenty-nine Europeans and six hundred and
seventy-two non-Europeans were committed to prison for illicit liquor
sales. 64

We are informed by the commission whose report we have already
cited, that “Amongst illicit dealers are to be found a very large propor¬
tion of indigent whites, largely South African born, who are driven by
poverty to make a living by such means. ... A shocking feature in this
matter is the employment of white women and children of both sexes in
the trade. Such women have been known to allow natives to have illicit
connection with them. . . . Illicit liquor selling is not confined to the lower
classes of Europeans. . . . Police evidence goes to show that the business
is increasing amongst fairly respectable women, tempted by this means to
make money easily. . . . These people are one of the causes of the
native’s losing that respect for the white race which is one of the strongest
factors calculated to restrain him from even entertaining the idea of the
possibility of having any sexual relations with a white woman.” 65

Liquor, according to Police statistics, is responsible for eighty per cent
of crimes of violence amongst natives. The Chief Commissioner of Po¬
lice for the Union has said: “The already diminished respect enter-

02 Report of the Committee on Assaults on Women, paras. 98-100.

03 Much of the illicit liquor sold to natives is of pernicious quality. Thu9 to
Cape brandy are added tobacco juice, cayenne pepper, and blue stone.

w Year Book, cited, p. 305. Policies have differed in regard to the sale of kafir
beer, a native drink made out of maize and kafir corn.

Durban has adopted a system in which the municipality has a monopoly of
the manufacture and sale of kafir beer. While it is universally agreed that this
regime is better than no restrictions, strong European opinion is in favor of total
prohibition of kafir beer, which is the policy Cape Town has adopted for its
location at Langa.

A movement for prohibition of liquor to Europeans is led by the South Africa
Temperance Alliance, but there are large wine interests in the Cape province,
among others, who oppose it. Cf. a pamphlet, The Drink Problem in South Africa,
1924, published by the South African Temperance Alliance, which contains the
proceedings of the Local Option Congress.

°* Report of the Commission on Assaults on Women, cited, paras. '57 and 55.

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

tained by natives towards the white race disappears entirely under the influ¬
ence of liquor. This is particularly noticeable in their demeanor towards
white women.” cc While the Commission on Assaults on Women did
not find conclusive evidence that drunkenness was a cause of assault, it said:
“There can be no question that one of the main causes of crime in general
is the excessive use of spirituous liquor. . . . Moderate drinkers are said
to be rare amongst black men. The demoralization of natives through
drink, especially in the neighborhood of towns, has been described as ter¬
rible, and the evidence shows that the deterioration of many of them on
that account on return to their homes from the Witwatersrand is very
marked.” 67

A half dozen government commissions have pointed out the dangers
of these urban conditions, not only to the natives, but to the European
community. 08 Urban locations have been the centers of epidemics which
have crept into the European areas, and of criminals who, haunting the
slums, ply their trade upon European victims. The Probation Officer
of the Witwatersrand says: “The criminal class is recruited principally
from the towns and not from the country districts. . . . For the last
two years I have come across a very large number of juvenile natives
who are living in the town without any sort of guardianship and not
registered at the pass office and it is from this class of juvenile neglected
native that the most dangerous type is recruited. . . . The evidence ob¬
tained . . . shows that they live under the grossest possible conditions of
immorality.... They come in and out for petty thefts. During the winter
time the thefts are generally blankets and clothing. In summer these thefts
take the form of money, coins, jewellery and articles of food.” 69 One of
the worst crimes—assaults on women—has increased from twelve cases in
1901 to one hundred and fifteen in 1912. 70 This increase has taken place
chiefly in the Transvaal. “The testimony is almost universal that in
native territories and reserves with a large black and a scattered white popu¬
lation, crimes of sexual assault by natives on white women are so infre¬
quent that they may be said to be practically unknown . . . The native is
under tribal rule and subject to the force of public opinion amongst his
own people.” One Transvaal magistrate testified: “It is very rarely
that any woman is assaulted when the native is residing within the normal
and natural environment.” In another place, the same commission explains

" Report of the Commission on Assaults on Women, cited, para. 46.

Ibid., para. 49.

“These opinions are quoted in the Report of the Housing Committee, cited,
pp. 30 ff.

Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee on the Native Pass Laws, cited,
1920, p. 13.

Report of Commission on Assaults on Women, U. G. 39-1913, p. 11.

THE INDUSTRIALIZED NATIVE

this fact by saying: “In the absence of recognized authority equivalent to
the chiefs’ influence, the native, on arrival at labour centres, loses his social
and tribal unity, and, imitation being one of his chief characteristics, he
soon conforms to his environment.” 71

The effect of the standards of living of the natives who form thirty-
nine per cent of the urban population must invariably seep through to the
remainder of the community. A South African doctor a few years ago
startled some people in South Africa by saying, “Lice, diphtheria, tuber¬
culosis, skin disease, infectious fevers and venereal disease are transmitted
to the European child [by the native nurse] and in some instances pos¬
sibly to yourselves. Your washing is done by people often rotten with
venereal and other diseases; your milk, bread, and meat may be at any time
infected, and yet little is done to alter the existing state of affairs.” 72
Moreover, as a result of the vices of Europeans, and the indiscretion of
the lower class white men and women with whom the natives in the
towns come into intimate contact, the respect of the black man not only
for the white man, but also for the white woman, has, according to prac¬
tically universal testimony, declined in recent years. 73 At the same
time, discontent has steadily risen at the squalor in which natives
must live. 74

9. Urban A reas A ct

In the past, the hundred urban locations in South Africa have, with
the exception of the locations at Cape Town and Port Elizabeth which
were under the Union Government—been governed entirely by the local
authorities. But, according to the Native Affairs Department, “The point
of view from which the natives have been regarded by the local authorities
in the past militated against any improvement of the conditions. They
have been conceived as enjoying all the benefits and amenities of town life
and giving in return only trouble and annoyance. Unhappily in too fre-

n Ibid., para. 103.

” Col. F. A. Saunders, Municipal Control of Locations, paper at the Association
of Municipal Corporations of the Cape Province, 1920, p. 2.

” "White criminals who associate with natives for the purpose of crime, others
who supply natives with forged passes or passes in the name of fictitious employers,
and a low class of whites who mostly live with natives or colored women, also
exercise a most demoralizing effect upon the natives. . . . Baneful traffic in inde¬
cent pictures and prints which, in spite of existing laws to prevent their dissemina¬
tion, is going on to an extent to which those who have not made special enquiries
into the subject have no conception.” Report of the Commission on Assaults on
IVomen, cited, paras. 92 and 93.

,4 The Housing Committee reported that if the desire of the native for something
better could not be granted, “it will give way to a sullen enviousness of the white
man’s habitations and ways of life, and a bitterness towards the white race that
will lead to trouble.” Report, cited, p. 36.

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

quent cases the native population was exploited for the benefit of munic¬
ipal revenue.” 75

Especially in Johannesburg, some worth while social work has, how¬
ever, been performed. But it is a striking commentary that practically
all such work was started by American missionary societies, backed by
American funds. 70 The Chamber of Mines now cooperates with the
American Board in furnishing bioscopes (movies) and other amusements
to the men on the mines. A native Y. M. C. A., recently started under
the direction of a remarkable American negro, shows signs of great
promise. Likewise, a joint council of forty Europeans and forty natives
at Johannesburg has served as a medium where these racial problems can
be frankly discussed.

In 1923, the Union Government, after a long delay caused in part by
a desire to work out a comprehensive native policy, enacted the Urban
Areas Act which places full responsibility for the government of natives
in urban areas upon the municipality. It empowers the local government
to set aside areas in the cities where all natives, with certain exceptions,
must live. While the actual administration of these areas is to be in the
hands of the municipality, the Union Government may impose regula¬
tions ; and in case the municipality does not live up to these regulations, the
Union Government may take over the location. It is planned to build
model houses on these locations for the native population, who will be
charged rent. All rents and other fees from the location are to go into
a native revenue account to be used in paying the expenses of the loca¬
tion. A native advisory board shall be established for every location.
Provision is made for the registration of natives living in urban areas
in order to keep out undesirables. The municipality has the power, under
the act, either to prohibit or establish a monopoly of kafir beer. 77

By means of this act, the government and the municipalities have al¬
ready begun to improve the situation of the native in the towns. In 1926,
Cape Town assisted the construction of 1,172 houses at a cost of 696,989
pounds. 78

Nevertheless, this creditable effort, according to Archdeacon Lavis,
makes “a piteously feeble answer to existing conditions.” In his opinion,
housing conditions are substantially the same as in 1921. At the African
Health Official’s Congress in 1926, a statement was made that thousands

™ Report, 1913-1918, cited, p. 16.

"The American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions has taken the
lead. The American Methodist Episcopal church also carries on work among the
Portuguese boys at the mines.

” Statutes of the Union of South Africa, 1923, p. 140.

"Archdeacon Lavis, “South Africa’s Housing Problem,’’ Cape Times, March
29, 1927.

THE INDUSTRIALIZED NATIVE

of families throughout the country were sinking lower and lower in the
social scale because of inadequate housing conditions. Archdeacon Lavis,
writing in 1927, declares that “there are thousands of the poorer classes
throughout the Union with no home but the ‘one room for every pur¬
pose.’ . . . Others again live in passages, stables, or pondokkies of wattle
and paraffin tin.” 79

The Union Government and the municipalities are awake to their
responsibilities. Nevertheless, it is difficult to see how it will be humanly
possible to provide housing for an ever-increasing population in the towns.
Apparently the fundamental solution would be an economic policy which
would divert the native population to the country—a question which
will be discussed in detail in a later chapter.

"Ibid.

CHAPTER 4
THE COLOR BAR

South African industry, as we have seen, is based upon a labor
supply consisting of a large number of under-paid natives and a small
number of artificially high paid whites. While the presence of native
labor is essential to maintain this system, it must only be unskilled. Should
natives occupy the positions held by European laborers, they would at
once bring the wages of skilled labor down and indirectly elevate the wages
of unskilled labor. Under free competition, therefore, the present ad¬
vantages of white labor in South Africa would be to a large extent lost.

Consequently, the whites have been tempted to take advantage of their
political power to enact “color bar” legislation prohibiting competition
between the white man and the black. As early as 1890, the laws of the
Transvaal provided that all persons in charge of certain machinery on the
mines should hold a certificate—a provision designed primarily to insure
safety. In 1903, this provision was extended to locomotive driving and
other skilled occupations, this time apparently out of fear of the Chinese. 1

I. Mines and Works Act, 1911

Following the Act of Union, parliament passed the Mines and Works
Act of 1911 which authorized the Governor-General to draw up regula¬
tions in regard to the granting of certificates of competency to such
classes of persons employed upon machinery as he might determine. No
mention of the color bar was contained in the Act. In view, however,
of the policies which had been followed in the Transvaal and in the Free
State, the government issued regulations 2 providing that “The operation
of or attendance on machinery shall be in charge of a competent shiftsman,
and in the Transvaal and Orange Free State Provinces, such shiftsman
shall be a white man. . . In other words, these regulations simply
maintained the state of affairs existing before 1910.

At the time that the Mines Act was debated in parliament in 1911,
no mention was made of the color bar. But after the regulations contain-

1 Cf. Speech of Senator J. P. Malan, Senate of South Africa Debates, July 7,
1925, p. 714.

For example, paras. 179 and 285, “Mine and Works Regulations,” Regulations,
1910-1916, Union of South Africa, Vol. Ill, pp. 2992, 3052.

THE COLOR BAR

ing the color bar were issued, petition after petition came forward. When
Mr. Merriman, one of the leading statesmen in Cape Province, moved
in 1915 that one such petition be referred to the government with a view
to granting the prayer, Mr. Creswell, who is now leader of the Labor
party, moved as a substitute that “so long as the policy is persisted in of
basing the mining industry upon uncivilized servile labor, largely imported,
and so long as no legislation is enacted securing to mine workers standard
rates or rates upon which civilized conditions of life can be maintained,
the only effect of abolishing the ‘color bar’ in the Transvaal mining regu¬
lations would be to increase the profits of mining companies. . . .” In
May, 1920, Mr. Merriman again moved that the government should “take
the necessary steps for the early removal” of the regulations imposing the
color bar, to which Mr. Creswell replied that the entry of East Coast
natives was in effect a color bar militating against the interest of free
wage earners of the Union.

The color bar in the mines is prescribed by regulations in thirty-two
out of fifty-one different occupations. In nineteen other occupations, a
color bar is prescribed merely by custom.’ About eleven thousand Euro¬
peans in the mines are protected by this means from native competition. 3

Moreover, certain work, usually described as semi-skilled, such as drill-
sharpening and tracklaying, has been performed in some mines by white
men and in others by natives. But in 1916, the participation of natives in
semi-skilled work was opposed by the South African Mine Workers’
Union, which insisted that all such work should be reserved to white men. 4
While the Chamber of Mines declined to accept this demand, both parties
finally agreed to a Status quo Agreement in 1918 which provided that
no billets held by European workmen should be given to colored workmen
and vice versa.

But during the War, the Transvaal mines found themselves confronted
with rising costs of production and with a fall in the price of gold. In 1919,
the government appointed a Low Grades Mines Commission to consider
what measures could be taken to improve this condition. The commission
recommended that the prohibition on the recruiting of natives north' of
latitude 22 degrees should be temporarily terminated; that underground
work should be re-arranged in order to provide for a longer effective
working day for natives; 5 and that the legal color bar should be removed,

8 Report of the Low Grade Mines Commission, U. G. 34-1920, Annexure G and
H, and p. 27.

4 Report of the Mining Industry Board, U. G. 39-1922, p. 5.

* It appears that while the natives spent ten hours a day in the mines, they
performed only five hours work, owing to the lack of sufficient European super¬
visors. This condition has now apparently been changed. Round Table, 1922,
p. 432.

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

and the native’s sphere extended in agreement with the trade unions. 6
In later negotiations, the Mines, in a more serious situation than ever be¬
cause of the rapid decline in gold prices, informed the trade unions that
the Status quo Agreement should be limited to skilled occupations only, and
that the mines would make greater use of native labor in semi-skilled occu¬
pations. In reply, the trade unions proposed that a ratio of natives to
Europeans, “progressively favorable to the white race,’’ should be estab¬
lished for every industry except agriculture. Under its plan there would
eventually be one white for every 4.5 blacks, although on the mines the
ratio was then less than one to 10.5. 7 When the Mines declined to ac¬
cept this proposal, on the ground that it would ruin the mining industry,
the Unions decided to strike, in January, 1922.

2. The Rand Strike

It appears that in the strike that followed the South African Industrial
Federation had the support of the Communist party in Russia. 8 At any
rate, the strikers established a military organization, based on the Free
State system of “Commandos,” and they voted to overthrow the existing
government and establish a republic. Concerted efforts in this direction,
which resulted in armed attacks on Europeans and natives, finally led the
government to declare martial law in March. To suppress the “rebels,”
the government called up a military force of more than nineteen thousand
men. The total casualties during their operations were seven hundred and
fifty-three. 9 The natives, realizing that this was purely a white man’s
dispute, remained remarkably quiet. Following bitter criticisms by General
Hertzog that the Smuts government had wantonly shot down men in cold
blood, the government appointed a Martial Law Inquiry Commission, the
members of which were recognized, in the eyes of all but a small section,
as being impartial. In its report it upheld the action of the govern¬
ment. On the other hand, a Mining Industry Board, appointed to inquire

6 Report of the Low Grade Mines Commission, cited.

7 In the manufacturing industries in the Cape Province, there was only one
European to thirty-nine blacks. In the metal and engineering works in the Cape,
the ratio was one to sixty-three, and in the Transvaal one to fifty. Cf. an excellent
article in the Round Table, cited, No. 47, 1922, pp. 653 ff.

8 The South African Communist party sent a delegate to the Third Inter¬
national Congress in 1920. The International Socialist League of South Africa
became affiliated with the Third International in the same year.

At a meeting in Johannesburg, one of the strike leaders said, “The Government
is only prepared to do what the Chamber of Mines told them. In order to fill
their pockets, the Chamber of Mines were murdering the workers; if the color bar
was abolished the souls as well as the bodies of the workers would be murdered
and the authority of the white race in South Africa come to an end.” Report of
the Martial Law Inquiry Judicial Commission, U. G. 35-1922, p. 18.

8 Ibid., para. 71.

THE COLOR BAR

into the industrial causes of the strike, reported against fixing any ratio
between European and native labor on the mines. It pointed out that as
a result of the abolition of the Status quo Agreement, during the strike,
five hundred and twenty-three white men had been replaced by natives in
semi-skilled work. In regard to these semi-skilled occupations it declared
“it is impossible to close one’s eyes to the fact that there is a real danger
to the European of this field being more and more extensively encroached
upon by the native. The evidence satisfies us that much of this work
can be done almost, if not quite as efficiently, by the native, so that, in
view of the great disparity in the wage, there will necessarily be a strong
inducement on the part of mine managers to make use of black rather
than of white labour.” 10

Thus as a result of the strike, the Status quo Agreement in regard to
semi-skilled occupations on the mines was terminated, but the color bar
regulations in regard to skilled labor remained in force.

3. The Hildick-Smith Case

For some time, however, doubt as to the legality of these color bar
regulations had been raised. They were finally challenged by a mine man¬
ager, and in a judgment of November, 1923, a Transvaal court 11 held
that the regulations were ultra vires. It declared that Regulation 179—
the provision in question—does not discriminate because of skill, but “it
absolutely prohibits a large section of the population from being so em¬
ployed at all, because the color of their skin does not happen to be white.

. . . Such restrictions of the right of the citizen to so employ skilled and
competent colored persons or of such persons to be so employed, could
never have been contemplated by the legislature and were unreasonable
and even capricious and arbitrary.” It had previously been decided in a
number of cases cited by the court that a regulation which discriminates
between white and colored is unreasonable and ultra vires unless the
enabling statute authorizes the discrimination. 12

Thus the white workers on the mines were confronted with the loss

10 Ibid., para. 23.

“Rex v. Hildick-Smith, South Africa Law Reports, Transvaal Provincial
Division, 1924, p. 69.

“According to Justice Tyndell, “The rule laid down in Kruse v. Johnson
(1898, 2 G. B. 91) and adopted by the Courts of South Africa that a municipality
cannot discriminate between the various classes of its inhabitants, rests in my
judgment upon the general principle that the powers of municipalities, just as those
entrusted to judicial or administrative officers of the State, must be exercised with¬
out discriminating between the one section and another of the population whether
the distinction between the sections are those of race, religion, or social status or
other characteristics.”

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

not only of the Status quo Agreement but also of the color bar. 13 It is
not surprising, therefore, that the Labor party 14 joined forces with the
Nationalists in attacking the Smuts labor policy. The Laborites accused
Smuts of being in league with the mine owners. As a result of the election
of 1924, the Nationalist party came to office virtually dependent upon the
Labor party for a majority. 15

Now, while the maintenance of the color bar on the mines was of
more immediate importance to the Labor party than to the Nationalists
who represented agricultural interests, they—the Nationalists—neverthe¬
less supported Labor’s demand for the color bar, on the broader grounds
of protecting white civilization and advancing the “civilized labor policy.”
They were also frightened by the sensational warnings of the 1921
census. 16 Thus partly as a matter of principle and partly for the purpose
of retaining the political support of the Labor party, Prime Minister
Hertzog was virtually obliged to introduce legislation restoring the regula¬
tions which the courts had pronounced ultra vires . 17

4. The Color Bar Bill

In February, 1925, the government introduced the Mines and Works
Amendment bill which in its final form authorized the government to
issue regulations restricting certificates of competency to Europeans, Cape
Colored people or Cape Malays. 18 The bill, after vigorous debate, passed
the Assembly by a vote of forty-four to thirty-one, but it was defeated by
the Senate—the composition of which had not changed as had that of
the Assembly following the 1924 elections—by a vote of seventeen to thir¬
teen. Following this rejection, Prime Minister Hertzog made a speech
in the house stating that the color bar question had been unfortunately
raised apart from a general native policy.

The government did not, however, follow out the implications of this
speech. Instead of embodying the color bar in the general native bills

n It does not appear, however, that the mines took advantage of this decision
to employ natives in skilled positions. Cf. Senator Roberts, Report of the Select
Committee on the Mines and Works Acts, 1911 Amendment Bill, S. C. 15, 1925,
p. 15; also the address of the President, Report of the Transvaal Chamber of
Mines, 1924, p. 57.

14 Seventy-five per cent of the European miners in 1922 were South African
born.

16 Out of the 316,000 votes cast, the Nationalist Party received 155,000 votes and
Labor received 42,229. The South African Party received 151,000.

19 Cf. Vol. I, p. 12.

17 In February, 1926, the Prime Minister claimed that the strike of 1923 was
due to the fact that the government had not enforced the Color Bar. He did not
wish this strike to be repeated. House of Assembly Debates, cited, February 1,
1926, col. 169.

“ Cf. Mines and Works Act, 1911, Amendment Act, 1926, Statutes, 1926, p. 205.

THE COLOR BAR

discussed in the 1927 parliament, it re-introduced the Mines and Works
amendment bill in the Assembly in January, 1926, where it was passed
by a vote of sixty-four to forty-seven. The Senate, however, rejected it
a second time, as a result of which the government, exercising the powers
conferred upon ic in the constitution, called a joint sitting of the two
houses, at which the bill was carried by a vote of 83 to 67. 19

This measure, which was passed without giving the native organizations
who vigorously opposed it an opportunity to express their views, thus gave
statutory approval to the color bar. In the final debate, General Smuts,
who led the opposition, declared:

“I think that we are building the future of South Africa on quicksands if
we go in for this policy, for a policy of repression. ... I am very much afraid
that this Bill is going to make impossible any policy of appeasement and settle¬
ment between white and black in this country. I am afraid that this beginning
is the most sinister and the most evil beginning that is possible for any policy
of peace and co-operation between white and black in this country in the
future. . . . Make no mistake about it, we are putting ourselves, by this Bill,
dead against the public opinion of the world. . . . The white man, if this Bill
becomes law, is largely admitting moral defeat; he will admit that he cannot
stand on his own legs; that he cannot compete with the black man, and must
resort to principles and laws which violate fair play and justice in order to keep
himself going.” 20

In reply, Prime Minister Hertzog reproached General Smuts for his
method of handling the native problem when in office. He said, “The
European powers we know in certain cases follow a policy which differs
from that pursued in South Africa, but they do that because they live far
away there in Europe. . . . We live in a country which we say is our
country, a country which we intend to keep, which we will maintain as a
white country, while they say: ‘We hold that country simply as agent for
the natives and we are going to make it and keep it as a native country.’ ”
He went on to say that his government was making provision for the
development of native territories. Moreover, the proposed bill differed
in no respect from the 1911 Act, which General Smuts had supported,
except that it did directly what parliament intended to be done under the

“ Joint Sitting of Both Houses of Parliament, 7-12 May, 1926, col. 134. At
this session of parliament, an act was passed altering the constitution of the
Senate.

” Ibid., col. 28. He also said, “I want the members to look forward to the
future, to the day when the African continent will be a far more civilized conti¬
nent than it is today. All our neighbors are following that policy. Go to Rhodesia,
go to the Congo, to every state on this continent; not a single one will pass a law
like this. . . . We are simply cutting ourselves adrift from everyone else. . . .”
In the Belgian Congo, all locomotives are now being driven by natives.

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

1911 Act. According to the Prime Minister, “there is not a person who
has made himself so guilty of immorality in public life and shown such a
lack of ethics” as General Smuts. He “has been busy for some years,
certainly since this Government has been at the head of affairs, stirring up
the feelings of the native against the white man. . . .” 21 Moreover the
protest of a number of South African churchmen, teachers, and other pro¬
fessional men against the proposed legislation was, according to the Prime
Minister, “an unfounded, lying attack.”

It appears that this first definite pronouncement of the South African
parliament in favor of the color bar—an anti-climax to the campaign which
Mr. Merriman and others had made for its repeal—not only stirred the
native population profoundly, but also widened the rift between British
and Boers which the visit of the Prince of Wales in 1925 and other factors
had begun to close. 22

This act, moreover, was passed in the face of a long series of pronounce¬
ments by expert commissions against the color bar. 23

The latest pronouncement, made just before the passage of the legisla¬
tion, was by the Economic and Wage Commission, which said:

“By restricting and reducing the native’s opportunities of earning a liveli¬
hood, the policy of excluding the native from industrial occupations reduces

“ Joint Sitting, cols. 33, 37, 39.

“In the debate on the Color Bar Bill, one member of the Assembly said: “We
are about to pass a measure which is unparalleled in the history of any civilized
country, and a great many of us think that this measure will not tend to promote
the peace or progress of South Africa, but that it will have the very undesirable
effect of seriously affecting our reputation as a nation. . . . Since the great war
the ideas of the civilized world as to the duties of those entrusted with the care
of inferior races has been laid down in unmistakable terms. If we are not legally
bound by this we are morally bound. . . . We are not called a mandatory power
with regard to the black races of South Africa, but that is really our position.
... It may be a nice legal position whether the people in the South-West terri¬
tory will come under the operation of this Bill.” House of Assembly Debates,
June 23, 1925, col. 4878.

“The Transvaal Indigency Commission opposed any “government action
which is designed to protect the white man against reasonable competition from
the colored races. . . .” Government action should be designed rather to assist
the white man to increase his efficiency and reduce his cost than to check the
progress of the native.

The Mining Industry Commission, 1907-1908, said that any artificial obstruc¬
tion “in the way of a coloured man improving his position according to his
capacity” was difficult to justify.

The Economic Commission, 1914, was of the same opinion.

The Relief and Grants-in-Aid Commission of 1916 was opposed to measures
encouraging the white man to rely upon artificial aids rather than upon his own
resources. The Native Grievances Inquiry Commission said, “the real grievance
of the native on this point is the color-bar, which blocks practically all his
opportunities of promotion.”

The Low Grade Mines Commission, 1920, and the Mining Industry Board of
1922 expressed the same views. Quotations given in Report of the Economic and
Wage Commission, cited, p. 124.

THE COLOR BAR

his ability to pay, and therefore his value as a market for the manufactures in
which European labor is engaged. Thus the policy that sets out to provide
additional openings for white employment may so check the growth of wealth
as a whole that it defeats its own ends. . . .

“In the special circumstances of South Africa the policy of restricting the
opportunities of low-paid non-European workers is particularly dangerous.
Already, we have seen, the disparity between the pay of the skilled man and
the unskilled is greater than in any other country. This disparity constitutes
a premium on the organization of industry on the basis of the minimum em¬
ployment of skilled and the maximum employment of unskilled labour. If the
disparity is increased, and at the same time the increase of wealth is checked,
so that the demand for the products of industry at the present level of prices
does not expand as population grows, the organizers of industry will be com¬
pelled either to force wages down generally, or to reduce the proportion of
skilled labour still further and cheapen production by taking advantage of the
cheapening of unskilled labour. Now unskilled labour is largely, but not
wholly native. An increasing proportion of white workers is being forced to
take up unskilled labour—a proportion that will be increased by anything that
raises the cost of skilled relatively to unskilled labour; their rates of pay arc
determined by the rates at which native labour of a given level of efficiency can
be got. The native can contrive to live if the rates for unskilled labour arc
reduced, or do not rise as cost of living is forced up; what will be the position
of the white man who is not worth a skilled man’s wage and is forced to accept
the native rate, increased only in proportion to his slightly greater efficiency?
Yet nothing is more certain than that the restriction of the native’s opportuni¬
ties of using his capacities to the best advantage will force down, or at least
keep down, the level of pay for native labour and therefore for all unskilled
labour; and that in the long run the unskilled white will be paid at the same
rate per piece of work done as the unskilled native.

“The same conclusion emerges from our analysis of the problem of unem¬
ployment as emerged from our study of wages; that the disparity between
white and unskilled native rates is so great as to constitute a danger to the
white. In the interest of the white it is necessary to raise the economic level
of the native. Minimum wage legislation can do something for this; but the
chief agency must be widening of the scope of employment open to him. . . .

“The white man has less to fear from an improvement than from' a de¬
terioration in the economic status of the native, while both stand to gain from
any increase, and stand to lose from any decrease in the volume of wealth
produced as a whole.” *

5. Color Bar and Protection

Manufacturing interests in South Africa have utilized the color bar
and the artificially high wages which they are consequently obliged to
** Ibid., pp. 171, 172.

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

pay to whites as an argument for the enactment of high tariffs. To main¬
tain the color bar and because of budding nationalism, the South African
Government has pledged itself to support manufacturing enterprises by
political or artificial means. But mining, which produces two-thirds of the
total exports, and agriculture cannot be protected. The price of gold
and diamonds is fixed on a world market, as is the price of maize. Few
agricultural products are imported into South Africa. The result of pro¬
tecting manufactures, who contribute only 16.6 per cent of the total na¬
tional income, is that “agriculture, mining, the professions and the unpro¬
tected industries are paying from 5 to 30 per cent more than is necessary
to obtain such products in order to develop manufacturing industry.” 25

Now the object of protection is, of course, to exclude imported manu¬
factures. But insofar as this policy is successful, it lessens the capacity of
manufacturing countries to pay for purchases from South Africa. The
protective policy of South Africa—as the protective policy of many other
countries—therefore reduces the funds available for the purchase of South
African agricultural products, while it increases the prices of manufactures
produced inside South Africa’s tariff wall. 26

On the other hand, color bar regulations and artificially depressed
wages of native laborers in European employment restrict the internal
market for manufactures. The future export trade of South Africa cannot
possibly consist of manufactures; especially with the decline of mining
exports, it must consist, if it is to exist at all, of agricultural products.
But as we have seen, the present tariff policy obstructs the natural develop¬
ment of agriculture, as does the land system, which will be discussed later.

6. The IVage Act

As a matter of fact, the color bar, apart from the amended Mines and
Works Act, exists in other forms. In 1925, parliament passed a Wage
Act 27 authorizing the government to establish a Wages Board to investi-

26 Economic and Wage Commission, p. 162.

20 The Economic and Wage Commission says, “The divergent movement of
agricultural prices and manufactured prices throughout the world since 1914 is
due to the refusal of the predominantly agricultural countries to admit the manu¬
factures with which the predominantly industrial countries seek to buy their
agricultural products, coupled with the inability of the agricultural countries to
reduce their output. The effect on the industrialized countries is extensive unem¬
ployment, a high level of prices for the manufactures that are produced, and a
low level of food prices; the effect on the agricultural countries is a slight growth
of manufactures, a low level of agricultural prices, agricultural depression, and
a check to the reduction of the cost of living. South Africa, with a limited number
of staple products, which she has to find markets for abroad at any price, and
a high degree of dependence on imported manufactures in spite of protection, has
suffered more than other countries from the policy that has led to this divergent
movement of prices.” Ibid., p. 166.

27 Statutes of the Union of South Africa, 1925, p. 238.

THE COLOR BAR

gate labor conditions, apparently with a view, wherever possible, to fix
wages so that employees may live “in accordance with civilized habits of
life.” The Minister of Labor may fix minimum wages, in accordance with
the recommendation of a majority of the board. The act does not, how¬
ever, apply to farming or domestic service. The purpose of this act was
avowedly to prevent natives from competing with Europeans. In the de¬
bate, the Minister of Labor said: 28

“If our civilization is going to subsist we look upon it as necessary that
our industries should be guided so that they afford any man desiring to live
according to the European standards greater opportunities of doing so,
and we must set our face against the encouragement of employment merely
because it is cheap and the wage unit is low. . . .” As a guide for the
Wage Board, the government now appointed an Economic and Wage Com¬
mission 20 to study the general industrial situation. This commission
pointed out that if the Wage Act were used to exclude natives from
employment, it would probably restrict the scale of industry and thus
curtail the employment of the white man. It would appear that such a
use of the Wage Act would have the same economic consequences as the
color bar. The Minister of Labor and the board may, however, under
the law, adopt a minimum native wage—which the commission by implica¬
tion advocated.

7. Social Discrimination

Other forms of the color bar are more direct. While in Cape
Province, some labor unions take in colored members (not natives) and
while in Natal some Indians and natives perform skilled work, it appears
that a conventional color bar exists in most fields of industrial employ¬
ment in both provinces. Natives in all four provinces are excluded from
the military training which Europeans receive. They cannot acquire
Crown land nor make use of the Land Bank, as can Europeans. 30

Their disabilities in regard to the franchise, land, and passes are de¬
scribed elsewhere. Except in Cape Town, Jim Crow laws, enforced by
convention, if not by regulations, also abound. On the trains, natives are
obliged to ride in native compartments. While most natives wish to ride
in third class carriages, the trains are now supposed to carry first and sec¬
ond class sections for natives wishing this type of accommodation. A leading

* House of Assembly Debates, March 30, 1925; col. 1590.

" In addition to South African members, it included Mr. Stephen Mills, an
Australian civil servant, and Professor Henry Clay of Manchester University.

*° S. T. Plaatje, “Some of the Legal Disabilities Suffered by the Native Popula¬
tion of the Union of South Africa and Imperial Responsibility.” Pamphlet. See
also a Grievances Memorial submitted to the Prime Minister and Government
by the Bantu Union, 1920.

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

native says: “Socially speaking, the black man in all public places is either
‘jim-crowed’ or altogether ostracized. In stores he has to wait until all
whites are served; in public offices, he is bullied by officials; in markets
his stock'and produce are by tacit agreement earmarked for low prices;
his sugar cane is not accepted at the Zululand mills; evening curfew bells
restrict his freedom of movement among his friends and he is cut and
snarled at throughout his life.

“In railways he is at the very start of his journey buffeted by booking
clerks; in the goods sheds he is unnecessarily anathematised in language
that cannot bear repeating; his waiting rooms are made to accommodate the
rawest blanketed heathen; and the more decent native has either to use
them and annex vermin or to do without shelter in biting wintry
weather. . .

When in Pretoria this native wished to visit friends living two or three
miles across town, a distance covered by a 6d. tram ride, he was not
allowed to use the trams because he was a black man. 31 Charges as to
the maladministration of justice in mixed cases are frequently made. Na¬
tives assert that they cannot get fair play from a white jury in a case against
a white man. They assert that when Europeans commit the crime of
murder or rape against a native they get off lightly but that when a native
commits such offenses, he is punished with the extreme penalty. 82

8. The Pass System

In order to identify natives living outside of the native territories and
to control their movements so as to prevent crime and desertion from
employment, the different provinces of South Africa have followed a form
of pass system, which applies only to natives and not to whites. 33 In the
Cape Province, it appears that there is less restriction on the movement of
natives than elsewhere. But in Natal, according to Lord Selborne, under
certain circumstances a native may be required to carry eight different
passes! In the Transvaal, natives travelling within the province must
carry passes; while in the labor districts, a native must have an identifica¬
tion pass, containing his finger prints and history, and he must also carry a
copy of his labor contract. Special passes are necessary if the native wishes
to remain in town after 9 P.M. In the Orange Free State, a native

81 Professor D. D. T. Jabavu, The Black Problem, Lovedale, 1920, p. 9.

33 Ibid., p. 8.

83 In the Cape Province all foreign natives entering the Colony should have
passes—a provision which is not enforced. Passes are also required for the Tran-
skei. Movement within the Colony is otherwise free, subject to certain provisions
of the Cattle Removal Act of 1870. Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee
on the Native Pass Lavjs, 1920. U. G. 41, 1922, p. 2. The different provincial
pass laws are summarized in Annexture B of this Report.

THE COLOR BAR

moving about is liable to arrest as a vagrant unless in possession of a
pass.

The natives have repeatedly objected to the pass regime for three
reasons. In the first place, it places an irksome restriction on their
movements. In some provinces a native wishing to visit friends a few
miles away is obliged to go to the local magistrate for a special pass.
Otherwise he will be liable to arrest. In the second place, the administra¬
tion of any such system is liable to great abuse. For a while the system
was enforced by native policemen who, in some instances, bullied native
men and assaulted women under the guise of asking them for their passes. 34
In other instances, natives seeking passes would suffer petty indignities from
European officials. Occasionally, the pass law has been enforced by officers
not knowing the native languages; while natives, ignorant of English, have
not understood the provisions of the law. Although a number of classes of
natives, such as teachers, are theoretically entitled to receive certificates of
exemption, they complain that the system is applied to them as well as to
non-exempted natives. Moreover, the pass laws, together with the penal
sanction of labor contracts, make strikes illegal.

Finally, most provinces require the payment of a fee upon the issuance
of a pass, which entails upon the native an irksome expense. In the Trans¬
vaal, this burden is increased by the necessity of paying a monthly pass
fee of two shillings. 35

Native protests against the pass system have been as frequent as they
have been bitter. At the time of Union, representations to the Imperial
Government against the system were made without success. 30 In 1910 and
1912, natives from the Orange Free State, which has been the center of the
opposition to the system, submitted petitions to the government; and in
August, 1913, a further petition was presented following the imprison¬
ment of a number of native women who had organized passive resistance
against the law. The commission appointed to inquire into the question of
assaults on women recommended that the pass system should be simpli¬
fied. No action was taken, however, on account of the World War.
Meanwhile, the African Political Organization, an association of colored
persons, and the African National Congress demanded the abolition of the

14 Sol. T. Plaatje, Native Life in South Africa, London, 1914, p. 93. Cf. also
Commission on Assaults on Women, U. G. 39-1913.

“ For natives in industrial employment, this fee is usually paid by the
employer.

"The Act of Union did not touch the pass question, except in the schedule
laying down conditions under which neighboring protectorates might be incorpo¬
rated, which said, “There shall be free intercourse for the inhabitants of the
Territories with the rest of South Africa subject to the laws including the pass
laws of the Union.”

70 THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

system, while native discontent, resulting in some places in passive re¬
sistance, increased. Matters came to a head in an attempted strike of
the native municipal employees in Johannesburg in 1918. Encouraged by
the success of a strike of European municipal employees in securing in¬
creased wages, the natives attempted to secure similar results by the same
methods; but their efforts failed largely on account of the police and the
pass laws which prevented them from leaving work without notice.

At the recommendation of a magistrate appointed to inquire into this
strike the government for the time being exempted all women from passes;
while in 1920 it appointed a commission to study the whole question of
pass laws.

This commission, as had other bodies before, 37 declined to agree to the
abolition of the principle of the pass system. It believed, however, that the
system should no longer be used to restrict the movements of natives,
but merely to identify them. Consequently, it proposed the passage of a
Native Registration and Protection Act, under which each male native
should become registered in his district at the age of eighteen. At that
time, he should be given a certificate accompanied either by a photograph
or thumbprint, which he should carry with him in a life-long parchment
whenever he goes beyond the ward in which he is ordinarily resident.
The commission felt strongly that a native should not be asked to show
his certificate except to authorized European (not native) officers. It
should be illegal for employers to hire a native not in the possession of
such a certificate. Women as well as six classes of men, including educated
natives, 38 chiefs, and voters, should be exempted. These certificates should
be issued gratuitously by the government, except in the case of duplicates.

Such a proposal would remove the grievances arising out of maladmin¬
istration and expense and many of the grievances arising out of freedom
of movement. That is, a native carrying his registration certificate could
move freely from one end of the Union to the other. A bill to this effect
was introduced in the 1926 parliament, but it was crowded out at the
end of the session by other business. It was held up also, probably because
of the belief that the plan was intended to apply to the whole Union, and
thus would impose restrictions upon natives in the Cape Province to which
they had not been subject in the past.

87 In 1902, Lord Milner said that if the pass system were abolished, the place
would be a pandemonium. “Alike for the protection of the natives and for the
protection of the whites it is absolutely essential to have some reasonable arrange¬
ment by which the incoming native can be identified and his movements traced.”
Quoted in U. G. 41-1922, p. 3.

38 Those having passed the fifth standard.

CHAPTER 5

THE NATIVE IN THE COUNTRY

Notwithstanding the importance of the native question in the cities,
the problem of the native living in the country is, from the standpoint of
numbers, even more fundamental. Eighty-seven and a half per cent of
the total non-European population—or 4,520,000 people—regard the
country as their home. Prior to the coming of the Europeans, the dif¬
ferent native tribes lived where they liked, subject to the fortunes of inter¬
tribal wars. They were the only “owners” of the land. When the Euro¬
peans advanced eastward, they met the Bantu descending from the north,
and the two came into conflict in the eastern part of what is now the Cape
Province, on the banks of the Great Fish River. Because of the superi¬
ority of the white man’s weapons, the Bantu were driven into Natal and
the area between the Kei and the Umtamvuna rivers—a district now called
the Transkei. In the Cape, settlers and natives fought pitched battles
in eight Kafir Wars, as a result of which natives were obliged, in most
cases, to give up their lands as spoils of war. The Bantu were in some
cases the aggressors against the whites. In other cases, particularly in
Natal, internal native war had left the country depopulated. In occupy¬
ing these territories, the South African settler responded to the same kind
of impulses that controlled the pioneers on the American frontier. 1

It appears that in disposing of the land of the four colonies, the gov¬
ernment in no case investigated the question of native rights in the land,
as is now done in the French and Belgian territories, and in Tanganyika 2
—a task at that time impossible in view of the disorganized state of the
country. All land was simply declared public land, subject to disposal
by the government, which alienated it to European settlers after establish¬
ing in several cases, notable in Natal, native reserves. 3

1 Cf. Vol. I, p. 4. 9 Cf. Index, “native land.”

3 “In the early period of this outward move, (1745) the burghers obtained
an informal sanction to occupy new lands and pastures under a somewhat indefi¬
nite understanding that they were held during the pleasure of the [Dutch East
India] Company. But when, some years later, more remote districts were reached,
all considerations of permission to occupy, boundaries, and rent were entirely
ignored.” Sir G. E. Cory, The Rise of South Africa, London, 1910, Vol. I, p. 13.
See Chapter IX, on the New System of Land Tenure introduced after 1813.

The Land Settlement Act defined Crown Land to include “all unalienated
land within the Union, however acquired, which is the property of His Majesty

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

I. Native Locations and Trusts

Despite its Crown land policy, the Cape Government promised in a
number of early treaties to set aside certain reserves for natives, the
leading one of which today is the Transkei, discussed later. 4 But
when native territories such as Griqualand and Bechuanaland
were annexed by the Cape Colony, part of the land was alienated
to Europeans. At present, one also finds a large number of
native “locations” or small reserves scattered throughout the prov¬
ince. 5

Natal likewise adopted this location policy at the instance of Theophilus
Shepstone, the Secretary of Native Affairs. While in many cases, reserves
were established where population was thickest, in both territories loca¬
tions were scattered about the country elsewhere with a view rather to
European than to native interests. As Earl Grey put it, “Permanent
locations should be established within the Colony; and in selecting the
sites of these locations, sufficient intervals should be left between each
of them for the spread of white settlements; each European immigrant
would thus have it in his power to draw supplies of labor from the loca¬
tion in his more immediate proximity.” 6 Natal set aside one compact
area as a native territory—the greater part of Zululand—with title vested
in a Zululand Trust. Elsewhere in Natal, native areas are of two types:
Crown locations, similar to those in the Cape; and mission reserves. In
1864, Letters Patent constituted the Natal Native Trust—composed of
the governor and executive council of Natal, in whom locations were
vested as trustees. They are empowered to hold or to sell or lease these
lands, as they deem fit for purposes connected with the advantage or well¬
being of the natives. Thus they have mortgaged certain location lands for
the purpose of raising money to construct irrigation works, for the benefit

in his government of the Union; and ‘unalienated’ shall mean, not leased or
reserved for special purposes, as well as unalienated by grant, transfer or other
form of absolute disposal.” Statutes of the Union of South Africa, 1912, p. 152.

- Cf. Vol. I, p. 88.

B Cf. the Native Locations and Commonage Act, 1879, Cape of Good Hope
Statutes, Vol. I, p. 1662.

“Note of November 30, 1849. Cf. Edgar M. Brookes, The History of Native
Policy in South Africa from 1830 to the Present Day, Cape Town, 1924, p. 327.
Apparently the only man who opposed this sandwich policy of locations was
a missionary, Rev. John Philip, who, realizing that the greatest problem in con¬
nection with the natives in South Africa was the land, suggested separate white
and native areas, in which homogeneous communities could develop along their
own lines—ideas which now are advocated by the Hertzog government. If they
had been adopted at that time, the history and the future of South Africa would
probably be quite different. Prof. W. M. MacMillan of the University of the
Witwatersrand has made a study of Rev. Philip’s life, entitled, The Cape Colour
Question, London, 1927.

THE NATIVE IN THE COUNTRY

of natives. 7 Mission reserves originally were granted in the vicinity of
missions for the purpose of establishing mission villages or communities of
natives wishing to get away from the “debasing” features of tribal life. 8
Within these reserves, different missionary societies have established churches
and schools. With some exceptions, the chiefs and a majority of the
residents profess to be Christians. On mission reserves, polygamy is pro¬
hibited, and all children under sixteen must attend school. Each reserve
also has a resident missionary. It appears that life on these mission
reserves approaches standards of European morality and custom to a
greater extent than on the government locations, where the social life of
the natives has altered little. 9

Before 1903, the title to mission reserves was vested in trustees, most
of whom were missionaries. But in that year, an act was passed 10 con¬
stituting the Natal Native Trust as trustee also for these mission reserves.
This act gave to the various missions reserves of about five hundred acres.
The Natal Native Trust is authorized to charge the native residents an
annual rent fixed at one pound, half of which goes to the Native Trust for
the benefit of the reserves, and half to the missionary body for education.
In return for the rent, the native is exempt from dipping and grazing
charges. Recently, the natives have made rather bitter complaints about
the payment of this rent, which is considerably higher than that charged
under the Glen Grey system. 11 From the standpoint of mission policy,
the wisdom of promoting missionary-educational enterprise by compulsory
levies is of debatable value.

Natal is the only one of the four colonies which vests title to native
land in a Trust rather than in the governor as the representative of the
Crown. This system has the advantage of earmarking revenue derived from
native lands for native purposes. But in 1907, the Natal Native Com¬
mission criticized the work of the Trust in this respect, stating that beyond
some tree-planting, fencing, and the construction of a few water-courses
and roads, no attempt had been made to develop the lands vested in it. 12

7 Report of the South African Native Affairs Commission, 1903-1905, Cd.-2399,
p . 14.

This custom of establishing “mission villages,” where native Christians are
supposed to live rather than to return to their native villages, has been tried by
Catholic congregations in East Africa and in the Congo, and also by some
Protestant societies. But sentiment among these bodies is now apparently against
these villages, on the ground that they develop a “hot house” rather than a
militant Christianity. Cf. Vol. II, p. 494.

0 Report of the Proceedings of the Fifth General Missionary Conference of
South Africa, 1921, p. 91.

10 Act 49 of 1903. Statutes of Natal, Supplement, p. 2.

11 Cf. Vol. I, p. 91.

ia Report of the Natal Native Affairs Commission, 1906-1907. Cd. 3889 (1908),
para. 94.

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

Upon the establishment of the Union, legislation was enacted authoriz¬
ing the government to delegate to the Minister of Native Affairs control
over the administration of any Native Trust. The Minister of Native
Affairs, at the same time, has charge of the administration of Crown loca¬
tions. “So far as a layman may express an opinion, the Natives living
in Trust Locations, are in law, no better and no worse off as regards
security of tenure than Natives living in Crown Locations.” 13 This state¬
ment is probably true, provided the Trust is composed of government
officials, as in Natal. But if it includes natives and missionaries interested
in retaining lands for natives rather than in alienating lands for white
settlement, it may offer more real security than vesting lands in the Crown
direct.

In the Pretoria Convention of 1881, 14 the British Government insisted
that the Transvaal establish a Native Location Commission which
should reserve to the natives “such locations as they may be fairly and
equitably entitled to, due regard being had to the actual occupation of
such tribes.” The government found it more practicable to appoint local
commissions, which did not, however, complete their labors before the
outbreak of the Boer War. At the present time, there are about 2120
square miles set aside as government locations. Under the Transvaal
Constitution of 1906, these reserves could not be alienated except by act
of Parliament.

In the Free State, no provision for native reserves was made, except
for two locations at Witzies Hoek and Thaba ’Nchu, native territories
along the frontier annexed in 1884. 15 In all of these locations, with the
exception of those in the Cape under the Glen Grey system, communal
tenure in accordance with native law prevails. Rent is charged native
residents in Natal, and in the Glen Grey areas of the Cape, but not in
the Transvaal. 16 The extent of native reserves or locations in the Union
is as follows:

Native Reserves

Province Extent in Morgen

Percentage of
Total Area

Cape 7,115,561 8.47

Natal 2,897,120 22.83

Transvaal 1,077,513 3.22

Orange Free State 74,290 .48

Union 11,164,484 7.13 1T

“Brookes, cited, p. 358. “Section 22.

‘’See Minute by Sir W. H. Beaumont, Native Lands Commission, U. G. 25-
[ 6 .

10 Cd. 2399, p. 16.

” Report of the Natives Land Commission, Vol. I, U. G. 19-1916, p. 3.

THE NATIVE IN THE COUNTRY

2 . Population and Native Land

Except in the Orange Free State, natives, before 1913, could purchase
and lease land throughout the Union outside of the reserves upon the
same basis as Europeans. They apparently could not, however, acquire
Crown land. In the early days, in a number of cases, different govern¬
ments granted titles to natives who had been friendly to the government.
By these various means, natives have acquired 1,002,039 morgen of land.
To determine the native land in the Union, this area, together with
538,343 morgen of mission land, and 942,280 morgen of Crown land,
should be added to the area in reserves, which makes a total of 13,647,146
morgen or 8.84 per cent of the total land of the Union. In comparison
with this 13,700,000 morgen of land held by natives, nearly 110,00b,000
morgen have been alienated to Europeans. The remainder is composed of
forest reserves or unalienated Crown land, etc.

The total native rural population of the Union of South Africa was
estimated by the Beaumont Commission upon the basis of the 1911 census
at 3,880,514, of whom 2,269,019 live on native land. The remaining
1,611,495 live on European farms. The following table illustrates the
situation.

Distribution of Native Rural Population

Province

Natives Inhabiting Reserves, Etc.

Natives Inhabiting
European Farms

Total

Rural

Popu¬

lation

Reserves

Mission

Lands

Native

Owned

Lands

Crown

Lands

Unoccu¬
pied by
Euro¬
peans

Occupied
by Euro¬
peans

Cape

1 , 149 . 43 *

24.335

39.272

12,524

7,592

240,357

1,473,51*

Natal

479,822

44.535

39,250

37,070

*5,505

357,946

1,044,128

Transvaal

283,144

24,024

40,430

■ana

232,082

408,638

1,059,829

Orange Free

State

17,200

1,768

4,696

279,375

303,039

Union

1,929,604

94,662

325,179

1,286,316

3,880,514

This table shows that while all but 300,000 country natives in the
Cape live in reserves, etc., the majority in the Transvaal and in the
Free State, and nearly a half in Natal, live upon European farms. The
average holding in the reserves is about 5.7 morgen; on the European farms,
it is 12.7 morgen. The population density per square mile on the reserves
is about 52.26 compared with a density of 14.67 for the Union as a whole.

“ Report of the Natives Land Commission, Vol. I, U. G. 19-1916, p. 5.

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

Thus half of the native rural population live on locations of their
own; while the other half live for the most part on land owned by
Europeans.

3. Condition of Farm Natives

According to the report of the Eastern Transvaal Land Committee,
every native family of five requires for subsistence eighteen and one-quarter
morgen of land (four morgen arable and fourteen and a quarter suitable
for pasturage). The land per family of five in the native reserves works
out, according to the 1911 census figures, at twenty-seven and a half
morgen. But in view of the increases of native population since 1911, and
of the fact that large areas of land in Zululand, the Transvaal and
Bechuanaland are totally uninhabitable, it seems certain that at present the
family acreage is at the subsistence minimum and that, even leaving out of
consideration the 1,600,000 natives living on European farms, the satura¬
tion point in the reserves has been reached. 19 This conclusion is borne out
by further evidence.

The condition of the largest group on native land, living in the
Transkei, will be discussed in the next chapter. But on the near side of
the Kei river—the “Ciskei”—is another native area where, instead of
reserving a compact territory for native occupation, the government
early adopted a policy of sandwiching small native locations in between
European farms. Originally, it was intended that each native family
should be given four morgen (eight acres) of land—the amount of land
usually assigned by a chief to his sons. But this was before the days of
heavy taxes, when the soil was virgin and the commonage and forest
rights much greater than today. As a result, few if any Ciskei families
can support themselves on eight acres; in fact, many of them have land
holdings of less than this figure. According to one investigation, “The
peasant farmers are practically all men of middle age or old. They have
in many cases spent their youth in unskilled labor at the mines or in towns.
When about forty or fifty, they settle down to farm their little crofts. It
is natural that they should look upon this step as ‘retiring.’ Moreover, their
earlier experience has not taught them to be progressive farmers. It
is not surprising that they should in most cases look upon their croft as
a place to settle down upon rather than a place to develop.” 20 While
many native holdings are as-large as ten acres, in Kingwilliamstown and

18 Cf. a valuable paper on “The Land Question in South Africa,” by J. D.
Rheinhalt Jones, read at the European-Bantu Conference, February, 1927.

“Report of Commission of Inquiry (Ciskeian Section) into the Social and
Economic Conditions of the Native Peoples, Report of the Proceedings of the
Fifth General Missionary Conference, South Africa, p. 48.

THE NATIVE IN THE COUNTRY

Victoria East they are much less—eight, six, or even four acres. According
to the same investigation, peasant farmers on the rich wheat-growing
land of Herschel can make a living:

“in most places, however, under present conditions, in these very small crofts,
income from land has to be supplemented by income from labor for some em¬
ployer. When that fails there is apt to be serious distress. . . . We have an
expert opinion that on forty acres of reasonably good ground, a man with
steady work and good methods of farming can hope to maintain a family with
some degree of civilized comfort. . . . [But] the ordinary peasant farmer in
most parts of our area is the ten-acre man, and his position is that unless he
has a grown-up son or daughter able to go out to work and supplement his
income by their wages [rir] he must leave his croft and go out himself to
work. The ten acres will not support him.

“It is a situation with grave disadvantages. The young men and women
are thown into the towns and other labor centres for years, far from their
homes, or else the father himself goes, and the young people grow up lacking
his presence and authority. From the economic side the man is apt to fall
between two stools. He is neither a skilled farmer nor a skilled laborer. He
is unskilled both ways. . . .” “

Professor W. M. MacMillan, who has made the most detailed study
of the question, also says,

“It is difficult to compare ancient western Europe with modern South
Africa, but on the whole it leaves no doubt that kafir pastoralism—and we
have done little to teach them anything better—cannot possibly be made to
support, even at. their low standard of living, a population of from fifty to
eighty or a hundred to the square mile. M

"Already the native, even in the reserves, is largely dependent for sub¬
sistence on his wage earning, and it should be borne in mind that the com¬
munal life of the kafir tends more than European individualism to reduce the
whole of the population to a dead level of poverty. Every additional head of
population increases the strain on the common pasture on which all depend.
At the same time their support of one another saves us from having to organize
relief of Kafir destitution. . . . Ocular evidence, both of crowding and of
over-stocking, cannot fail to strike anyone who has seen the triangle of land
between Middle Drift, Debe Nek, and Keiskama Hoek, or the contrast be¬
tween a prosperous district like Mount Currie (Kokstad) and its neighbor

n Ibid., p. 50.

In 1921, a total of 306,107 (including 30,807 women) natives were reported
absent from their homes in Cape Province, Natal, the Transvaal, and the Orange
Free State, at Labor Centers. Report of the Economic and Wage Commission,
cited, p. 327.

“He quotes Schmoller’s estimate that in the days of the Celtic and Germanic
tribes, western Europe supported a population of from twelve to thirty per square
mile.

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

Mount Ayliff. ... In one surveyed border location, equal in size to perhaps
three European farms, there are not fewer than four hundred families of
squatters on the common pasture land. These people must live somewhere,
and there is nowhere else for distraught officials to put them. ... It is well
known from bulletins of the Department of Public Health that typhus has
for years been endemic in a great many parts of the Union. Typhus is due
to dirt, and the native is not naturally filthy in his habits. But washing be¬
comes a luxury when every drop of water for domestic use has to be fetched
four miles or more, and that is the fact about parts even of the Transkei.
It is not so well known that in the Cis Kei at least, in the opinion of a cautious
and experienced doctor, scurvy is definitely on the increase, if not actually
endemic. And scurvy is a disease of malnutrition which is known to take four
months to develop. . .

In the Glen Grey district, there are four thousand landless natives now
on the waiting list for land 24 which means that, including their families,
a total of forty-three thousand people in a purely native district, are
without an independent basis of subsistence. Because of communal native
habits, this landless class depends upon its brother land owners, and thus
depresses living standards all around. “Of any considerable number of
men of any age who have never at any time been out of work, there is
no evidence whatever.” 25

As a result largely of over-crowding, tuberculosis is coming to be the
most dreaded disease in the country. It increases in proportion to the
“length of time and extent to which the resort to Native labor centres have
been taking place, and to the degree of advancement of the tribe from bar-
barbarism to civilization.” 26

M W. M. MacMillan, The Land, the Native, and Unemployment, Johannesburg,

1924, p. 3 -

* Cf. Vol. I, p. 92.

26 MacMillan, “Crowded Native Areas,” Cape Times, April 13, 1926. See also
a number of other articles in the same month on the native question.

26 Report of the Tuberculosis Commission, U. G. 34-19x4, p. 107.

Apart from European district surgeons, the number of whom; is hopelessly
inadequate, the government is doing little in the native areas to promote the
health of the natives. According to a Report of the Committee of Inquiry re
Public Hospitals and Kindred Institutions, “It is perfectly clear that the accom¬
modation at most public hospitals is utterly inadequate, especially in the case
of native bed accommodation. . . . The provision for natives generally leaves
much to be desired and in some cases is nothing short of a scandal.” U. G. 30-

1925, paras. 251, 260. Excellent work is being done, however, by Dr. MacVicars
at the mission hospital at Lovedale. Native patients in the hospital are charged
a shilling a day. Under the auspices of this hospital, a South African Health
Society has been formed, which prints thousands of health pamphlets in different
native languages, and which publishes a Health Society Magazine, in English and
Kafir. It also trains native nurses.

In Mpahlele’s Location in the Transvaal, a Native Hospital was opened as
a result of native efforts. The Chief gave the building, the necessary alterations
of which were effected by tribal funds. The Department of Public Health ar-

THE NATIVE IN THE COUNTRY

It appears that similar conditions exist in most of the native areas of the
Natal and the Transvaal. As we have seen, there are, with two excep¬
tions, no native areas in the Free State.

After hearing the reports quoted above, the Missionary Conference
of South Africa, passed a resolution in 1921, as follows:

“In view of the grave statements contained in these reports that the avail¬
able supply of land for the rising generation of Natives is already practically
exhausted, let alone the requirements for future generations, and that the
large proportion of the Native population who are peasant farmers of small
crofts is living near and often below the poverty line, this Conference desires
to emphasize the importance of all efforts to secure better methods of cultiva¬
tion of the land and distribution of products, and especially the spread of
Native Farmers’ Associations, and the training and employment of agricultural
demonstrators in Native Areas.”

It also believed that native village industries should be established. Apart
from the schools of the Transkei and the Council Farm of the Glen
Grey District, the Union Government has done little so far to improve
native agriculture. The extent to which this is possible, under existing
and circumstances, will be discussed in the next chapter. 27

The Conference 31 so viewed

“with the deepest concern the reports on the health conditions of the Natives
resulting from poverty, lowered vitality, poor housing conditions and poor
clothing. The number of District Surgeons is insufficient to cope with the
health conditions, either in the way of destroying the causes of disease or of
dealing with sickness. . . . The wages earned by many sections of the Native
community, especially in view of the cost of living, are insufficient for the
bringing up of families in decency and comfort, and while this has been borne
with patient endurance, it is the cause of much suffering and unrest. ...” 28

4. Native Squatters

From the standpoint of land, the position of the native living outside
the reserves is more difficult to determine. He usually is either a wage
earner or a squatter on a European farm. Such natives as a rule do
not go up to the mines because on European farms recruiting of labor
for work elsewhere is virtually prohibited. 29 Since it is to the interest
of the employer to keep his labor contented, the native wage-earner on
the Boer farm should be better fed and looked after than the native
in the location who has no guardian. Nevertheless, complaints have been

ranges for visits of the district surgeon. U. G. 34-1922, cited, p. 19. The govern¬
ment is now considering the establishment of a school for native doctors.

17 Cf. Vol. I, p. 98. 25 Proceedings, cited, p. 25. * Cf. Vol. I, n »■*.

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

made. The “I. C. U.” has protested against the condition under which
native farm labor works, especially against the payment of wine rations
instead of wages. A native recently stated that as compared with former
times, natives did not like to work for farmers, although this work would
ordinarily be preferable to work in the mines. This was because: “(a)
When ill-treated, they found that they were absolutely in the power of
the ‘baas’ [‘boss’] and had no umpire to appeal to who could guarantee
them humane treatment, (b) There was no security for them to be
conducted safely home, such as they enjoyed under the Rand recruiting
agencies; hence some had been known to disappear completely either by
death or by becoming lost in the broad country, when attempting to get
back home, in consequence of illness or physical incapacitation, (c) The
rule of the ‘baas’ is so arbitrary and merciless that he imprisons them
even for minor and trivial misunderstandings, (d) They were liable to
sudden evictions at the caprice of the Dutch farmer, and under the Native
Lands’ Act of 1913. (e) There were many cruel and hard taskmasters

who indulged in whipping and other forms of physical chastisement.” 30
No legislation exists in regard to labor conditions outside proclaimed
districts 31 and abuses on farms are less easily detected than in industrial
centers having a concentrated labor supply. It appears also that farm
wages are less than wages in the cities.

Probably the majority of the natives living on farms have not, how¬
ever, been regular wage-earners but rather “squatters,” who secure
land from European owners in return for rent paid usually either in
services, cash or kind. In Natal, natives living on private farms have
paid annual rents varying from one to five pounds, and it appears that the
same rents are paid in the other areas.

Probably the majority of the squatters have farmed the land on a crop-
share basis paying half the crop to the owner—a practice which some
European farmers have found more profitable than working it themselves. 32
In many cases, it appears that farmers have charged excessive rents for the
use of land. Nevertheless, “so strongly are they [the natives] attached

80 D. D. T. Jabavu, The Black Problem, p. 127.

31 Cf. Vol. I, p. 39.

“As one witness said, “. . . one farmer got as his share from the labour
and so forth of the natives, nearly 400 bags of mealies, which, taken at the market
value of about 7s.6d., would be £150. Then he had the right to the mealie
stalks for the winter for his own stock, and it would be almost impossible to place
a value on this. The farm was two separate pieces of about 560 morgen, valued
at £5, that is, £2,800. For allowing three families to reside on his farm and
to graze their stock for the year he got £150 in value. The boys got one-third
share and he got two-thirds. In this case a tremendous lot of ploughing had been
done, and it was not a very favorable season either. As a general rule the native
gets a half share and the farmer a half share. . . .” Testimony of Mr. Harley,
Report of the Natives Land Commission, Vol. II, U. G. 22-1916, p. 2.

THE NATIVE IN THE COUNTRY

to such lands and the graves of their ancestors that they would rather
submit to any terms than be forced to leave. They know that the rents
they have paid cover many times the market value of the land itself, and
they would welcome any arrangement by which they could purchase the
land for themselves, or become the tenants of the Government with a
prospective right of ownership.” 33 The system has been unsatisfactory
from the standpoint of the native, since he has had no security of tenure.
Moreover, if he paid his rent in the form of service, he was obliged
to work several months out of every year for the landlord. 34 In 1905,
the Native Affairs Commission declared that “such occupation is per¬
nicious to both races, encouraging the far-reaching evil of absentee land¬
lordism on the one side and on the other barring the progress of the
Native by insecurity of tenure. Other objections are that the system
restricts the supply of labour; that it fills up with Natives much land
which would otherwise be better utilized and developed; and that it
leads to the absence of due control over them.” 35 Moreover, such natives
live virtually without the protection of officials which exists in native
areas. In order to restrict these evils, most of the South African colonies
attempted to limit the number of native families, usually three to five on
any one farm, regardless of its labor requirements. 36 It does not appear
that this legislation, in the Transvaal at least, was enforced. In the
Cape, however, the number of squatters was fixed by a Location Board
according to the size of the farm; beyond this limit, no native could live
on European property unless the owner secured a license as a private
location. By this means it was hoped to secure a more even distribution
of labor. The Native Affairs Commission in 1905 recommended that
no natives other than bona fide servants of the owner should be allowed
to live on private lands, except under government control either through
tenancy agreements or on licensed locations. It does not appear that any
Union legislation to this effect was adopted until 1913.

33 Minute by Sir W. H. Beaumont, cited, p. 10.

“The Natal Native Affairs Commission reported: “Where a tenant is re¬
quired to render service, either in lieu of rent or in reduction thereof, the rate
of wages is comparatively low, ranging from 3s to 15s a month, and generally
for a period equal to six months out of the year. In a large proportion of cases,
this service is not continuous, but intermittent, at the pleasure of the landlord,
according to the exigencies of his operations. This description of agreement has
the effect of locking up much labor, as the tenant can only leave the farm for
short, and probably uncertain periods, and at the will of the landlord.” Cd.
3889, cited, p. 29.

6 Cd. 2399, cited, p. 22.

“The “Plakkerswet,” or Squatter’s Law No. 21 of 1895. Laws of the Trans¬
vaal, 1839-1910, Vol. I, p. 329. Native Locations Amendment Ordinance, 1899.
The number of natives on a private location was limited to forty. Cape Laws,
Vol. Ill, p. 4143.

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

Previous to 1913, natives in the Cape and Natal could acquire and
hold land by freehold or lease without regard to race. 37 In the Transvaal,
natives could acquire land provided it was held in trust by the government.
Only in the Orange Free State were natives debarred from holding land.
In 1912, European farmers became alarmed at the increasing acquisitions
of farms by natives, especially in the Transvaal. Sometimes a native would
purchase a farm with savings from his labor on the mines. In other
cases, purchases would be made collectively by a tribe. By this means,
natives were beginning to penetrate European areas. They would pur¬
chase a tiny holding from a European landlord which in some cases
adjoined another European farmer. From the latter’s standpoint, the
native farmer and his family were socially undesirable neighbors. In
much the same way, Polish farmers in New Jersey and Japanese farmers
in California have irritated farmers with a different standard of living,
with the result that many have sold out.

5. Native Land Act , 1913

In order to stop these indiscriminate purchases and also to control squat¬
ting, the Union Government enacted the Native Land Act of 1913. 38
This Act temporarily forbade the natives to purchase land outside of
existing native locations, defined in the schedule to the Act, which amounted
to about ten million morgen, without the special consent of the govern¬
ment. 38 That is, natives were temporarily forbidden to purchase land in
ninety-two per cent of the area of the country. A land commission was to
be appointed to recommend additional areas in which natives would be
permitted to purchase land to the exclusion of Europeans. In other words,
the purpose of this act was to bring about a form of territorial segregation
between white and black.

The act also prohibited new agreements whereby the native secured the
use of land through the payment of rent, whether in cash or in kind.
The native could, however, continue to live on European land, provided
he rendered ninety days’ service as a laborer for the European owner,
every year. But natives residing on European land in the Transvaal and

87 Except in the locations where land was communally held or under the Glen
Grey system. Cf. Vol. I, p. 91.

“Statutes, cited, 1913, p. 436.

“Europeans could not buy land in native areas—a comparatively unimportant
restriction.

The 1905 Commission was of the opinion that “it is necessary to safeguard
what is conceived to be the interests of the Europeans of this country, but that
in doing so the door should not be entirely closed to deserving and progressive
individuals among the Natives acquiring land.” Consequently, it recommended
that “purchase by Natives should in future be limited to certain areas to be de¬
fined by legislative enactment.” Cd. 2399, cited, p. 26.

THE NA TIVE IN THE COUNTRY _ 83

Natal could not thus be turned off by the government. Apparently the
owner could do so. Many European farmers at once took advantage
of this provision to oblige squatters to sign labor agreements. But many
of the latter refused, preferring to move into already over-crowded cities. 40

Regarding these measures as another step in reducing the native popula¬
tion to serfdom, the Native African National Congress sent a fruitless
delegation to London. Missionary bodies also protested that the Act
was unjust. 41

6. The Beaumont Commission and Local Committees

Following the passage of this Act, the government appointed what
came to be known as the Beaumont Commission, to define native purchase
areas. The report of this Commission, delayed by the outbreak of the
war, was finally submitted to parliament in 1916. It proposed that about
8,500,000 morgen be set aside as areas where natives could purchase land,
making the total area which eventually might be occupied by native owners
about 18,324,647 morgen. 42 Thus it proposed to set aside about 13.3
per cent of the land for five million natives, reserving the remainder for
one and a half million Europeans. But even so, European sentiment was
that the proposal was too generous. 43

40 For a partisan statement of the hardships and bitterness caused by the
expulsion of squatters, Cf. Sol. T. Plaatje, Native Life in South Africa, 1914, Ch.
XIV. A writer in the Round Table says, “There is no doubt that a great deal
of unwise intimidation took place after the 1913 Act. And natives who were
unwilling to place themselves under contracts of service were given notice to
quit, and found themselves unable to enter into contracts with other farmers as
squatters. It may be asked, ‘Why did they object to become servants?’ And the
answer is obvious. They felt that they were surrendering the small measure
of independence to which they had attained. They were placing themselves and
their families entirely at the disposal of their master. It is true that before 1913
they were subject to eviction if they did not comply with the wishes and the
demands of their masters, but at any rate they had the result of their own
labour in the shape of coin with which to barter. It gave them some measure
of independence.” Round Table, No. 34, 1919, p. 405.

41 The Fifth General Missionary Conference of South Africa passed this reso¬
lution: “While recognizing that the Natives Land Act of 1913 seeks perma¬
nently to secure to Native occupation the Reserves and locations in the several

Provinces, yet on the other hand

“1. Whereas certain provisions of the Act impose extreme hardship on that

large section of Natives who are compelled to live as farm tenants or squatters,

and

“Whereas the fact that the schedules of the Act defining white and black areas
have not been confirmed, makes it extremely and unnecessarily difficult for Natives
to purchase land,

“2. Resolved, that this General Missionary Conference of South Africa earnestly
requests the government to investigate, through the Native Affairs Commission,
the deplorable conditions that have arisen under the operation of the Act, with
a view to affording early relief from the injustice suffered by Natives in certain
sections of the Union.” Proceedings, cited, p. 24.

43 Report of the Natives Land Commission, U. G. 19-1916 in Vol. I, pp. 43 ff.

41 Cf. the testimony printed in Vol. II of the Report of the Commission.

84 THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

Instead of approving the Beaumont areas, a committee of parliament
asked the government to refer the question to a committee appointed by
each of the four provinces, a suggestion which was followed. These
committees cut down the Beaumont areas, except in the Cape. 44 In
Natal, they were reduced from 3,840,341 to 934,340 acres. 46

No action was taken, however, upon the recommendations of the local
committees until 1927. 46

Despite this failure to establish native purchase areas, it was the policy
of the government to grant permission to natives to purchase land in the
areas recommended by the Beaumont Commission. The courts held, more¬
over, that the Act did not apply in Cape Province, in view of the fact that
Cape natives were entitled to the franchise. 47

Thus only about eight per cent of the area of the Union is native land.
Outside of this area, except for the Cape, a native cannot buy land without
consent; and the government took no action before 1927 to establish areas
where such purchases might take place which, under the Beaumont Com¬
mission’s recommendation, would cover an additional six per cent of the
Union. The shortage of native land is not due to a shortage of land
throughout South Africa as a whole. It is due to the fact that at present
this land is locked up in large European holdings, totalling, as we have
seen, nearly 110,000,000 morgen in the Union. 48 Nearly ten million acres
of this land are held by large land companies, especially in the Transvaal,
with a view to ultimate mining exploitation or to closer settlement. 49

7. European Land

For the most part, European land is held under freehold title without
any obligations of development. Holdings of twenty thousand and
forty thousand morgen are not unknown. Land has been obtainable in

44 Report, Local Natives Land Committee, Cape Province, U. G. 8-1918, p. 19.

46 Report of the Local Natives Land Committee, Natal, 1918, p. 15. This Com¬
mittee, proposed, however, that 2,809,147 acres should be set aside as neutral areas
where either Europeans or natives could purchase land.

46 For the Proposed Land Bill, Cf. Vol. I, p. 140.

"Between 1913 and 1921, some fifty-five tribal, forty-three communal, and
twenty-four individual purchases of land were negotiated by natives with the
approval of the governor general. All land tribally purchased must be regis¬
tered in the name of the Minister of Native Affairs in trust for the tribe. Tribal
levies for purchase of land have been authorized. These tribal purchases have
not, however, always been successful. Purchasing land, as a rule, on install¬
ment, natives lack a sense of responsibility in completing the purchase. Report of
Native Affairs Department, 1919-1921, U. G. 34-1922, p. 12.

“There are only 942,280 morgen of unalienated Crown land. Natives Land
Commission, cited, Vol. I, p. 4.

“Cf. Minority Report of the Economic and Wage Commission, cited, pp. 308,

365-

THE NATIVE IN THE COUNTRY

such large quantities and on such easy terms that the farmer of South
Africa in most cases has lacked the capital to engage in intensive agricul¬
ture. “In most cases, the South African farmer invests too much in
acquiring his land, probably because he wishes to avail himself of the
unearned increment due to the abnormal increase in the price of land
found in young countries.” 50 Less than five per cent of the land alienated
to European farmers is under cultivation to-day. 51 This condition is
partly due to transport difficulties and the absence of an adequate water
supply. But it is also due to the mere extent of these holdings as a result
of which the average South African farmer, finding it impossible to de¬
velop his entire acreage intensively, has become a pastoralist, keeping cattle
and sheep, or has rented much of his land to native tenants. 52 He has
signed bijwoner agreements with poverty-stricken white men, many of
whom are inefficient farmers. 53

This system of land tenure has, therefore, not only deprived the native
of an independent means of existence, but has operated to increase the
Poor White class and to hamper the agricultural expansion of South
Africa. 54

Moreover, few farmers are subject to the income tax, 65 and no taxes

60 H. D. Leppan and G. J. Bosnian, Field Crops in South Africa, Pretoria, 1923,
p. 16.

“ Year Book, cited, p. 458. This gives the number of acres under cultivation
as 10,691,278, which is about 2,350,000 morgen.

“Writing of the early Boer farmers, Sir G. Cory says: “The extent of the
country seemed illimitable, and the farmers helped themselves liberally to the
land. Their cattle runs were probably never less than 5,000 or 6,000 acres, and
afterwards certainly more, for which, when it could be recovered, a yearly
rental of two pounds ten shillings was paid until 1732, and five pounds there¬
after. In consequence of the increasing extent of country over which the white
population were becoming scattered, and the increasing difficulty of control by
the authorities at the Cape, endeavors were made from time to time to prevent
further dispersion. . . . But the burghers felt they could treat all such orders
with contempt, knowing well that there was no longer any possibility of the
penalties being enforced. These farmers, or Boers, thus came to lead a semi-
nomadic existence, wandering about from place to place with their flocks and
herds as better pastures and more water tempted them.” G. E. Cory, The Rise
of South Africa, Vol. I, p. 13. It appears that they have retained these 'traits
until recently.

““During the post-war boom, many farms in this [Free State] as in other
areas of the Union, changed hands at prices beyond their normal value, thus
rendering it almost beyond the capacity of the land in times of normal or approxi¬
mately normal prices to produce a reasonable return on the money invested. . . .
Consequently, the bijwoner had to go and was replaced by the Native laborer.”
Census, 1921, cited, p. 40.

“The effect of the tariff policy on this question is discussed in Vol. I, p. 65.

“The Commission in regard to the taxation of Incomes derived from Farm¬
ing Operations, U. G. 3-1919, p. 27, says: “There is a large number of farmers
who own their own land, much of which is far in excess of the capital at their com¬
mand, as they are, as a rule, men of small capital who are only able to maintain a
struggling existence at or about the exemption limit. Neither of these two classes

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

worthy of the name are levied on undeveloped land. In 1913, the Small
Holdings Commission 66 reported:

“The taxation of farm land in the Transvaal is so light as to be almost
negligible. . . . The method adopted for taxing land is not based upon any
principle, but is purely arbitrary. A freehold farm of, say, 3,000 morgen
is taxed at ten shillings per annum, while any division of that farm from
one morgen to 1,499 morgen in extent is subject to a tax of five shillings
per annum.”

“The very lightness of the burden is in itself an inducement to anyone
possessed of the requisite amount of capital to purchase land, not with any
intention of looking to the produce of that land and the results of his labor
to bring back to him his capital with interest, but secure in the knowledge
that the interest may be paid by farming the land to natives, and that the
increasing demand for land will insure the eventual return of an increased
capital.

“The existing method of land taxation is therefore conducive to specula¬
tion and to the creation and maintenance of fictitious values, out of proportion
to the true values, and encourages the locking up of land to the detriment of
the people. We are convinced that, while other causes are to be reckoned
as contributory factors, the principal cause in the sphere of government action
why, notwithstanding the increasing number of people who desire to take up
land for cultivation, large areas of land remain idle, uncultivated, and
sparsely populated, is to be found in the absurd and antiquated method of
land taxation.”

The Commission’s suggestion that land tax legislation be enacted in
South Africa similar to that adopted to combat the same evil in New
Zealand deserves consideration.

Thus, the natives of South Africa have been subject to a large number
of restrictions. Holding only eight per cent of the land of the country,
they have been obliged to seek work in European centers. The passage
of the color bar legislation blocking employment outside, operates to throw
them back into their reserves.

Moreover, the legislation forbidding natives to buy land outside the
reserves makes the native’s problem of existence more difficult than ever.

(*. e., farmer or bijwoner) contributes anything whatever to the income tax of-
the country.”

The commission goes on to say:

“It is repeatedly being proved to demonstration that the successful farmer
is the farmer whose acres are relatively few in comparison with what we have
been accustomed to in South Africa as a whole.”

69 Report of the Small Holdings Commission, (Transvaal), U. G. 51-1913, p. 43.

w At this time, the Transvaal native paid a tax of two pounds ten shillings.

THE NATIVE IN THE COUNTRY

Before discussing the rising stream of protests against this situation, we
shall discuss the system of administration in the Transkei—a territory
which has, to a certain extent, been shielded from the effects of European
industrialism.

CHAPTER 6

THE TRANSKEI SYSTEM

In part of the Cape Province, natives and Europeans live side by side,
acquire land, and exercise the franchise upon the same terms. Resident
magistrates, having both judicial and administrative power, govern Euro¬
peans and natives al'ke. 1

But in the Transkei—an area covering sixteen thousand square miles
lying between the Kei river and the Natal border—a policy not of
Identity, but of Differentiation, has been followed. 2 With the exception
of about three thousand square miles, the European farmer has been
excluded from this area, and the native is allowed to live to himself. As a
rule, the territory is not subject to legislation passed by the Union Par¬
liament. Instead, its laws are made by government proclamation, while
the territory is administered by a special body of magistrates. In other
words, the Transkei is a native state, having an administration separate
from that of other parts of the Union. The natives of the Transkei have,
however, the franchise upon the same terms as other Cape natives. 3

Beginning with 1833, the Cape Government attempted to define its
relations with the tribes along its eastern borders through a series of
treaties in which the respective chiefs promised to preserve order and
protect white visitors. 4 Following the Eighth Kafir War, Sir George
Cathcart adopted a policy under which the people should continue to be
ruled by their chiefs. But his successor, Sir George Grey, without giving
the Cathcart plan a trial, inaugurated a system of gradually displacing the
chiefs by European magistrates. In the Acts of 1865, 1877, 1879, 1885,

*Cf. Rules and Regulations for the Guidance of Civil Commissioners, Resi¬
dent Magistrates and others. Cape of Good Hope, 1904, Ch. III.

a E. G. Brookes, The History of Native Policy in South Africa from 1830 to the
Present Day, Ch. IV.

3 The Act of August 15, 1879, annexing the Transkei provided that no Colonial
Acts could apply unless expressly provided in such act or unless extended by
proclamation. Cape of Good Hope Statutes, Vol. I, p. 1523. But with the estab¬
lishment of Union, laws passed by parliament came automatically to apply to
the Transkei unless an exemption is made.

Implied in the acts of annexation, the power to issue proclamations for this
territory was expressly granted in an Act of 1897, Statutes, cited, Vol. Ill, p.
3846.

4 Cf. Brookes, cited, p. 35.

THE TRANSKE1 SYSTEM

and 1894, the areas now included in the Ciskei and Transkei were annexed
by the British Crown. 5

I. Administration

While the Ciskei was placed under regular Cape administration and
laws, the Transkei was given a separate constitution. It became an
autonomous area, at first under three chief magistrates, but now under
one such official, who governs the territory from its capital at Umtata.
The chief magistrate is responsible to the Department of Native Affairs
of the Union Government at Pretoria. He is assisted by an assistant
chief magistrate and by a secretary and treasurer of the council.

The principles underlying the Transkei system were first embodied in
an act passed by the Cape Parliament in 1894, providing for the “Disposal
of Lands and for the Administration of Local Affairs within the District
of Glen Grey and other Proclaimed Districts.” 6 This act provided for:

(1) The establishment of a native district council, composed of
members chosen partly by the government and partly by the natives;

(2) the levy of a local tax rate by the council to be expended on the
district; (3) a special system of individual land tenure; 7 (4) a labor
tax requiring every male native to pay ten shillings a year, unless he had
been in service beyond the borders of his district for at least, three out of
the preceding twelve months. The opposition of the natives to this tax,
designed to assist European employers, led them originally to oppose the
other features of the Glen Grey Act. The tax was repealed in 1905—
largely because it had led natives to desert their districts wholesale. 8

The Transkei is divided into twenty-seven districts, at the head of
each of which is a European magistrate—one for about every 36,600
people, in contrast to Nigeria, where there is a commissioner for every
100,000 people. However, the population of the Transkei districts greatly
varies. The visitor is impressed by the high quality of the men holding
these positions.

Although the million inhabitants of the Transkei are divided into
various tribes, such as the Griquas, the Pondos, the Tembus and Fingos,
the Transkei Government, in imitation of the French, ignores tribal divi-

5 The Ciskei is the area lying west of the Kei River. Ibid., Vol. I, pp. 961, 1524,
Vol. II, p. 2251. Cf. also F. Brownlee, Transkei Native Territories, Historical
Records, Lovedale, 1923.

0 Statutes, cited, Vol. Ill, p. 3372. Prof. Brookes attributes the origin of the
system embodied in this Act, not to Cecil Rhodes, but to Charles Brownlee, Sir
Walter Stanford, Sir Henry Elliott, and other local magistrates. The History of
Native Policy, cited, p. 109.

7 Cf. Vol. I, p. 91.

8 Statutes, cited, Vol. Ill, p. 4835. The Glen Grey Act was extended to the
Transkei by Proclamation No. 352 of 1894 and Proclamation No. 152 of 1903.

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

sions and traditional chiefs. A district is divided up into locations, without
respect to tribes, each having about a thousand inhabitants for whom a
native headman, usually nominated by the people but appointed by the
Transkei Government, is responsible. There are 916 headmen in the
Transkei who receive stipends ranging from twelve to thirty-six pounds a
year, depending upon length of service. At the end of twenty-five years,
they may receive a pension. The small size of stipends has been frequently
criticized. 9

While about twenty of the traditional chiefs are now headmen, they
are not recognized as chiefs and they do not possess their former power.

Except in Pondoland, all judicial authority is now exercised by the
European magistrates who may impose a year’s imprisonment, 15 strokes,
or a hundred pounds fine. Sentences of more than three months or fines
exceeding twenty-five pounds are subject to “review as of course.” Civil
cases between natives are tried according to native law, sometimes deter¬
mined with the aid of native assessors. Criminal cases, however, are tried
according to a Native Territories Penal Code, enacted in 1886, as a result
of the studies of a Cape Native Laws and Customs Commission. 10 Appeals
may be taken to the Native Appeal Court,, consisting of the chief magis¬
trate and two magistrates as assessors. 11

Largely because of the experience of Natal, which codified Native Law
in 1891, the Transkei Administration has been opposed to the codification
of native custom. In 1921, the Transkei Council carried a motion, despite
the opposition of some magistrates, asking the government to appoint a
commission with a view to codifying native custom in the Territory. In
its reply, the government said that “native law is customary, and it would
be incongruous with its essence to deprive it of its elasticity.” 12

While the administration has justified giving complete judicial power
to European magistrates on the ground that the chiefs are unfit to exercise
this power, the present system is not entirely satisfactory. Native asses¬
sors have been accused of taking bribes. European magistrates, over¬
worked with administrative duties, are obliged to try hundreds of civil
cases a year, many of which involve intricate questions of native law with
which native chiefs are presumably more familiar than Europeans. More¬
over, the method of enforcing the judgments of the magistrate court is

* Proceedings of the Transkei Territories General Council, 1924, p. 99.

10 Statutes, cited, Vol. II, p. 2349.

11 The more serious cases are tried by the Eastern Districts Local Division of
the Supreme Court. Hitherto, juries have always been composed of Europeans, but
the natives now demand that native jurymen sit on native cases. Proceedings,
1925. P-. 93 -

Ibid., 1921, p. 71; 1923, p. xx. The South African Native Affairs Commission,
1903-1905, also declared against codification. Cd. 2399, para. 232.

THE TRANSKEI SYSTEM

open to criticism. The European “messengers” who execute such judg¬
ments collect delinquent taxes and serve notices, receive fees (amounting
to two and a half shillings out of every ten-shilling delinquent hut tax
collected), which give them an income in several cases of between one
and two thousand pounds a year. In other parts of the Union, these court
officials are officers of the Department of Justice and are paid on a salary
basis.

It appears also that the natives would prefer to have their civil disputes,
mostly concerning marriage and property, tried by chiefs rather than by
European magistrates. This matter is discussed in another connection
later. 13 In its 1926 session, the Transkei Council passed a resolution ask¬
ing that headmen should be given jurisdiction in minor offenses, with power
to levy fines not exceeding two pounds, subject to an appeal to the magis¬
trate. 14 If the government sees fit to grant this request, it can not logi¬
cally decline to grant headmen power to try civil disputes.

In addition to their judicial power, the magistrates collect the taxes
and maintain order, with the aid of the Transkei police. In fact, a magis¬
trate is the sole governing authority in his district.

2. Glen Grey Land Tenure

The European magistrate has supplanted the native chief not only as a
judge, but also as a guardian of the land. Before the annexation of the
Transkei, the natives lived under a regime of communal tenure in which
the land was controlled by the chief. One of the objects of the Glen
Gray Act of 1894 was t0 do away with communal tenure in favor of a
new system, based, to a certain extent, upon European conceptions of
property. The administration undertook to assign “one plot of land
to one man,” sufficient for the support of a family, which was estimated to
be four morgen, or nine acres. Three-tenths of each location is set aside
for individual allotments and the remainder as commonage, where the peo¬
ple may graze their herds. In return for such an allotment, the native
is obliged to pay a quit-rent fixed at fifteen shillings. The title which
the native receives for such land from the government contains a number
of restrictions. The land cannot be alienated nor mortgaged without
the Governor-General’s consent, nor is it liable to execution for debt. The
government may, however, forfeit the land in case the owner engages in
rebellion, is twice convicted of theft, fails to occupy the land beneficially
for a period of three years, or pay his rent for two years.

Before actual titles can be registered, a survey is necessary. But a

“Cf. Vol. I, p. 103. 14 Proceedings, cited, 1926, p. 89.

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

survey is an expensive and tedious business. Between 1898 and 1925,
only seven out of the twenty-seven districts in the Transkei were surveyed.
At the present time, about fifty thousand titles are registered at Umtata.
The cost to a native holder amounts to about four pounds, five shillings.
Because of the expense, the Government has—for the time being—stopped
new surveys.

In the non-surveyed districts of the Transkei, a native wishing land
goes to the location headman who gives him an allotment under the control
of the magistrate, who may issue to the holder a “Certificate of Occupation."
Because of the absence of a survey, many disputes over the boundaries of
these holdings have arisen. While under the titles issued in the surveyed
areas, property may be inherited according to native law, under these
provisional certificates in the non-surveyed areas the property reverts to
the government at the death of the holder.

In 1908 a Natal deputation which visited the Transkei 1 sported
that the system of individual land tenure had promoted an economical occu¬
pation of the land, imparted to the occupier a sense of ownership, and
exempted him from injustice due to the favoritism of chiefs; and that it
had also increased government revenue by fifty per cent of the former
hut tax. 15

Undoubtedly, the object in introducing individual tenure into the
native territories was to give the holder an incentive and opportunity to
work which a native under communal tenure presumably does not have. A
number of Transkei magistrates do not feel, however, that the system has
had any such effect. That is to say, individual tenure in the surveyed
areas has not produced a better type of agriculture than the semi-com¬
munal system of the unsurveyed areas. Hundreds of holdings have
reverted to the government due to failure to pay rent. Natives who hold
titles still cling to communal conceptions of property. 16 The introduction
of individual tenure has, on the other hand, weakened the power of the
chiefs; while it is rapidly producing among the younger sons a landless
class, since the holding, scarcely large enough to support one family, passes
only to the eldest son. No land is now available for new allotments to
younger sons who under the communal system could have claimed part
of the communal heritage. At present, they are forced out into the
European labor market, unless they find other means of support, until a
forfeited allotment of land becomes available.

16 Native Affairs in Natal, Cd. 4328 (1908), p. 36.

10 Cf. Address by Lt. Col. E. H. W. Muller, on the Administration of the Trans-
keian Territories, 1924, p. 11.

THE TRANSKEI SYSTEM

3. The Bunga System

While the administration of the Transkei is in the hands of a Euro¬
pean authority, the natives exercise some control through an interesting
council system. In each of eighteen districts in the Transkei is to be
found a district council, composed of the magistrate and six native mem¬
bers, two nominated by the government, and four by the people. In some
districts, location headmen nominate the latter members, but in the
majority of districts, this is done by election. These district councils
meet quarterly to discuss such questions as road maintenance, dipping,
local husbandry, and agriculture. They have no actual power, however,
over administration, and no funds. But they serve as a basis of repre¬
sentation for the General Council, to the agenda of which they may also
submit items. The General Council frequently refers a resolution, upon
which there is a difference of opinion, back to the district councils. 17

At the present time, it is doubtful whether the membership of the
district council is large enough to make it an organ of effective discussion.
Perhaps for this reason, elections for membership in the past have been usu¬
ally cut and dried; only one set of candidates has as a rule been presented. 18

Since 1904, these district councils have been represented in what is
known as the Transkeian Territories General Council, or the “Bunga,”
which meets annually at Umtata. It is composed of three representatives
from each district, two being nominated by each district council and one
by the government, making a total of fifty-four native members. 10

District councils and members submit items for discussion before the
council meets. The agenda, the draft estimates, and other material are
printed in the Kafir language and are circulated to members before the
session opens.

Meetings of the Bunga are held in the Bunga meeting hall, a simply
constructed building which was originally a church. The chief magis¬
trate is the presiding officer, and the eighteen district magistrates are
non-voting members. While the native members occupy chairs arranged
in an oval around the room, the European magistrates sit at a long table
inside the circle of chairs, where they take an active part in the debates
and are invariably appointed chairmen of select committees, which are
frequently appointed.

17 Cf. Proceedings, cited, 1922, p. 24.

18 Report of Native Affairs Department, 1912, U. G. 33-1913, p. 39.

18 Paras. 12 and 13, Proclamation 152 of 1903, printed in a pamphlet, Procla¬
mations and Regulations relating to the Constitution and Functions of Councils
in the Transkei, igo 5 .

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

4. The Conference of Magistrates

Largely as a result of the participation of these Europeans, who con¬
stitute one-fourth of the total membership of the body, the Transkei
Council conducts its activities upon a higher plane, perhaps, than any
other native body in Africa, excepting the Colonial Council in Senegal.
Nevertheless, native opposition to the presence of the magistrates has
arisen. The time of the magistrates is more valuable than that of the
native representatives; consequently, they are sometimes impatient at the
length of native speeches, and the presiding officer frequently urges them
to restrict debate. The magistrates do not, however, force their views
on the natives. For instance, when natives expressed opposition to the
suggestion of a magistrate that the daily reading of the minutes be dis¬
pensed with, the magistrates did not press the point. 20

According to the proclamation of 1903, “after discussion, the repre¬
sentatives of the several districts present, shall, by voting, record their
opinions upon the subject under consideration, and the Chairman, after
consultation with the other Magistrates present, shall decide upon the
action to be taken.” To give effect to this provision, it is the custom to
hold a conference of magistrates following each Bunga session. Some¬
times the magistrates disagree with the resolutions of the Bunga, and
in such a case the Secretary of Native Affairs usually accepts their opinion. 21
Inasmuch as the conference virtually met in secret, the natives gained the
idea that it vetoed many more of the Bunga resolutions than it actually did.
Consequently, in 1921, a native member introduced a motion which would,
in effect, have abolished the conference of magistrates altogether. 22 A
native councillor declared, “The people were saying the reason why their
resolutions were not adopted was because the magistrates cut them
down when they remained behind after the Council had risen. . . . That
matter was the sole topic of conversation amongst the natives when they
went home.” 23 The motion was finally amended to the effect that the
recommendations of the magistrates’ conference should be published with
the proceedings of the council and that the conference should consist of an
equal number of magistrates and native members. 24

No action having been taken, a councillor at the 1925 session again

30 Proceedings, cited, 1925, p. 109.

31 But in 1923, the government overruled the conference in favor of a council
resolution asking that a week’s leave on pay be granted road foremen. Ibid.,
1923, p. xxi.

33 Ibid., 1921, p. 117. ” Ibid., p. 119.

94 Ibid., p. 137. In its comments, the government stated that it was “unaware
of any instance in which the recommendations of the Conference have disregarded
what Magistrates deemed to be the interests of the Natives.” Ibid., 1922, xviii.

THE TRANSKEI SYSTEM

moved that the recommendations of the magisterial conference be pub¬
lished along with the council minutes. 26 The mover also declared that
the natives really did not want the conference to discuss their resolutions
at all; and that several districts now outside the council system declined
to come in because of the conference of magistrates. Several of the magis¬
trates, however, declared that the natives needed the magistrates’
help. One native said that those natives who thought they could dispense
with this aid should “go to a place called Haiti, which was still a backward
place, where the blacks ruled the whites.” It was finally agreed
that the resolutions of the conference should be published with the minutes
of the Council, while the Chief Magistrate invited the natives to attend
sessions of the conference as spectators. 20 Only two natives availed them¬
selves of the privilege in 1925.

In the past, a spirit of good-will has usually prevailed in the relations
between magistrates and native members. But with the growing confidence
and racial consciousness of the native, there is a danger that feeling
between the two sections of the Bunga will develop. While the services of
the magistrates must be recognized, the fact remains that their presence
may, in the future, hinder the development of a feeling of responsibility
in the natives which they might otherwise assume if the Council were of
wholly native composition, as in Basutoland.

5. Powers

Now what are the powers of the Bunga? Technically, it is only an
advisory body, but in practice it has much more control over legislation
applied to the territory than has, for example, the Basutoland Pitso. 27
When the administration wishes to enact a proclamation, its practice is
almost invariably to lay the draft proclamation before the Bunga. “The
Department at present endeavors to secure the benefit of the advice of the
Council in all matters affecting the Transkeian Territories before taking
action.” 28 Resolutions in regard to such proclamations and to any other
matters, having been voted by the Bunga, are discussed by the magistrates’
conference. They then are sent, along with the comments of the conference
and of the chief magistrate, to the Native Affairs Department at Pretoria.
The department sends replies to these communications, which are published
in the Bunga proceedings. It may frame proclamations, issued in the name
of the governor-general, carrying these resolutions into effect. 20 It is

K Ibid., 1925, p. 97. M Ibid., 1925, pp. 46, 113. 71 Cf. Vol. I, p. 180.

** Proceedings, cited, 1921, p. xxxiv. One exception to this rule was the abolition
of the Transkei Divorce Court which, however, affected Europeans more than na¬
tives. Cf. Ibid., 1925, p. 230.

“Cf. Ibid., 1920, p. 164. Cf. Draft Proclamations on Formation of Co¬
operative Societies, Ibid., 1926, p. 34.

96 THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

safe to say that the department never enacts legislation applying to the
Transkei to which the Bunga has expressed its opposition; while as a
rule it consults the Bunga before taking any important action affecting
the territory.

Much of the attention of the Bunga is devoted to amending customary
law, particularly in regard to seduction and lobolo questions. 30 But in
such matters, most members are conservative, as was shown by the over¬
whelming defeat of a proposal for registration of native marriages in
1922—a practice unknown to native custom. 31 Nevertheless, the “lib¬
erals” scored a victory in the 1926 session when the council defeated a
motion requiring the consent of the girl’s father before a marriage could
take place. 32 The government, too, makes sure that native opinion def¬
initely favors a change in native custom before it enacts legislation to this
effect. Thus it insisted in 1920 and 1921 that a resolution of the Council
recommending the abolition of the custom under which a husband may
recover lobolo upon the death of his wife, be referred to the district
councils. Only after it was assured that the majority really favored such
a change, did it issue a proclamation to this effect. 33

In addition to native custom proper, the council passes resolutions in
regard to stock, land, dipping, native agriculture, and dozens of other
subjects afFecting the life of the territory. One hundred and thirty-one
items appeared on its agenda in 1925.

Moreover, the Bunga serves as a forum of native opinion in regard to
Union native policy. In 1909, the Bunga attacked the color bar provisions
of the Act of Union. In 1923, it protested against the employment of
European instead of native labor in the construction of a Transkei railway,
despite the statement of the chairman that such a protest would be “practi¬
cally a vote of censure on the Government.” 34 In 1925 it likewise pro¬
tested against the Color Bar Bill, and the increased duties on cotton
blankets. 36

6. The Estimates

Perhaps the greatest power of the council is over the expenditure of the
local rate of ten shillings and quit rent, 36 which now produces a revenue
amounting to about 114,000 pounds annually. The Union Government
bears the expenses of general administration, such as the salaries of magis-

30 Lobola is the payment, usually of cattle, made by the prospective husband to
the family of the girl he wishes to marry.

31 Proceedings, cited, 1922, p. 181. 33 Ibid., 1926, p. 75.

33 Ibid., 1921, p. 84; Ibid., 1921, xxxvii; Ibid., 1922, xv; Proclamation No. 189
of 1922. Even then the change was criticised by natives, see Ibid., 1923, p. 127.

™ Ibid., 1923, p. 143. 36 Ibid., 1925, pp. 114, 228; Ibid., 1926, p. 212.

33 Cf. Transkeian Proclamations, 1913-1916, p. 124.

THE TRANSKEI SYSTEM

trates and the expense of the police. The local rate is used for the direct
benefit of the Transkei natives.

Expenditures are authorized in annual estimates, prepared by the
government on the basis of suggestions which come in from the district
councils. The Bunga refers the estimates and the report of the treasurer
upon the expenditure of last year’s estimate to a select committee and then
votes the estimates chapter by chapter—a procedure which gives rise to
much debate.

The largest expenditures go to public works—some forty-seven thou¬
sand pounds a year. Out of this sum, the council pays the salaries of a
European engineer, several assistants, and a road inspector. While the
trunk roads of the Transkei are maintained by the Cape Province,
the Bunga is responsible for the construction and maintenance of the
smaller roads (including bridges) as voted at the suggestion of members.
This work, likewise paid out of the budget, is in the hands of the European
engineer.

7. The Bunga Farm

Large sums—amounting to about forty-four thousand pounds a year
—are also expended on the improvement of native agriculture. With this
money, the Bunga not only employs a European director of agriculture,
a supervisor, and a number of agricultural demonstrators, but it also
supports two schools of agriculture, the oldest of which was established at
Tsolo in 1913. European principals and lecturers at these institutions are
supported by council funds. The Tsolo farm has an area of one thousand
eight hundred morgen. To be admitted, a candidate must have passed
Standard V (about the fifth grade) and be over sixteen years of age. The
number of students at Tsolo is limited to fifty, and many are turned away.
The course is for two years. Four hours of each day are devoted to
lectures; and the remainder to practical work. The lectures embrace
twelve different subjects, such as agriculture, veterinary science, stock
breeding, botany, dairying, forestry, and book-keeping. In order to get
in touch with the more elderly farmers, short courses, lasting only four days,
are held in the winter. Lectures are interpreted into Xosa. The farms
also maintain stock, largely to improve native breeds, and they also sell
high quality seed.

Between thirty and forty per cent of the natives who follow the two-
year course become farm demonstrators, while the others return to their
homes. The job of a farm demonstrator is to teach natives to improve
their agricultural methods. One demonstrator serves about seven hundred
square miles; his method is to plow and care for half of a native field, allow-

THE HATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

ing the native to till the other half by the old method. When harvest
comes, the native has a visual demonstration of the superiority of plowing
and cultivating over his method of sowing broadcast and using only a hoe.
These demonstrators are responsible to a European supervisor. Since
1913, the Tsolo school has produced about fifty demonstrators who have
not only been eagerly employed in the Transkei, but also in the Ciskei,
and as far north as Tanganyika and the Belgian Congo.

The Bunga supports several experimental farms and wattle plantations
(the wood of which is used for building huts). It has appropriated sums
to remedy soil erosion and to erect sheep tanks, dams, and fences. Un¬
der its auspices, agricultural shows are held. At the Umtata show in
1925, there were over two thousand entries.

In 1926, the council took a further step in aiding native agriculture
by approving a draft proclamation providing for the establishment of
native cooperative societies to furnish its members with cooperative tools,
stock for breeding purposes, etc. 37

As a result of these various efforts, some improvement in native methods
of agriculture has been made. Ten years ago, no land was plowed
in the winter for the purpose of retaining moisture. But many natives
now engage in winter plowing so that they can sow after the first spring
shower instead of waiting for heavy rains in the summer. As a result of
better cultivation and improved seed, the average yield of native maize
which is now from one to three bags (two hundred pounds) an acre, is
being increased to eight and ten bags. Some improvement in stock has also
been made, but progress here is extremely difficult because of the “lobolo”
custom. As one head of stock is as good as another for this purpose, the
South African native has an incentive merely to increase the number, and
not the quality of his cattle.

8. Medical Work

Finally, grants amounting to two thousand six hundred pounds are made
to hospitals which provide care for native patients. 38 According to the
Union Public Health Act, 39 responsibility for dealing with matters affect¬
ing public health is imposed upon the local governing bodies, which would
include the Transkei Council. The Union Government pays pound for

37 Proceedings, cited, 1926, p. 143.

38 Until 1926, the council appropriated eighteen thousand pounds a year to
improve the salaries of native teachers in the Transkei, the main expense of
whom was borne by the provincial government. The Transkei appropriation
came to an end with the establishment of the Union grant-in-aid. Cf. Vol. I, p. 119.

38 Statutes of the Union of South Africa, 1919, p. 184.

THE TRANSKEI SYSTEM

pound the amounts expended by local bodies in controlling infectious
disease. It appears, however, that the members of the Transkei Council
have been more interested in the eradication of stock than human disease. 40
So far council expenditures have not equalled Union expenditures
on public health in the Transkei. While there are twenty-seven surgeons
in the territory, the medical service for the native population is inadequate.
As a result of the ravages of typhus, the council appointed a Committee on
Public Health in 1921; 41 but it does not appear to have made a report.
In 1922, the council also passed a resolution urging the government to
adopt more stringent measures in combatting typhus fever. 42 At the same
time, a resolution was passed requesting the government to instruct district
surgeons to visit periodically the remote parts of their district.

Most of the so-called “red” natives (who smear their faces with
ochre and wear red blankets) consult, in times of sickness, either witch¬
doctors or herbalists, some of whom effect remarkable cures by the use
of herbs. In Natal, the government licenses such “doctors”; and mem¬
bers of the Transkei Council have made proposals that the government
do likewise in their territory some nine times since 1908. 43 The govern¬
ment, however, asserts that it is almost impossible to distinguish between
a witch-doctor whose influence has been evil and a genuine herbalist.
While it has not been able therefore to license native doctors, it has agreed
not to prosecute a herbalist practising without a license.

As yet, there are no native dispensers in the Transkei, similar to
those found in Uganda, the Belgian Congo, and French West Africa.
The establishment of a school to train such dispensers to serve not only
the Transkei but other parts of the Union is of urgent importance. 44
Plans for such a school are now being made.

Out of a total appropriation of 113,990 pounds by the Bunga in
1926, a total of 92,903 pounds is expended directly on native welfare. 45
Between 1903 and 1924, the Transkei Council authorized the expenditure
of 1,409,129 pounds, of which 411,633 pounds went to education; 417,212
pounds to agriculture, and 386,063 pounds to public works. 46 As' one

"The experience of government doctors in trying to dip native clothes to
eradicate typhus has been discouraging, because of native apathy. Proceedings,
cited, 1922, p. 196.

41 Ibid., 1921, p. 63. 43 Ibid., 1922, p. 108. 43 Ibid., 1926, p. 95.

** A hospital return of native patients is published in the Proceedings annually.
During 1925, there were about eleven hundred patients in six hospitals. Ibid.,
1926, p. Ixiii.

"43,465 pounds on agriculture; 46,838 pounds on public works; 2,600 pounds
on public health. The remainder goes to the expenses of the district and general
councils.

“Ibid., 1925, p. Ixi.

100

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

native remarked at the 1926 session, “Through the Bunga they had got
various things which they would otherwise never have got. . . 47

9. Dipping

In the past, East Coast fever has ravaged the native herds of the
Transkei, as well as of other parts of South Africa, destroying the chief
source of native wealth. The white man’s science discovered, however,
that cattle could be saved from this disease by dipping them in a chemical
solution. In 1913, the administration thereupon issued a proclamation
making the dipping of cattle compulsory in the Transkei. This involves
the construction of dipping tanks and the organization of dipping squads.
The expense of dipping operations is not borne, however, by the general
Transkei estimates, but by a special stock rate which produced a revenue
of 41,239 pounds in 1924-1925. 48 1,230,802 cattle are recorded on the

dipping registers. 40 Except for the Idutywa district, where a native com¬
mittee conducts and finances dipping operations, dipping is under the direc¬
tion of the magistrates, and dipping funds are in the hands of the Transkei
treasurer.

While all of these different operations are directed by European offi¬
cials, responsible only to the chief magistrate, the Bunga does exercise a
certain amount of control by debating the estimates and the annual reports
submitted to the Bunga by the engineer, the agricultural director, the
heads of the two agricultural schools and plantations, as well as by the
treasurer. Members also may ask searching questions, which the chief
magistrate is, like a minister in the House of Commons, usually obliged
to answer.

IO. Demand for Native Self-Government
But inasmuch as the chief magistrate and the administration have the
last word, the Transkei has a representative, and not a responsible govern¬
ment. As a result, native members continually demand more and more
control over and participation in actual administration. In the 1909 session,
a native member, in moving the reduction in the amount of money spent on
the roads, said, “This money was collected from people who were poor,
and they expected the Council to look after all disbursements carefully.
In the Report of the Surveyor there was no detailed statement of the
roads constructed during the year. . . . They should have a clear report,
giving details as to the cost of construction work done during the whole

41 Proceedings, cited, 1926, p. 203.

48 Transkei Proclamations, 1913-1916, pp. 19, 115-117.

** Proceedings, cited, 1926, pp. lxiv, lx.

THE TRANSKEI SYSTEM

101

year. . . 80 In the 1910 session, another councillor asserted that coun¬
cillors had no say whatever in the appointment of officials, and he wished
these words inserted so that they, as the disbursers of the people’s money,
might have a word on the spending of money in salaries. 81

They have repeatedly asked that a greater number of natives be given
responsible positions in dipping operations. In 1923, a councillor asked if
there was any objection to people of a district taking over dipping opera¬
tions and employing their own officers as was done in the Idutywa district.
In reply, the government stated that the district councils were the bodies
“to be entrusted with the conduct of dipping operations in conjunction
with the officers of the government.” 82 The natives, interpreting this
reply to mean that the government would continue to control these
operations as previously, introduced another motion expressing “great alarm
and disappointment” at the decision. If the system of native control had
worked well at Idutywa, it should work well elsewhere. 83 An amend¬
ment was finally passed, stating that while the Council did not wish to
cast any reflection upon the present management of dipping, the district
councils “should be given the fullest opportunity for cooperation.” 84
This same question has been debated at other sessions; in 1926, one
member said that it was over thirty years since dipping was first introduced
and the white people were “still employed as Dipping Supervisors and
the Native people employed as Dipping Foremen. . . .” 83 In 1924,
a resolution was passed asking that the appointment of all foremen and
laborers connected with dipping be subject to the approval of the district
councils. 88

The Transkei Administration has shown its sympathy toward these
requests by appointing a large number of native road overseers, dipping
and plantation foremen, and agricultural demonstrators. But it has
declined to go to the lengths demanded by native members of the Bunga,
on the ground that natives lack the qualifications for more responsible
positions.

These different activities—dipping, road construction and scientific
agriculture—were unknown to native life before the advent of the white
man. In this sense, they are European activities; and the process of train¬
ing natives to direct these activities must necessarily be long. Especially
in connection with the eradication of disease, extremely high standards
must be maintained, since the presence of disease in the Transkei will
affect the white population in neighboring areas. Already European

Proceedings, cited, 1909, p. lix. “ Ibid., 1910, p. 56.
Ibid., 1923, p. 182. “Ibid., 1923, pp. 184, 188.

Ibid., 1923, p. 74.
Ibid., 1926, p. 127.

102

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

farmers are urging that the Government Veterinary Department take
over the dipping operations of the Bunga on the ground that greater
efficiency is necessary to protect neighboring European herds. 67

On the other hand, the more fundamental duties of government, such
as the settlement of disputes, the maintenance of order, and the collection
of taxes, have been performed in one form or another by native authori¬
ties since the beginning of tribal existence. However inadequately native
authorities performed these duties in the past, they accumulated an experi¬
ence and a tradition which are lacking in these newer activities, involving
the application of European science. The visitor to the Transkei is struck
by the fact that the administration is endeavoring to train native personnel
to perform these latter duties, but is doing nothing to develop natives
in such political matters as the administration of justice, local self-
government, and the handling of revenue, which are the basis of all
organized society, and with which tribal- authority was thoroughly familiar
before the coming of the European.

In view of the fact that the Hertzog government has impliedly estab¬
lished the goal of ultimate self-government for native areas, the Transkei
authorities are now directing their attention to this problem. The
development may take one of two forms: (i) the government may impose
more and more responsibility upon educated native clerks working in the
offices of European magistrates, with the appointment of native magistrates
as an eventual goal: or (2) it may restore power to the traditional chiefs,
subject to the supervision of European magistrates; it may give the
chiefs more and more authority in accordance with their growing intelli¬
gence and ability. Apparently the Transkei Government leans toward the
first alternative. On account of early wars, it has long been the policy of
the Cape to destroy tribal authority. But if it ignores tribal forms, the
Transkei will go counter to native policy in most of the other British
territories in Africa and in the Belgian Congo. 58 Only the French follow
the non-tribal policy, and the French are now turning, in theory, to the
tribal system. 59 As we shall learn elsewhere, a native official whose only
qualification is a mediocre European education cannot command from the
natives the respect necessary to all successful governments, which is volun¬
tarily given by the natives to traditional authority.

11. Increased Power of Chiefs

Moreover, the natives of the Transkei and other parts of the Union
are demanding increased power, not for the educated young men, but for

BT Proceedings, 1924, p. 91. 58 Cf. index, “native policy.”

“Kenya also leans toward the non-tribal policy, Cf. Vol. I, p. 363.

THE TRANSKEI SYSTEM

103

their chiefs. In 1913, 1916, 1917, and 1921, the Bunga passed reso¬
lutions asking the government to consider the status of hereditary chiefs
in the territory. 00 One councillor said, “To the Native people a Chief
was like the sun—a sacred thing made to give light to the world.” Another
said, “Today a Chief was given his land by a constable from the office
of the Magistrate. That was very bad law.” A deputation was appointed
to take up the question of hereditary chiefs with the Native Affairs Com¬
mission. In a discussion on the rights of chiefs in 1923, a councillor
said, “Chieftainship was mentioned in the Bible.” ... He warned the
Chiefs that when Native Chieftainship died, they would be displaced
and whether they were B.A.’s or Professors they would know nothing of
Native customs. In Basutoland the children at home were taught the
Native customs, and as in the olden days, the Chieftainship in Basuto¬
land still remained and progress had been made. Today [in the Trans-
kei] no Chiefs were respected because Chieftainship was dead, because
they had no power. 01 In 1926, similar opinions were voiced. One
speaker said: “God created a king amongst the people. . . . After God
had created a king He gave him power to govern his people by the laws
he made.” But the chief magistrate had taken away the powers of the
chiefs. Now the chiefs and headmen could only use their mouths in
governing the people, and the people did not listen. A European magis¬
trate supported this opinion by saying that the “headmen were in the
unhappy position of being responsible for anything that was wrong in
their locations, without having any power to put it right.” 02 Another
magistrate said that one of his great aims was to build up a strong head-
manship, because he believed a lot of the duties at present entrusted to
European officials ought to be done by the headmen themselves. 03

A leading Pondo Chief at Libode, Victor Poto, has built a court
house where he decides disputes between natives despite the fact that the
government does not recognize his tribunal. He also administers a Tribal
Improvement Fund, composed of contributions from his people. In a
plaintive petition to Prime Minister Hertzog at the time of his Transkei
visit, the chiefs and people of Western Pondoland asked that this “En-
yandeni Court” be recognized by the government. “We are not asking
that anybody should be compelled to bring his case before our courts, but
when people voluntarily bring their cases before our courts they should
be prepared to abide by our judgments if they do not appeal.” The Pondo¬
land General Council, organized in 1911, declined to enter the Transkei
General Council because the Pondoland Council is composed of local

M Proceedings, cited, 1921, p. 46. n Ibid., 1923, pp. 52, 56.

63 Ibid., 1926, p. 86. 83 Ibid., 1922, p. 122.

104 THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

members nominated by the Paramount Chiefs—a tribal system which
the Transkei Council ignores. 64 Various native delegations also informed
the Native Affairs Commission that they wished the native councils, estab¬
lished in new areas, to be organized on tribal lines. 65 Chiefs are
recognized by the African National Congress and by the Bantu Presby¬
terian Church. 66

Similar sentiments were expressed at a native congress at Bloemfon¬
tein called by the Native Affairs Commission in 1924. One speaker
said that nowadays the chiefs were figureheads with no authority. For
small offenses which could be tried by the chief or his council, natives
were dragged to court. The only way to enable parents to control their
children was by adjusting the relations between the people and their
chiefs. Another speaker said, “the Government should . . . give the
Chiefs greater powers.” 67 The Commission on Native Churches re¬
ported that tribalism was one reason for the establishment of separate
native churches, and cited the example of the National Church of the
Tembus. The goodwill between many parent churches and secessionists
was due to the fact that the members put racial considerations above the
religious point of view. “The tribal authority is far more potent and
binding than the Church connection.” 68 Thus despite the long-established

M Cf. Proclamation No. 169 of 1911, Proclamation, cited, p. 123. The de¬
mands for native courts have already been discussed. Cf. Vol. I, p. 91.

00 Report of the Native Affairs Commission, 1922, U. G. 36-1923, p. 3.

80 Cf. Proceedings of the First General Assembly of the Bantu Presbyterian
Church of South Africa, 1923, p. 22.

87 Report of the Native Affairs Commission, 1924, U. G. 40-1925, pp. 24, 32.

88 Report, U. G. 39-1925, pp. 27, 29. While it looked forward to the eventual

disappearance of tribal rule, the Natal Native Affairs Commission showed its
necessity for some time to come in the following statement: “It may be asked if it
can be regarded as either reasonable or feasible that a people accustomed for ages
to the patriarchal system, the leading feature of which is a paternal despotism,
can be successfully ruled by a system wholly remote and based on loyalty to, and
reverence for, an ideal or notion of an abstract character. We do not look for
sympathy from our public officials, but only integrity and a sense of duty and
responsibility in administering laws which we believe to be just and suited to
our conditions and ideas of life. But, with a people accustomed to, and com¬
prehending no other'than, personal rule, it is essential that the magnetic and

powerful influence of human condescension and sympathy should not be ignored
as indispensable to their successful control. . . . Formerly, the tribe was their

cosmos, and tribal patriotism their highest altruism. Each thought and acted

as a tribal unit in the enlargement of one tribe, or the preservation of another,
the stimulus of which was varied by the excitement of hunting and the chase.
. . . Having now no collective aim in life, without a ready and effectual means
of expressing their opinions, the future uncertain, and, with the prospect of further
burdens, need it excite surprise that the past, with its lingering trail of con¬
sciousness, should still influence their thoughts and reveal itself in a desire to
return to old habits and modes of life? We never stopped to think that our
system had become too impersonal for the masses, or to see the pathos in a simple
people looking for fatherly advice and assistance from a purely judicial officer.”
Report of the Natal Native Affairs Commission, Cd. 3889, p. 11.

THE TRANSKEI SYSTEM

105

presence of European civilization, the natives insist on clinging to their
institutions.

Unless the Transkei Government begins to grant natives actual partici¬
pation in administration, either through native assistant magistrates or
through native chiefs, it may soon be confronted with a cantankerous body,
such as exists in India or the Philippines today, capable of making a lot
of trouble, but having no responsibility. In view of the wishes of the
natives, the experience of other parts of Africa, and the impossibility of
successfully imposing European institutions upon a native people suddenly
and against their will, it is to be hoped that the Government of South
Africa will give serious study to the question of strengthening the judicial
powers of chiefs and, wherever possible, reorganizing native districts and
district councils upon a tribal basis.

12. The Economic Factor

The ultimate success or failure of the Transkei experiment will depend
as much upon economic as political factors. A nomadic people seldom
develops a high degree of civilization, and the progress of the Transkei
is hampered by the fact that its male population is largely nomadic in
character. 09 Urged on by economic pressure and the recruiting system,
almost every male spends intervals of his life working at the Rand mines
or in Natal.

When the Census of 1921 was taken, about eighty-six thousand men
and four thousand women in the Transkei were away from home at
European labor centers—a proportion presumably kept up throughout
the year. 70 Estimating the male population at two hundred thousand
(one-fifth of the total) this would mean that nearly one-half of the adult
males are away at work. In view of the stringent physical requirements
and of the term of six to nine months which the natives serve at the
mines at Johannesburg, it would appear that nearly every able-bodied
young man goes to the mines sometime during the year.

This ebb and flow of labor is due to the fact that under present
methods of agricultural production, the Transkei is not self-supporting
economically. In 1912, the combination of drought and East Coast fever
produced a famine in this area, as a result of which mealies (corn), the
staple native food, rose in some places to fifty-five shillings a bag. 71 In
order to save families from starvation, the government authorized recruiters
to increase advances to prospective laborers from two to five pounds. Even
under normal conditions, the Transkei is obliged to import mealies,

“This is also true of Basutoland; Cf. Vol. I, p. 170.

'“Census, cited, 1921, p. r.j.7.

11 Report of the Native Affairs Department, 1912, U. G. 33-1912, p. 14.

106

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

grown in most cases by European farmers, in order to feed its population.
In 1924-1925, traders imported fin excess of exports) more than 147,000
bags. 72

Thus in order to pay for food, to obtain money for lobolo, and to pay
debts contracted to European traders, most young men are obliged to
seek employment outside the territory, even if they possess six morgen of
land. But owing to the growing population of the Transkei, which now
has a density of about 60 per square mile, and the system of land tenure,
a landless class is being produced which also must secure outside em¬
ployment. “Young men are growing up in hundreds in every location;
soon they will marry and settle down, but there is practically no land for
them, no building lots, no garden lots.” 73

While the schools of agriculture and farm demonstrators are making
strenuous efforts to improve agriculture, formidable obstructions are in the
way. One of them is that the natives waste a prodigious quantity of grain
in kafir beer. Moreover, the holding of beer-drinks frequently leads to
fighting and immorality. The government has attempted to control beer-
drinks; but with the disappearance of fighting, they have become one of
the few amusements of the people who see no reason for giving them up. 74

Moreover, the Transkei is over-stocked. There is 1.64 head of stock
to each morgen of grazing land, although experts believe that each head
needs some six acres. 75 As a result of this cattle economy, much land
must be used for grazing purposes which might otherwise be turned into
cultivation, while cattle tracks and the eating of shrubbery by cattle pro¬
duce erosion which is rapidly causing much of the Transkei land to de¬
teriorate. 76 In view of the strong affection of the native for his cattle and
of the lobolo system, which places a premium on quantity instead of
quality, it will be extremely difficult to supplant cattle economy by in¬
tensive cultivation. The difficulty is increased by the fact that when
the native acquires a little money at the mines, he finds that it is much
more easy and more profitable to invest it in additional cattle than to
improve or introduce new methods in agriculture. His women can look

” Proceedings, cited, 1926, pp. Ixv, Ixvi. In 1923, a net importation of 146,030
bags was made. Ibid., 1924, p. Iv. In 1924, however, the net importation fell
to some 55,000 bags (of 200 pounds each).

73 Report of a committee, Report of the Proceedings of the Fifth General Mis¬
sionary Conference of South Africa, 1921, p. 63.

u While a regime of prohibition of European liquors is not applied in the
Transkei, natives are so-called prohibited persons who may purchase such liquor
only after receiving a permit from a magistrate. Proclamation 254 of 1923. In
1912, the illicit liquor traffic in the Transkei, particularly of brandy, became
grave. U. G. 33-1913, p. 17. Conditions are now much improved.

78 Cf. Vol. I, p. 76.

78 See the report of the Committee on Soil Erosion, Proceedings, 1926, p. 40.

THE TRANSKEI SYSTEM

107

after cattle while he is away at the mines more readily than they can
after any ambitious agricultural project. At the most, he stays home only
one or two years, after which he returns to the mines, staying six or nine
months. Under this system, the native thus acquires more and more
cattle, which makes the economic problem more difficult than ever to solve.

It appears that the poverty of the Transkei native is partly due to the
exactions of European traders. Many of these traders decline to do a
cash business with native customers. In return for some tobacco or mealies
the traders exchange goods, but at a higher price than if cash had been paid.
Natives have repeatedly brought this matter before the Bunga. In the
1926 session, one Councillor said: “A man wanted to go and pay his
taxes, and he threshed some mealies, and sent them to the shop, because
he wanted some money for the purpose of paying his taxes. The trader
said he would not buy the grain if the man was not buying something
from the shop. The man explained that he wanted some money to go
and pay his taxes, and the trader then said if that was the case he
would not buy the grain. The traders had formed themselves into a ring,
and said they would not pay cash for grain.” 77

Some traders have been known to charge one hundred per cent a month
interest on sums loaned to natives. While the Usury Law has been
extended to the Transkei, it does not apply to amounts under fifty
pounds. Moreover, traders have also been repeatedly accused of cheating
natives by dishonest weighing, a practice which has now been checked
by the extension of the Weights and Measures Act, which provides for
the inspection of scales. All these practices operate to discourage native
production. Native feeling is so high that in some districts natives have
talked of boycotting traders.

Part of these abuses is due to the fact that the government limits
trading sites to a distance of five miles from each other. While this
limitation is in theory imposed to prevent the entrance of an unduly
large number of Europeans into the Transkei, the result has been also to
grant the traders admitted—there are now about six hundred and forty in
the territory—certain monopolistic privileges. The importance of these
privileges is lessened by the willingness of natives to walk five miles from
one trader to another. But despite the rule that one trader shall not
own more than one station within twenty miles, some traders in the
Transkei have, by indirect means, acquired as many as twenty trading
posts. Through the I. O. U. system, and cash advances, traders who are
also labor recruiters induce many natives to go to the mines who otherwise
would prefer to stay at home. Traders pay the government a quit-rent

77 Proceedings, cited, 1926, p. 66.

108

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

of only one pound a year, a sum which seems to be inadequate, and which
goes into the Union instead of the Transkei funds. But they also pay
for certain licenses to the Provincial Government. Some of these abuses
could be eliminated by the enactment of truck legislation requiring traders
to pay cash, such as has been enacted in the Belgian Congo 78 and else¬
where. The establishment of cooperative societies providing cooperative
market facilities would also give the natives an incentive to produce crops
for commercial purposes which they do not at the present time have.

The effect on the Transkei native of going to work in the mines is
much the same as on any other country native. 79 He contracts disease and
becomes familiar with European vice. He loses respect for his elders
who remain at home; if he has a family, his children grow up without
proper care; and his wife often becomes the prey of the older men staying
behind. From the social standpoint, he comes to regard the Transkei,
not as a community of which he is a living part, but merely as a resting
place where he can spend his savings and engage in dances and beer-
drinks until it becomes necessary to go out to the mines again.

This unsettled form of existence indirectly accounts for the fact that
population in the Transkei does not appear to be increasing rapidly. While
at one time the population doubled itself in twenty-five years, according to
the 1921 census the native population in the Transkei increased from'879,-
126 in 1911 to 938,990 in 1921—an increase of about seven per cent for ten
years—much less than one per cent a year. 80 In four districts, the popula¬
tion showed an actual decrease, while in Tsolo the population increased
only 2.59 per cent over 1911, due largely to recurrent drought which
“led to the impoverishment of the Natives and to unprecedented numbers
leaving the Territories in search of work. As a result of loss of
cattle, young children in thousands of kraals were left without milk.”
The Census believes that “the comparatively small increase in the non-
European population” in certain of the Transkei districts has been due
to typhus and tuberculosis which is the result of over-crowding and of
contact with men from the mines. 81

Strangely enough, natives in the Transkei have realized more acutely
the effects of labor emigration than the European magistrates. Motions
have frequently been introduced in the Bunga protesting against the re¬
cruiting of young boys, and also against the recruiting of boys attending
schools. One speaker said that children left their fathers and went to
recruiters, who sent them to Johannesburg, because they wanted money.

M Cf. Vol. II, p. 521 70 Cf. Vol. I, p. 48. 80 Census, cited, 1921, p. 247.

81 Ibid., p. 39. In 1918, a hundred thousand Transkei natives died of influenza.
Ibid., p. 43.

THE TRANSKEI SYSTEM

109

He had been to the places where those children were sent, and had
seen little boys who had been working underground coming out in tears,
and they had asked him please to try and get them away. 82

On the other hand, the administration favors working at the mines
not so much out of sympathy with the needs of the mine owners, as in
the belief that the economic existence of the Transkei depends upon this
source of income. The Chief Magistrate said, in 1923, that he knew
that the men did not go to the mines for the love of the thing, but
because they were forced by economic circumstances to go and earn money.

He took it that those interested in these territories and the country
generally would use their influence to get native laborers to go forward,
and to get them to continue to go forward. He was told that in one
district there was a trader with seven hundred native names on his book,
and that none of those showed any desire to go forward. If they did not
want to go forward now, when they did want to go they might find there
was no room, “because their places would be taken by Portuguese na¬
tives. . . It was perfectly clear that a continual supply of labor to the
mines was of vital importance to these territories, and it was their business,
and the business of their people to take advantage of the opportunities by
constantly sending up people who were “not in a position to pay their way,
pay their taxes and debts.” 83 A committee appointed to consider the best
methods of augmenting the supply of native mine labor, at the motion
of a magistrate, recommended that every trader should be granted a recruit¬
ing license, that recruiters should have the right to proceed in a criminal
action against laborers having received an advance who failed to appear
for service; that headmen be authorized to collect “voluntary” laborers and
convey them to the local representative of the Native Labour Recruiting
Corporation, in return for a fee of five shillings for each laborer; and
that advances under certain circumstances be increased from two to five
pounds. 84 The Official Conference also supported this report, which was
sent by the Secretary of Native Affairs to the Director of Native Labor. 85
If actually enforced, these provisions would come close to installing an
indirect system of forced labor in the Transkei.

At the next session, a councillor moved that the period of service at
the mines be reduced from nine to six months. But the chairman stopped
discussion, saying that this length of time was a vital necessity. 86

It thus appears that the Transkei Administration exerts some form
of persuasion to get the natives to go to the mines. As long as natives

Proceedings, cited, 1922, p. 78. Cf. also Ibid., 1921, p. 158.
Ibid., 1923, p. 47. ** Ibid., 1923, pp. 27-29.

Ibid., 1924, p. xxix. 86 Ibid., 1924, p. 104.

110 THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

spend half their lives away from home, the improvement of native agri¬
culture and native society in the Transkei will be extremely difficult to
bring about. But if this migration to the mines should be discontinued,
natives at home would be unable to pay their taxes and to buy food.

Consequently, the Transkei appears to be held in a vise from which it
probably will extricate itself only when the Union land problem is solved.

CHAPTER 7

NATIVE ADMINISTRATION
I. The Judicial System

Only a word need be said about the administration of native areas
apart from the Transkei. In the Cape proper administration is in the
hands of magistrates who within their districts also look after the Euro¬
pean population. A Chief Native Commissioner at King William’s Town
supervises administration in the native districts west of the Kei. In the
Transvaal, magistrates responsible to the Union Department of Justice
have controlled native affairs as ex-officio native commissioners, assisted,
in more densely populated areas, by native sub-commissioners who are
officers of the Native Affairs Department. In the Orange Free State,
the same system has prevailed, but in the Harrismith and Th’aba ’Nchu dis¬
tricts, magistrates have been assisted by “supervisors” who are officers of the
Native Affairs Department. In Natal, a chief native commissioner, rep¬
resenting the Native Affairs Department, supervises native administra¬
tion in the districts, assisted by location inspectors. Thus until recently
part of the officials in charge of administration—the magistrates—were
responsible to the Department of Justice. While it usually consulted the
Department of Native Affairs in appointing magistrates to native districts,
the system was not entirely satisfactory, and under the 1927 Act to pro¬
vide for the Management of Native Affairs, all such officials are to be
placed under the Department of Native Affairs. This department is a
branch of the Union Government, having a permanent Secretary of Native
Affairs. It is responsible to the Minister of Native Affairs who is also
the Prime Minister. A Permanent Native Affairs Commission, of which
the Prime Minister is chairman, and which contains at least three perma¬
nent members—all Europeans—advises on matters of native policy. 1

Throughout the Union, native headmen are employed by the gov¬
ernment at varying salaries, the rates of which have been criticized as in¬
adequate. While in the Cape and the Orange Free State all judicial
power is exercised by European magistrates, in the Transvaal and in Natal,
the jurisdiction of native chiefs has been recognized. In some areas, such

1 Cf. Vol. I, p. 190.

112

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

as the Glen Grey District, the Transkei, and Pondoland, native councils
have been established. 2 In other districts, such as Eastern Pondoland,
and in the Transvaal, native trust funds, derived from voluntary levies
and employed for the benefit of native communities, have been set up.

In Natal, native administration has been controlled by a Native Code—
probably the only civil code of its kind on the continent of Africa. 3 This
code defines the powers and duties of the supreme chief (the governor),
the chiefs of tribes, district headmen and kraal heads. It also defines the
personal status of natives, i.e. kraal heads or subjects of kraal heads. It
further defines rules governing inheritance and succession, marriage, guar¬
dianship, divorce, and “Lobolo”—a kind of dowry, which is limited to
twenty head of cattle for chiefs and ten head for ordinary natives. Medi¬
cine men and women are allowed to practice for gain if licensed. The
code also contains certain provisions in regard to land tenture, native
courts, and procedure. 4 The amazing feature of this code is that it can
be amended only by act of parliament, a procedure which has proven in¬
flexible. Changes in the code to fit new native needs have been made, when
made at all, only with the greatest difficulty. 6 Cases under the code are
finally decided by a Native High Court, now composed of four European
judges. 6

2. Compulsory Labor in Natal

Natal for a time also followed the policy of compulsory labor for
public works. The governor, as the supreme chief, had power under the
code 7 to call upon all natives to supply labor for public works or for
the general needs of the colony, without limitation of time or of number.

3 Discussed in detail in Ch. 6.

3 Cf. Vol. I, p. 96.

4 Statutes of Natal, Vol. II.

5 See para. 63 of the Report of the Natal Native Affairs Commission, Cd. 3889,

The Natal Native Code could only be amended by the legislature which did

not know native conditions and which either refused to enact measures which
natives desired or imposed measures to which they were opposed. Report of the
Natal Native Affairs Commission, cited, Dc. 3889, p. 20. Commenting on the
inaction the Natal Native Affairs Commission declared, “The total disregard
of native feelings and morals for so long cannot but excite surprise and supplies
a forcible illustration of the wisdom of more sympathetic treatment, and the
necessity for some means, more prompt than ordinary Parliamentary action, to
grant relief or change of custom.”

In Natal educated natives may secure letters of exemption from the operation
of this code and come under European laws. The Natal Native Affairs Com¬
mission advocated the principle as favorable to the individual and “as one of
the most powerful political devices for the disintegration of tribalism.” Ibid.,
p. 21. For the same principle in the French colonies, Cf. Vol. I, p. 946.

* Report of the Decisions of the Native High Court, Vol. XXVI.

7 Art. 36, Natal Native Code.

NATIVE ADMINISTRATION

113

The workings of this labor system were described by the Natal Native
Affairs Commission as follows:

“Chiefs are requisitioned to supply men according to the size of their
tribes, and the number in service averages about 3,000 on an engagement of
six month’s duration. This apparently large number is employed in the
maintenance of nearly 6,000 miles of roads in Natal and Zululand, and con¬
stitutes about fifteen per cent of the total number of young men in Natal
Locations alone. They receive an ample ration of maize meal, are provided
with tents and huts, and receive a wage of twenty shillings a month. There
is no proper system of rotation or limitation of calls, much being left in the
way of selection to the whim, caprice, and partiality of the Chief and his
indunas, who are known to call out the same men over and over again, while
favorites, and those who bribe them (often substantially) escape alto¬
gether. . . .”

The commission recommended that no one should be liable to be called
out for more than two or three periods of service and those who could
prove private service should be exempted. Despite the fact that the
laborers were well-treated and received a high wage, the work was “in¬
tensely unpopular, mainly because of its compulsory nature.” 8

Following the rebellion of 1906, the system was abolished. South
Africa is one of the few territories on the continent which does not now
employ compulsory means in securing labor for public works.

3. Taxation

Until 1925, taxation varied with each province, ranging from twelve
shillings in the Cape to two pounds in the Transvaal. 0 With the excep¬
tion of taxes from the Transkei and a few other similar areas, this money
went into General Union Revenue, from which the native got very little
direct return. These taxes were also criticized as being excessive. The
1921 Missionary Conference called the attention of the Government to
“the serious and growing inequality of taxation levied upon the Native
people, chiefly through the unsympathetic administration of Provincial and
Municipal Councils.” It continued:

“This Conference is firmly convinced that these grave inequalities of
taxation constitute a serious and unjust burden upon the Native people
of the more heavily taxed districts, many of whom are living within the

8 Cd. 3889, cited, p. 39.

0 In the Cape, the natives were liable to a ten-shilling hut tax, and a two-
shilling Divisional Council Rate. In Natal, they were liable to a hut tax of
fourteen shillings, and a dipping rate of five shillings. In the Transvaal, the
tax was a poll tax of two pounds, reduced to one pound if the native worked
for a European employer for ninety days. In the Free State, the tax was one
pound.

114

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

actual border line of absolute poverty, and that they tend only to create
a sense of injustice, dissatisfaction and discontent, which increases the grow¬
ing difficulties of Native Administration.” 10

As this discussion shows, native policy in the Union has varied accord¬
ing to the province concerned. During the last ten years the South African
government has therefore attempted to introduce new legislation which
will bring about uniformity in native policy and will also ameliorate the
conditions under which the natives in the rural areas, particularly, live.

4. The Native Affairs Act, 1920

Following the industrial troubles of 1919, a step in thi direction was
taken by the passage of the Native Affairs Act, 1920. Inspired by the
example of the Transkei, this act provides for the establishment of local
councils of not more than nine members and with an official chairman
in areas set aside by parliament. These councils may provide for such
subjects as roads, water supply, the destruction of noxious tveeds, hos¬
pitals, education, and afforestation. They may acquire land and levy a rate
not exceeding one pound (deducting the regular tax.) The government
may establish a General Council over a number of areas having the same
powers as the local councils. Likewise the government may call native
conferences at Pretoria and elsewhere where native questions may be dis¬
cussed. These conferences are now annually held. Not the least important
provision of the act creates a Permanent Native Affairs Commission, of
which the Minister of Native Affairs (the Prime Minister) is chairman,
together with three members appointed by him. In practice, the Prime
Minister never attends the meetings. The duty of this Commission is to
consider any matter relating to the general conduct of native affairs. In
case the Commission and the Minister disagree, the papers are placed
before parliament. 11

5. Native Taxation and Development Act, 1925

A second step of great importance was taken in the passage of the
Native Taxation and Development Act in 1925 12 which provides that
every adult native male in the Union shall pay a general tax of one pound.
Moreover, a local tax of ten shillings per hut shall be paid. The latter

10 Proceedings, cited, p. 19. n Statutes, 1920, p. 84.

u Statutes, 1925, p. 716. This statute transfers native taxation from the prov¬
inces to the Union Government.

NATIVE ADMINISTRATION

115

tax is not paid, however, by the holder of a quit-rent title. 13 This local
tax and quit-rents shall be paid to native councils where they exist. Thus by
means of a local rate, native councils will have a system of estimates similar
to that found in the Transkei. Moreover, one fifth of the general tax paid
into government funds will go into a Native Development Account. 14

6. The Act for the Better Control of Native Affairs, 1927

Apparently in an effort to consolidate and make uniform native policy
throughout the Union, parliament enacted in 1927 an .act to provide for
the Better Control and Management of Native Affairs. It declares that
the Governor-General shall be the supreme chief of all natives in the prov¬
inces of Natal, Transvaal and Orange Free State. He may appoint native
commissioners for any area, who shall be under the jurisdiction of the
Minister of Native Affairs. A native tribe shall not be responsible for
the personal obligations of its chief, nor is it bound by any contract
entered into by a chief. No legal proceedings in regard to land may
be instituted against a chief. The Governor-General may order the re¬
moval of any tribe from any place within the Union, but in case the tribe
objects, no such order shall be given unless it is approved by a resolution
of parliament. The act authorizes the government to establish a system
of land registration for natives.

The Governor-General may impose judicial power upon European na¬
tive commissioners. These courts shall apply native law, except in so far
as it is opposed to the principles of public policy or natural justice. But
the custom of lobolo or bogadi shall not be regarded as repugnant to such
principles. Courts of appeal to hear cases from the courts of native com¬
missioners shall be established. Lawyers may practice in the courts of
the native commissioner and in the native appeal courts. The government
may authorize any native chief to hear civil cases between natives, subject
to appeal to the native commissioner. It may also grant to any chief
jurisdiction in respect of offenses punishable under native law and custom.
Such chiefs may impose a fine not exceeding two head of cattle or five
pounds.

The Act lays down certain rules in regard to marriage and succession.
No male native may, during the existence of any customary union between

11 Natives paying income taxes of one pound are also exempt from the opera¬
tion of this Act.

u Together with any local tax not falling under the jurisdiction of a local
council. The latter must be expended in the area whence it came. When a
native tribe or community voluntarily makes application for the levy of a special
rate for the benefit of the tribe, the Minister may authorize the rate to be levied.

116

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

him and any woman, contract a marriage unless he has first declared
on oath the name of such woman, the children of such a union, and the
property, if any, allotted to the woman under native custom. No clergy¬
man or marriage officer may solemnize the marriage of a native unless
he has made such a declaration. All movable property belonging to a
native and alloted by him to any woman with whom he has lived in a
customary union shall upon his death be administered under native law
and custom. Any dispute arising out of the administration of any estate
shall be settled by the district commissioner or magistrate. But native
law shall not apply to property validly bequeathed by will. The Gover¬
nor-General may make rules virtually codifying or changing native law
in regard to the question of succession.

This Act gives the Governor-General power to amend the Natal Na¬
tive Code and thus remedies the defect which arose out of the fact that
amendments could be made only by the Union Parliament. The Gover¬
nor-General is given power to amend or repeal legislation in the Native
Areas and make new laws applicable to such areas. But no such proclama¬
tion may be made unless a draft of its provisions shall have been pub¬
lished in the Gazette at least one month previously. Every such procla¬
mation must be laid upon the tables of both houses of parliament withh
fourteen days after promulgation, or after the commencement of its ses¬
sion. If the Native Affairs Commission dissents from any provision in
a proclamation, the reasons for the dissent are laid with the proclamation
before parliament. Thus it seems as if the government intends to take
the native areas out of the parliamentary orbit, and place them under the
regime of proclamation, which may be based on resolutions of the Native
Council.

The Governor-General may make regulations with reference to the
prevention of misconduct and disorder in native locations. He may define
pass areas and prescribe regulations for the control of the movement of
natives. Under this provision, the Governor-General may abolish exist¬
ing pass legislation and introduce a new system if he desires. “Any per¬
son who utters any words or does any other act or thing whatever with
intent to promote any feeling of hostility between Natives and Europeans
shall be guilty of an offense and liable on conviction to imprisonment for
a period not exceeding one year or to a fine of one hundred pounds, or
both.”

The Governor-General may grant to any native a letter of exemption
exempting the recipient from laws specially affecting natives . 15

“This act is taken from the Union Gazette Extraordinary, Cape Town, July
5, 1927, pp. xxxv-xlvi.

NATIVE ADMINISTRATION

117

As a result of this Act the Department of Native Affairs may centralize
native policy throughout the Union. While the Act weakens tribal author¬
ity in regard to the obligations of the chief, it envisages the establishment
of chiefs’ courts. But the extent to which the government actually utilizes
the tribal system in administration cannot be determined until after the
regulations authorized by the Act are published. Probably the most im¬
portant achievement of the Act is to take the native areas away from the
jurisdiction of the Union Parliament—a body where European interests
prevail—and place them under the Department of Native Affairs.

CHAPTER 8

NATIVE DISCONTENT

Largely because of missionary enterprise, supplemented by State grants-
in-aid, native education in South Africa has been probably more extensive
than in any other territory of Africa except Basutoland and Sierra Leone.
About one-fourth of the native population of school age attends school.

I. Native Education

In the Union, the number of State and State-aided schools for non-
Europeans increased from 1042 in 1895 to 3288 in 1922, while the num¬
ber of non-European scholars during the same period increased from 71,057
to 25i,872. 1 The fruits of this education are seen in the fact that in 1921
there were 455,398 natives who could read and write. Of this number,
211,765 were women. Twenty per cent of the educational funds in the
Cape Province, seventeen per cent in Natal, three per cent in the Transvaal,
and one per cent in the Orange Free State go to native education; the re¬
mainder is spent on Europeans. Thus the Cape Province and Natal have
been most liberal to the natives. 2 For the most part, native schools are con¬
ducted by missionary societies, subject to the control of the provinces.

Lovedale, at Alice, Cape Colony, is probably the best known and most

effective mission school in the Union. The Cowley Fathers at St. Cuth-

bert’s Mission in the Transkei and the Amanzimtoti Institute in Natal
have also put forth important educational efforts. 3 The South African

1 Year Book, cited, p. 219. There were in 1922 331,081 European children in
school, or practically all of the European school population.

*Cf. the following table: •

Total Native Expenditure

Province Expenditure Per Scholar

Cape of Good Hope £416,213 £2.ns.nd

Natal 86,909 2. 5S.iod

Transvaal 43,830 1. 7s.iod

Orange Free State 5,290 6s.

Ibid., p. 231.

*The details of the South African educational system can be best found in
C. T. Loram, The Education of the South African Native, London, 1917. Chapters
III and IX deal with the results of native education. On this subject, see also a
study by Rev. A. E. LeRoy, “Does it Pay to Educate the Zulu?” reprinted from
the South African Journal of Science, January-February, 1919; E. G. Malherbe,
Education in South Africa, 1652-1922, Cape Town, 1925; and T. J. Jones, Educa¬
tion in Africa, Phelps-Stokes Fund, New York, 1920, Ch. IX.

118

NATIVE DISCONTENT

119

Native College is an institution supported partly by the government in
the same manner as it supports many other universities, and partly by
missionary organizations and the Transkei Council. This college prepares
natives for the B. A. examination of the University of South Africa exactly
as other colleges prepare European students. It gives more advanced work
than any other native institution in Africa. The first students from the
Native College received their B.A. degrees in 1924. 4 While the Union
Government has general supervision of native affairs, each province has
controlled native education. Owing to the lack of coordination due
to the divorce of native from educational policy, plans for transfer¬
ring control of native education to the Union Government have been fre¬
quently recommended. 5 * A step in this direction was taken by acts of
1922 and 1925 6 under which the Union Government makes an annual
grant of 340,000 pounds to a native development account which represents
the amount previously expended by the provinces. 7 To this sum is added
one-fifth of the native tax, which amounts to about one hundred thousand
pounds. By means of these acts the Union Government secures the right
of inspection of provincial educational activities for natives, which may
lead eventually to the assumption of these duties by the Union Govern¬
ment.

The process of educating and evangelizing the South African native
has inevitably produced discontent. Having received an industrial educa¬
tion, a native finds that his skill is worthless, owing to the color bar.
Having received an agricultural education, he finds that it is impossible
to become an enterprising farmer because white men virtually prohibit
him from acquiring land. Moreover, the Christian religion teaches him
that all men, regardless of blood, are brothers in the eyes of God—a teach¬
ing which lends a divine sanction to his criticism of what he calls Euro¬
pean hypocrisy. The more widespread education becomes, the greater
becomes the black man’s antagonism to what he believes to be an economic
and political system designed to maintain him in serfdom.

Moreover, native schools have brought into existence native school
teachers to the number of more than six thousand in South Africa, who are
intellectual and, at times, political leaders of the native population. The

4 Cf. Calendar, South African Native College, 1925, pp. 30, ff.

4 Some of these are summarized in Malherbe, cited, Ch. XXI. In 1921, the
Native Affairs Commission recommended that the Union Government take over
native education in view of existing anomalies and inadequate financial pro¬
vision in the provincial system. Report, cited, U. G. 15-1922, Ch. II. This report
stated that policies in the provinces differed as to segregation of “colored” from
native children, courses of instruction, standards for native teachers, and govern¬
ment as compared to mission schools.

* Financial Relations Ad, 1925. 7 Cf. Vol. I, p. 7.

120

TIIE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

efforts of European missionary societies have also produced a native clergy.
In fact, because of the color bar and the absence of land, these are virtually
the only professions into which educated natives can enter. 8 Christian
missions have been at work among the native population for several hun¬
dred years. In 1921, the census reported that 1,605,356 natives out of a
total of 4,697,813 were Christians, 9 or three hundred and forty-two per
thousand, a rate which is higher than that in any other place in continental
Africa. The number of native Christians increased by 550,000 between
1911 and 1921. The largest denomination is the Methodist, consisting of
nearly 210,000 members; the second is the Anglican, numbering about
119,000. During the last ten years, the Zionists and the Roman Catholics
have registered the largest gains among the Bantu population. There are
about forty thousand native Roman Catholics.

It has been the aim of most Protestant missionary bodies to build up
a self-supporting and self-directing native church. One of the most suc¬
cessful efforts in this respect is the Bantu Presbyterian Church of South
Africa, which embraces 1830 ministers and more than twenty-three thou¬
sand members. 10 It is governed by a native general assembly which now
has a native moderator. Over this and other experiments, European
missionaries still maintain some form of supervision.

Nevertheless, many natives, feeling that they are able to stand entirely
alone, have seceded from established churches to found separatist move¬
ments. At the present time, there are more than a hundred independent
native churches in South Africa 11 having an enrollment, apparently, of
about thirty-seven thousand. In many cases, these secessions have been
caused by attempts of European missionaries to discipline native ministers
for immorality or the misuse of funds. In other cases, they have been
caused merely by personal pique or by a “vision.” The first native seces¬
sion, from the Wesleyan Church in 1884, led to the establishment of the
Tcmbu “Catholic” Church. An Ethiopian Church also exists, together
with several independent Anglican organizations.

2. The Israelite Movement

Many independent religious sects interpret the Old Testament to mean
that they, the natives, are the chosen people and that the Europeans are the

8 There are, however, a few native lawyers and doctors. Most of the latter
have Edinburgh degrees. One native doctor at Bloemfontein is said to make
twenty-five hundred pounds a year, mostly from white patients.

9 Census, 1921, cited, p. 241.

10 Proceedings of the Third General Assembly of the Bantu Presbyterian Church
of South Africa, 1925, p. 57.

11 Year Book, cited, p. 867; Census, 1921, cited, p. 241.

NATIVE DISCONTENT

121

Philistines whom they must overcome. Consequently, these sects fre¬
quently tend to become seditious, as the case of the so-called Israelite
movement showed. In 1918, a native by the name of Enoch Mgijima
had a vision in which he witnessed a battle where a baboon destroyed
two white governments which had been fighting each other. He inter¬
preted this dream to mean that the natives, symbolized by the baboon,
would come in and destroy both British and Dutch. Being excommuni¬
cated from his church for preaching such an interpretation, Enoch founded
a tabernacle of his own at the Bulhoek location (near Queenstown, Cape
Colony). For some reason, the government recognized Enoch as a sort
of local headman. For several years, great crowds of white-robed Israel¬
ites would come to Bulhoek to celebrate the peace of the Passover. But
they soon came into conflict with local natives who complained that their
land was being injured by the interlopers. Enoch, moreover, ignored gov¬
ernment regulations in regard to the erection of buildings. When the
government finally served a summons on Enoch to obey the law, he defied
the order and carried on a correspondence with other leaders, one of whom
wrote, “The lads of Gogi are terror stricken. . . . Oh, these heathen, we
have already overpowered them. They are extremely afraid of us. Father
proclaim this extensively among the dissenters.” The natives also defied
the Inspector and nearly a hundred South African police who attempted
to enter the village but who, under strict orders not to fire, were obliged
to retreat three and a half miles—another proof to the natives of Enoch’s
supernatural power. Despite the outbreak of typhus in the village, the
government did not act for another two months. Meanwhile Enoch
preached that the hour of the black man was approaching, and that the
bullets of the police would turn to water. 12 Drilling and arming took place
in the Tabernacle; while, infected with the contagion of the movement,
a native in the Glen Grey district told the people that since the natives at
Bulhoek did not pay taxes nor recognize the authority of the white man,
Glen Grey should also become free. The government, believing that
the very existence of its authority was at stake, finally marched troops
against the Israelites, as a result of which some two hundred natives who
offered resistance were killed.

The court, in sentencing the ringleaders to imprisonment for sedition,
expressed the opinion that “there was a vacillation, a shirking of responsi¬
bility, a desire to shift the responsibility on to the shoulders of somebody
else,” on the part of government officials who “seem to have forgotten that
in dealing with Natives a legacy of sorrow and blood invariably follows

n This belief that bullets will turn to water is found in other parts of Africa,
Cf. Vol. I, p. 450.

122

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

the footsteps of misplaced clemency. The retreat of the police was a
disastrous occurrence.” 13

Following the Bulhoek trouble, the government appointed a com¬
mission to study the Israelite movement and the whole question of inde¬
pendent native churches. In its report, the commission stated that “there
is a growth of race consciousness with its natural outcome of social and
political aspirations among the Natives of the Union.” But it did not
believe that “expressions of the growth of this feeling” could be checked;
and considered that “the wisest course of the administration is to guide
these expressions into safe channels.” 14 None of the native churches has
a “definite anti-white program.” Nevertheless these independent churches
are usually founded after unpleasant incidents with European missionaries,
and they attract disaffected natives. It is almost certain that anti-Euro¬
pean natives will, “if they belong to any religious organization at all be
members of a separatist church.” The commission did not believe, how¬
ever, that these organizations should be interfered with by repressive legis¬
lation. But as soon as the movement becomes political, tending to the
subversion of public order, the government should suppress it. It appears
also that the religious following of Enoch was increased by lack of faith
in the government’s goodwill toward natives. 10

3. The African National Congress

Of more practical importance have been the native political organi¬
zations, the chief of which is the African National Congress. Established
in 1912, this organization, which has five provincial branches, 18 attempts
to unite all native organizations into a single “medium of expression of
representative opinion.” According to its constitution, its object is also
to “formulate a standard policy on Native Affairs for the benefit and
guidance of the Union Government and Parliament ... to educate the

11 The court quoted Livingstone, “the greatest friend to the Native who ever
lived,” who once is said to have stated that “no man should ever threaten a
Native with a gun unless he intends to use it. . . .” Judgment, reprinted in Re¬
port of Native Churches Commission, U. G. 39-1925.

14 Ibid., p. 18.

18 Report of the Native Affairs Commission, 1921, U. G. 15-1922, p. 11. The
Native Affairs Commission of 1905 also refrained from advising any measure of
legislative repression of such churches; and “it was not disposed to condemn the
aspiration after religious independence.” But it believed that in the case of a
subject race such an aspiration, misdirected by ignorant and misguided leader¬
ship, might be fraught with the seeds of racial mistrust and discontent.” It criti¬
cized the action of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, an American negro
church, with which many secessionist bodies affiliated, on the ground that in its
earlier stages it showed a lamentable want of discrimination in ordaining unsuit¬
able men. Cd. 2399, cited, p. 47.

14 There are two branches in Cape Province.

NATIVE DISCONTENT

123

Bantu people on their rights, duties, and obligations to the State; to
encourage mutual understanding and to bring together into common action
as one political people all tribes and clans of various tribes or races and
by means of combined effort and united political organization to defend
their freedom, rights, and privileges; to agitate and advocate by just means
for the removal of the ‘Color Bar’ in political, educational and industrial
fields and for equitable representation of Natives in Parliament. . .

The National Congress is composed of hereditary chiefs as well as offi¬
cial delegates. Paramount chiefs are honorary vice-presidents; and no
decision of any branch in direct conflict with the expressed desires of the
majority of the chiefs can be taken. 17

The Congress sent a delegation to London to protest against the
passage of the 1913 Land Act, but it was only there a short time before
the outbreak of War. When this event occurred, the Congress at a spe¬
cial meeting in Bloemfontein decided to suspend agitation and ordered the
delegation to return. But immediately following the War, the Congress
renewed its agitation. The Congress likewise has made repeated repre¬
sentations to the Union Government in regard to color bar legislation
and other bills affecting native policy.

None of the delegations sent to London has, however, been successful.
The government has always informed them that the government of
South Africa is a Dominion and hence fully self-governing in internal
affairs. Some members of the Congress feel that South Africa is hiding
back of the British Empire and that the natives could, therefore, plead
their cause more' successfully before the bar of world opinion if South
Africa were a republic. This feeling, together with the belief that the
British Government has not kept the pledge of racial equality made by
Queen Victoria, led members of the congress to suggest that the natives
boycott the proposed visit of the Prince of Wales in 1924. Natives fre¬
quently urge that the native question be placed before the League of
Nations—a fact which may explain the opposition of many South African
Nationalists to the League. 18

4. The Bantu Union

In the Cape Province, another political organization exists, called the
Bantu Union. In 1919, it held a convention at Queenstown where it
discussed the advisability of sending a native delegation to the Paris Peace
Conference. In 1920, it submitted a Grievances Memorial to the Prime

1T Articles 19-20, Constitution. Representatives of Basutoland and the other
South Africa Protectorates also form part of the Congress.

18 Cf. House of Assembly Debates, May, 1925, col. 2893.

124

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

Minister. Its spokesman also strongly criticized the European attitude
toward the native at the time of Prime Minister Hertzog’s visit to
Queenstown in September, 1925. Instead of the slogan of “White
Africa,” the Bantu Union believes in “Africa for All.” 19

A strong native press is also coming into existence, representing various
trends of thought, from the relatively conservative Umteteli Wa Bantu,
financed by the Chamber of Mines, to the radical Workers’ Herald. The
anti-racial bent of one of the more intelligently edited native papers, Imvo
Zabantsundu Bomzantsi Afrika, is shown by the following editorial:

“This is certainly the age of white supremacy over all the black communi¬
ties of the world, not by virtue of any quality of higher moral standard and
civilization which the white man, in every part of the globe, arrogates to him¬
self, but because it is the age of the mighty gun power—the demon of white
supremacy. Modern democracy ... is a democracy only of white skin
peoples of the world, and its philosophy is that of brazen spoliation and the
violation of human rights of all peoples whose color is black. . . . The black
peoples wherever they reside, under so-called civilized authority, are not
respected in the matter of human rights. . . . There is great unrest in Africa
amongst the intelligent black inhabitants through the oppressive laws under
which they live. . . . Truly! the white man’s religion [Christianity] has
failed to interpret to us the meaning of life in the world. . . .” 20

5. Military Revolts

Except for a long series of wars with the settlers, which were, however,
terminated by 1900, the native population of South Africa has not as a
whole taken up arms against the white man. An exception should be
made, however, for the so-called rebellion of 1906 in Natal. 21 It ap¬
pears that this rebellion was occasioned by the imposition of a poll tax
which brought to a head native dissatisfaction with British rule. At this
time, the Ethiopian movement was also preaching doctrines which the
government, at any rate, regarded as seditious and which incited the natives
to revolt. 22

Following these revolts the Natal government appointed a Commis¬
sion to study the whole native question; while it appointed a deputation
to go to Transkei and study that system of administration with a view
to applying it to Natal. 23

“The Bantu Union of the Cape Province, Proceedings of the Native Conven¬
tion, IQIQ.

20 Editorial, June 23, 1925.

31 Cf. W. Bosnian, The Natal Rebellion of 1916, London, 1907.

23 Cf. Correspondence relating to Native Disturbances in Natal. Cd. 2905
(1906).

23 Cf. Vol. I, p. 120.

NATIVE DISCONTENT

125

Since then, there has been no organized movement of revolt against
the whites in South Africa proper. 2- * Natives cannot secure or own arms
and ammunition without special license of the government. On the other
hand, every citizen of European descent is liable between his seventeenth
and sixtieth year to undergo military service. Half of the eligible young
men form part of the Active Citizen Force and undergo, for a period of
four years, between two and three weeks, continuous military training
and several other days of drill scattered throughout the year. The other
half are required to enroll as members of rifle associations. 25 In 1922,
there were 60,492 Europeans registered for military service. Under this
system of compulsory military service for the whites and compulsory dis¬
armament for the blacks, responsible native leaders realize that military
revolt would only mean the destruction of the black man by the white
man’s military power, whether in the form of machine guns or airplane
bombs.

6 . Native Strikes

Within recent years, however, the natives have learned a new method
—the industrial strike. In 1913, strikes and riots took place on the Rand
as a protest against living conditions on the mines. During the World
War, the natives remained remarkably quiet. But as a result of the high
cost of living caused by the War, and encouraged by the successful example
cf European municipal employees, the native municipal employees in
Johannesburg in 1919 asked for a 6d increase in their wages. When the
authorities declined to grant this request, the natives went on strike. But
they were speedily put under arrest and convicted by the Chief Magistrate
of Johannesburg who is reported to have instructed them that

“They would go back to their work as soon as the necessary arrange¬
ments could be made. They would be placed under a guard, including a
guard of Zulus with assegais, and white men with guns. If they attempted
to escape, they would be shot down if necessary, and if they refused to obey
any orders which might be given them, they would receive lashes.”

This judgment electrified the whole native population of the Rand,
which at a series of meetings demanded the release of the strikers and a
general increase in wages of a shilling a day. At the intervention of
Prime Minister Botha, the men were immediately released, while the
government instructed a magistrate to undertake an inquiry into the

* The Bondelzwarts rebellion in South-West Africa, which is held by South
Africa under mandate, cannot be discussed here, since the writer- did not visit
South-West Africa. For a critical account of the rebellion, cf. Report of the
Commission to Inquire into the Rebellion of the Bondelzwarts, U. G. 16-1923.

“Defense Act of 1912, Statutes, cited, 1912, p. 190.

126

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

cause of native unrest. In his report, he declared that there was a lack
of confidence among the natives in the government and that they felt that
since the Act of Union, legislation had tended to perpetuate their position
as the subject race. In his opinion, there could be no real contentment in
the country so long as natives were denied the rights of citizenship. Upon
his recommendation, the Tranvaal Night Pass Ordinance was suspended
in so far as it applied to women, and the one shilling tax on travelling passes
was abolished. In the same year, natives at Bloemfontein also asked for
an increase of wages to meet the rising cost of living. When the native
leader of the strike was arrested on the charge of inciting to public vio¬
lence, disturbances took place. The indictment was later quashed. Native
strikes also broke out at the Natal Collieries, the Messina Mine in the
Transvaal, and at the Cape Town Docks. In February, 1920, a native
strike, believed to have been partly organized by the Third International,
also occurred on the Rand, in which 42,000 laborers for a time stopped
work, complaining of low pay and unsatisfactory living conditions. In the
riots which took place, the police killed and wounded a number of natives.

In the same year, natives who organized themselves into the Industrial
and Commercial Workers Union struck at Port Elizabeth to secure an
increase in wages. Masabalala, a leader who addressed a native mass
meeting, aroused great enthusiasm, as the result of which someone in the
crowd assaulted Dr. Rubusana, another native leader who apparently
opposed the strike. As a result of the complaint of Rubusana, the strike
leader was arrested and put in jail without a warrant. A native delega¬
tion waited on the authorities, and offered to put up security for bail.
But the Police Inspector “peremptorily declined to entertain any pro¬
posal whatever for the release, on bail, of the prisoner.” Regarding this
decision as unfair, native feeling became aroused, and natives warned the
police that unless the imprisoned leader were released by five o’clock, they
would release him by force.

Three thousand natives congregated around the jail, carrying sticks
in violation of municipal regulations. The police not only armed them¬
selves but passed out arms and ammunition to civilians, some of whom
were ex-soldiers.

Four mounted police attempted to charge the crowd, but “owing to an
accident” three of them were unhorsed, which caused one of the police
to fire his revolver in the air. The police were no more successful in
breaking up the crowd with a fire hose which they proved unable to
manipulate. Meanwhile, the natives started to throw stones. Someone—
apparently a civilian—now fired two shots, which stampeded the natives,
following which a “rapid and sustained fusillade was directed on the re-

NATIVE DISCONTENT

127

treating crowd from the police station.” The total casualties were seventy-
six. 26 The government immediately appointed a commission which in¬
cluded a prominent colored man, Dr. Abduraham, as a member. This
commission reported that the Police Inspector exercised his discretion un¬
wisely in refusing to release the imprisoned leader on bail. If this had
been done, no trouble would have occurred. It condemned the behavior
of the natives before the jail, but also declared that “all of the firing
which took place after the mob broke away was directed against fugitives;
that it was unnecessary, indiscriminate, and it was moreover brutal in its
callousness, resulting in a terrible toll of killed and wounded without any
sufficient reason or justification.”

It is to the credit of the Government of South Africa that it should
give a commission the liberty to publish such judgment. This policy
stands out in marked contrast with the “hush” policy followed in regard
to native “revolts” in the Congo, Kenya, and Nigeria. 27

Inasmuch as desertion is an offense under the Labor and Pass Laws,
native strikes are illegal, a fact which enables the government to arrest
any strikers it pleases. This may explain why, most of the native strikes
in the last few years have been accompanied by disorder and bloodshed.

These strikes are also symptoms of a growing sense of grievance and
capacity for organization, and of a racial consciousness of the native
population. The Native Affairs Department of the government notes
“as a remarkable fact how much more clearly and intelligently have been
the utterances which have succeeded the War compared with those which
preceded it. It is a sign . . . that the race consciousness of the South
African Native is steadily growing and that the spread of education is
bringing in its train a realization of the disabilities under which the
Native races labour, and an ability to formulate schemes for their ad¬
vancement and emancipation. . . .” 28

7. Bantu Communism

While before the World War, the natives largely formed religious
and political organizations, they have now begun not only to strike but
also to form industrial organizations based on the syndicalist idea. It
appears that this development has had the sympathy if not the active
cooperation of the Communist International in Europe and of the Garvey
group in America. At the conference of the Third International, the

38 The quotations are from Report of the Commission appointed to inquire into
the cause of Native Disturbances at Port Elizabeth, October 23, 1920; cf. also U. G.
34-1922, p. 2.

Cf. index—revolts.

” U. G. 34-1922, cited, p. 1.

128 THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

South Africa delegate 29 declared that the whole continent of Africa
could be best reached through the native populations of South Africa
and Rhodesia.

To start this movement, the South African Communist party ad¬
dressed eight “lessons” to the Bantu workers, the first of which reads:

“In the days gone by, the Bantu people lived alone upon the land of
Africa. The land belonged to them, and they brought forth the fruits of the
kindly earth for their common good. And in those days the only Masters were
the Kings of the Bantu people. Then came the white masters of the world
and took away the land from the Bantu people; so that they served their white
masters and toiled for low wages. . .

Another read:

“No matter though you are different in color, you are one in kind with
the workers of the world. All those who work for wages are becoming
one great brotherhood of labor. The workers of the world are uniting
to dethrone the masters of the world, that is, the capitalist class. You
Bantu people will .share in the great deliverance that is bound to come. You
Bantu workers must also unite to help in the great deliverance of the people
from the masters of the world. In Russia the workers and poor peasant
people have united. They are great in number. They have shaken their
chains to earth like dew; they have entered into possession of the land and the
wonderful machines for making the good things of life. And today they own
them in common just as the Bantu owned the land in common in days gone by.
The black workers in India are uniting. They are joining hands with the
workers of the world. And they call upon you Bantu workers to do the
same.” 80

8. The "I. C. Ur

While the Communist party has apparently disappeared as far as the
natives are concerned, its place has been taken by an organization called
the Industrial and Commercial Union. Established in 1920, the “I. C. U.”
now claims to have thirty thousand members. It is controlled by a
national council, the secretary of which is a Nyasaland native called
Clements Kadalie. Annual conferences are held. The body frankly de¬
clines to adhere to any political organization, but states that its sole pur¬
pose is the promulgation of the “One Big Union” idea. It is organized
into nine different sections, one for each type of workers, such as domestic

29 According to accounts of the conference, the Communists were surprised to see
African masses represented by a white delegate. Martial La<w Inquiry, cited, p. 26.
Apparently the conference did not realize that the European working men in South
Africa were much more interested in subjecting black labor through the color bar
than were the capitalists.

40 Ibid., p. 29.

NATIVE DISCONTENT

129

employees. It believes in the communist principle of “from every man
according to his abilities, to every man according to his needs.”

The preamble of its constitution declares, “Whereas the interests of the
workers and those of the employers are opposed to each other, the former
living by selling their labor . . . and the latter living by exploiting the
labor of the workers, depriving the workers of a part of the product of
their labor in the form of profit, no peace can be between the two classes,
a struggle must always obtain about the division of the product of human
labor.”

In addition to an industrial appeal, it makes the appeal of race. Its
official organ, the Workers' Herald, carries this caption: “Are You a
Race Man?” An article declares that “this race of ours is engaged in a
great struggle—a violent struggle for industrial emancipation and political
freedom.” 31 Another issue denounces the policy of a White South Africa
as “infamous and unchristianlike.” Another says that the “so-called Native
Policy [of the Hertzog government] is no other than that of Capitalism,
with its greed, robbery and manslaughter of millions of human beings of
all races. . . . Let the African Workers be aroused from their slumber of
decades. . . . Meetings must be staged all over the country day by day,
week by week, and let our rulers tremble at this New Awakening. . . .
Workers of Africa, Unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains.” 32

Such expressions would probably be regarded in the United
States as seditious. Since Kadalie, the leader of this interesting movement,
is not a citizen of South Africa but of Nyasaland, it would appear that
originally, before he had acquired prescriptive domicile, the government
could have deported him without difficulty. But the Smuts government
hesitated to do so apparently out of fear that the Nationalists and Laborites
would make political capital out of it in the 1924 elections. Kadalie used
his influence in favor of the election of Prime Minister Hertzog 33 which
for a time tied the hands of the incoming government. However, due to
the growing bitterness of the I. C. U. leader, the government in the spring
of 1926 prepared a Sedition and Deportation Bill authorizing the depor¬
tation of other “radicals.” The administration also forbade Kadalie to go
from Johannesburg to Natal for the purpose of holding meetings. But
Kadalie flaunted the orders in the government’s face, and proceeded to
Natal where he was greeted by hundreds of admirers. For some strange
reason, probably because of doubts as to the legality of its action, the govern¬
ment at first did not arrest him. This naturally increased Kadalie’s self-

31 Workers’ Herald, April 2, 1926, p. 7.

33 Editorial, ibid., July 28, 1926; ibid., June 15, 1926.

33 See the discussion and correspondence, House of Assembly Debates, May 6,
1925, col. 2893.

130 THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

confidence and popularity. But some weeks later he was arrested for vio¬
lating the pass law—only to be acquitted by the court. 34

Whether or not the I. C. U. is suppressed, native labor organization
will inevitably increase in strength in view of the industrial conditions
under which so many thousand natives live. But so long as natives cannot
legally stop work because of pass laws and the penal sanction in labor con¬
tracts, strikes will be illegal, and the government will be confronted with
the unpleasant if not impossible task of clapping thousands of strikers
periodically into jail. 36

Thus, as a result of political organizations such as the African National
Congress and the Bantu Union, the independent churches and the I. C. U.,
the natives are organizing a resistance to the white man. For many years,
however, tribal and personal differences will keep them from establishing
a united front. 36 Their leaders, moreover, are too wise to think of start¬
ing an armed revolt. But by organizing movements for industrial passive
resistance and by promoting a series of strikes tying up the mining and
manufacturing industries, these native organizations may eventually make
the position of the white man in South Africa as untenable as would a
successful native war. At any rate, the government and public opinion
are coming to realize the seriousness of the situation and the necessity
of taking steps which will remove the causes of such a conflict. The
measures, framed with this purpose, will be discussed in the next chapter.

M Workers’ Herald, October 14, 1926.

* B The “Better Control and Management of Native Affairs Bill” introduced into
parliament in 1927, authorizes the government to prohibit anti-European agitation.
Cf. Vol. I, p. 116.

"A rival I.C.U. is already in existence. For the difficulties of controlling the
branch organizations of the “legitimate” I.C.U., see the Report of the General
Executive Council, Official Report of Proceedings, Third Annual Conference, 1923,
p. 24.

CHAPTER 9

THE HERTZOG NATIVE POLICY

There is a strong body of latent opinion among the white population
of South Africa today which still believes in the policy of Repression: that
the white man can indefinitely rule the country without regard for the
interests or feelings of the black. While this feeling may be strong enough
to defeat reforms, there are very few of the intellectual and political lead¬
ers of the country who believe that the present state of affairs can exist
indefinitely, or who believe that the policy of Repression will, in the long
run, work to the interests of either race.

Following the establishment of the Union in 1910, so many more im¬
mediate problems presented themselves that the government postponed for
the time being any consideration of a comprehensive native policy in favor of
the status quo. The World War, which led South Africa into a campaign
for the acquisition of German Southwest Africa, and which led also to
the despatch of troops to German East Africa and elsewhere, postponed
discussion of the native question four years more. Between 1910 and 1925
the native policy of the South African Government was therefore one of
drift, or at least of piece-meal legislation.

1. The Cape Policy

Meanwhile, however, three different lines of policy were being dis¬
cussed, for the most part outside of political circles. Practically all native
leaders and many European residents of the Cape province supported what
is called the Cape policy, based on Cecil Rhodes’s dictum of “equal rights
for all civilized men south of the Zambesi.” Some of them interpreted
this to mean that no distinction should be made between white and black
merely upon the basis of race and that both should travel the same political,
economic, and social path. Apparently as a result of this policy, the Cape
has been more liberal than any other province in the amount of land which
it has allowed the native to occupy, and in the matter of franchise,
of the color bar, and of native education. As we have seen, a native in
the Cape may vote upon the same conditions as a European,—namely, he
must be able to write his own name and either occupy property of the
value of seventy-five pounds or have an annual wage of fifty pounds. 1

1 Theoretically natives in Natal can acquire franchise rights by fulfilling certain
conditions of literacy, periods of residence, recommendations of Europeans, etc.
But so far it seems that only two natives have been given the right of franchise.

131

132

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

While the Act of Union prohibits a native from sitting in the Union
Parliament, native and colored voters have elected colored members, such
as Dr. Abdurahman and Dr. Rubusana, to the Cape Provincial Council.
As a result of this franchise it is estimated that the native and colored
votes hold the balance of power in twelve divisions of Cape Province,
such as Victoria East, Fort Beaufort, Aliwal North, and Tembuland.
The possession of this franchise has been of more than political importance
inasmuch as the courts have held that restrictive legislation such as the
Land Law does not apply to natives having the vote.

Once the arguments in favor of the native franchise in the Cape are
accepted, it follows that the franchise should be extended to the other
provinces and that the natives should be represented in parliament. While
the native leaders would like to see this extension and while a few Euro¬
peans argue in favor of the theory, the vast majority of Europeans in South
Africa are against the principle altogether. Opponents of the Cape fran¬
chise state that it is a matter only of a few years before several hundred
thousand natives will be qualified to vote. 1 * The native vote, concen¬
trated in the Cape, is now 14,182 out of a total European vote which
numbers 156,OCX). The number of voters in the Cape has within the last
fifteen years increased 113.8 per cent in comparison to a thirty per cent
increase in the number of European voters. If the franchise is open to
natives upon the same basis as whites, they fear that the natives will soon
control the government. The Native Affairs Commission, in 1905 said,
“Under such circumstances the voting of the future may proceed upon race
lines and no one acquainted with the conditions of life in South Africa
will hesitate to say that a conflict would then arise fatal to the good rela¬
tions which have upon the whole hitherto existed between white and black
in this country. . . .”

The Commission arrived at the conclusion that the “possession of
the franchise by the Natives under the system existing in the Cape Colony,
which permits it being used in a spirit of rivalry with and antagonism
to the European electorate, which makes the organised Native vote the
arbiter in any acute electoral struggle between political parties, and which
as the Native voters increase numerically will enable them to out-vote
the Europeans in certain parts of the country, is sure to create an intol¬
erable situation and is an unwise and dangerous thing.” 2

The fears that the whites will be swamped by a black electorate in
the near future are no- doubt exaggerated. But eventually it would

la Cf. Vol. I, p. 138.

3 Report of the South African Native Affairs Commission, Cd. 2399 (1905),

p. 68.

THE IIERTZOG NATIVE POLICY

133

seem inevitable that under this system black voters should outnumber the
whites. Even if by an impossible transformation of human nature, the
European population of South Africa should peacefully submit to being
ruled by a black parliament and ministry, there are few who believe that
any group of Africans, however great their individual attainments might
be, could possibly assume the responsibilities which European forms of
government exact. It appears that the Cape policy, following the French
theory of assimilation 3 is founded on the belief that the black is a potential
white man and may become so through a few years of literary education.
But past experience seems to show that whatever the achievements of native
individuals may be, they form part of a group from which they do not
escape (without injury to themselves) simply by the acquisition of a lit¬
erary' education. While they may become civilized their group remains
uncivilized. The opponents of the Cape theory assert that the welfare
of the natives as a whole can best be promoted not by a policy of assimi¬
lation of the educated native to the white group, but by the elevation and
natural development of the native group. The fact that one group is at
a more primitive stage of social evolution than the other group justifies
the adoption of policies suited to the needs of each. To determine, there¬
fore, whether a policy works for or against the interests of the native
population, one must not look to the mere fact of discrimination but to
the question whether the discriminatory policy really works to the advan¬
tage of the group to which it is applied.

2. Compulsory Segregation

On the other hand, some South Africans have proposed an out and
out policy of compulsory racial segregation. They believe that the fruits
of racial inter-penetration in South Africa have been bitter—that native
life under European employers has been thoroughly demoralizing and
that European society, based on primitive labor, is a “slave state” com¬
posed of a White Aristocracy superimposed upon a Black Proletariat—
a system which has produced the Poor White, on the one hand , 4 and the
Mulatto or Colored person, on the other. They believe that a white
civilization living in intimate dependence upon a primitive people of a
different type of standards, outnumbering the whites four to one, is in
danger of losing its economic, moral, and cultural standards , 5 and that if

* Cf. Vol. II, p. 77.

4 E. Stubbs, Tightening Coils, An Essay on Segregation, Pretoria, 1925, p. 3.

“The Commission of Inquiry into the Assaults on Women declared, “When
the disgusting sexual practices in which a large number of natives indulge from
early youth are borne in mind, the danger of entrusting girl children to male
Natives is obvious. The existence of these practices is unfortunately not so

134

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

universal intermarriage does not take place, a result which they would
deplore, racial animosity and illicit miscegenation will inevitably develop.
Thus the Segregationists favor the creation of separate areas in South
Africa for the exclusive occupation respectively of blacks and whites, each
maintained on a basis of an all-black or an all-white economy. The Black
Area, under this theory, would eventually become economically and po¬
litically independent of the White Areas. Neither race would be ob¬
structed in its group development by the other.

One writer, Mr. M. G. Evans, advocated some fifteen years ago
a policy which “must be the separation of the races as far as possible,
our aim being to prevent race deterioration, to preserve race integrity,
and to give to both opportunity to build up and develop their race life.” 6

Mr. Peter Nielson, in an interesting little book , 7 comes to the same
conclusion. After analyzing the mental qualities of the Bantu he says,
“The evidence before us leads inevitably to the conclusion that there is
nothing in the mental constitution, or in the moral nature of the South
African Native, to warrant his relegation to a place of inferiority in the
land of his birth. . . Nevertheless racial animosity exists not because
of alleged mental disparity but because of the “unalterable physical dif¬
ference between the two races.” Consequently “territorial separation of
the home-life of the two races is the only way by which parallel develop¬
ment can take place. . . . The hardships and disabilities under which
the educated Native suffers in the Northern Provinces of the Union and
in Rhodesia are patent and serious. It is hard that a civilized man may
not travel in his own country without a ‘certificate’; it is hard that he
must do only rough or menial, but always ill-paid work when he is
capable of doing skilled and well-paid labor; it is hard that when he
is allowed to do skilled labor he cannot claim the wages of a skilled
laborer; it is hard to be . . . treated always as an inferior and an alien
in the land of his fathers; all this is hard, but—’tis the law, written and
unwritten, made and enforced by the dominant race, and there is no
reason to think it will be made less hard as the pressure of black com¬
petition increases.

“But if good and ample land can be set aside in the various terri¬
tories of spacious South Africa in which the Natives can live and move
without let or hindrance; in which they can do what work they like for

widely known among white people as it should be; and it would be well if all
mothers, in areas where Natives are employed, made themselves fully in¬
formed in regard to them. Boys, too, may be easily contaminated by the conversa¬
tion and practices of many of these young Natives.” Report, cited, sec. 121.

6 Black and White in South East Africa, London, pp. 310 ff.

T The Black Man’s Place in South Africa, Cape Town, 1922.

THE HERTZOG NATIVE POLICY

135

themselves and for their own people, in which they can engage, according
to their individual desire, in all kinds of trades and commerce without
the prohibition of the white man’s color-bar; in which they can earn
the wages that are governed by the laws of supply and demand only;
in which they can build up after their own fashion courts of law and
political councils for themselves; in which, in fine , they can live and work
out their, own salvation, unhurried and unworried by strange and impa¬
tient masters, then, surely, the Natives of South Africa will have gained
a great gain, far greater than any they can ever hope to win by pitting
their undeveloped strength against the organized resistance of the whites.” 8
Two objections have been made to the theory of Compulsory Segrega¬
tion. Friends of the natives have opposed it bn the ground that the
white man, being self-interested and having full power to impose the
policy, would give to the natives only those areas which the white man
could not use . 9 Others have criticized it on the ground that the total
separation of the bulk of the white from the black race in South Africa
is economically impracticable. As we have seen, most of the gold mines
could not be profitably exploited without cheap native labor. Practically
all European industry and agriculture is dependent upon native labor.
In the opinion of the Economic and Wage Commission “The contact
of native and European has lasted too long, and their economic co-opera¬
tion is too intimate and well-established, for the native to be excluded
from European areas and European industries. The provisions of ade¬
quate native reserves has been delayed too long for it to be possible now
to provide reserves within which it would be possible for the present
native population of the Union to live without dependence on outside
employment .” 10 Friends of the native appear to be agreed that the
native would socially be better off living on a farm of his own with his
family than in the mining compounds of Johannesburg. But if any
government should attempt to bring about this change it would have
to overcome the opposition not only of powerful mining interests, depen¬
dent on this labor, but also of the agricultural interests who at present
monopolize the land. While eventually one may expect a decrease in
native labor owing to an increase in native agriculture, provided land
reforms are made, the process must necessarily be gradual and incom¬
plete.

8 Ibid., pp. 130 ff.

•One writer goes so far as to suggest that the Bantu race gradually be re¬
patriated “to those regions north of the Zambesi from which they came originally.”
A. J. MacDonald, Trade, Politics and Christianity, and the East, London, 1916,
p. 47. He believed, however, that these natives should be temporarily imported
for labor purposes. 10 Report, cited, para. 275.

136

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

3. Differentiation

Realizing that economic considerations make compulsory segregation
impossible and even dangerous from the native standpoint, a third school
of thought, advocating voluntary and partial segregation or differentia¬
tion, has arisen. This school proposes to establish a nucleus of native
communities alongside of white communities. While perhaps the ma¬
jority of the natives would continue, either temporarily or permanently,
to work for Europeans, a part of them would have some place which
they could really call their home and where they could lead their own
lives, subject to some form of administration such as prevails in the
Transkei or in Basutoland.

According to Professor Edgar Brookes the policy of differentiation
if adopted should mean that “Europeans will govern Europeans and Na¬
tives will govern Natives and that questions affecting both must be decided
upon by a mutual consent.” 11

He believes, however, that economically whites and natives will always
be dependent on each other. Consequently, segregation can never be
complete. It must also be a gradual process; and it cannot be compul¬
sory as far as the white are concerned. 12 The gradual development of
native communities, housing a portion of the native population, is, on
the other hand, possible.

This theory presupposes legislation designed to protect white com¬
munities against black penetration and black communities against white
penetration. Having an absolute control of the government, the whites
have already enacted much of the legislation designed to meet the first
aim. The Land Act of 1913 prohibits acquisition of land by natives
outside of native areas; the Color Bar bill prohibits native competition
against white skilled labor in white communities, the Urban Areas Act
regulates the domicile of natives in white cities; the franchise laws, except
in the Cape, bar natives from participation in the government of the
country. Having erected these walls against the native, the white man’s
government is now considering methods of establishing black communi¬
ties which will in a measure parallel white communities.

4. The Hertzog Program

General Hertzog who, as leader of the Nationalistic party, came into
power in 1924, has been the first Prime Minister of the Union to study
this question of native policy as a comprehensive whole. Accepting the

11 History of Native Policy in South Africa, p. «ia.

“Ibid., Ch. XV.

THE HERTZOG NATIVE POLICY

137

theory of partial segregation or differentiation, he outlined legislation
carrying this theory into effect in a notable trip through the Native Terri¬
tories in the fall of 1925. In a speech at Butterworth he sketched a
plan of native councils governing native communities and of native rep¬
resentation in a Union Parliament. A little later at Smithfield he outlined
his policy in more detail, emphasizing particularly the question of the
Cape franchise.

In July, 1926, theHertzog Government published the texts of four bills
embodying the Hertzog native policy:

1. The Representation of Natives in Parliament Bill.

2. The Union Native Council Bill.

3. The Native Lands Act, 1913, Amendment Bill.

4. The Coloured Persons Rights Bill. 13

The first bill (a) takes away the native franchise in the Cape, (b)
provides for the election of seven European members to the Union As¬
sembly by eligible natives throughout the Union. Two such represen¬
tatives are to come from the Cape, Transvaal, and Natal, and one from
the Orange Free State. These representatives may not speak or vote
on any matters affecting the increase of native electoral areas or members,
or the qualifications of voters for such areas. Neither shall they vote
on matters of non-confidence in the Ministry except on twelve different
subjects of direct concern to the natives, such as native taxation, educa¬
tion, local native government, native marriage, locations, reserves, native
land titles, townships, sale of intoxicating liquor, etc., and any proposal
tending to discriminate against natives solely because of race or color.
Under this scheme, the European representatives of “native” interests can¬
not hold the balance of power in the Union Parliament, except in a
matter directly affecting the native population. Thus in return for
abolishing the Cape franchise in which natives of one province partici¬
pate in the general parliamentary elections, the Hertzog Government pro¬
poses to give the natives of the Union as a whole a communal franchise
and a limited number of European representatives. The Senators nomi¬
nated to represent native interests will also remain.

In his Smithfield speech, the Prime Minister stated that the native
was demanding the right of voting and of sitting in Parliament but that
Natal, Transvaal, and the Free State would never consent to the exten¬
sion of the Cape system which, in the opinion of General Hertzog, would
“mean the eclipse and will be the death-knell of European civilization.”
But unless the vote is taken away from the native in the Cape it will be

“The texts were published in the Union of South Africa Government Gazette
Extraordinary, July 23, 1926, No. 1570.

138

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

impossible to keep it from the natives in the rest of the Union. In an¬
other fifty years the native vote in the Cape would, in his opinion, out¬
number the European vote. He believed that the natives and colored
voters will soon control the fifty Cape representatives out of a Parlia¬
ment having only one hundred and thirty-five members. These represen¬
tatives, owing their seats to non-European voters, would be obliged to
advocate the extension of the native franchise to the northern provinces.
To keep its majority, a political party would have to accede to the de¬
mand. If the northern provinces did not give in, they would have to
secede from the Union. Many Europeans, however, especially people
in the churches, were beginning to realize that it was unfair to prevent
the native from arguing his case in Parliament. The Prime Minister
himself did not believe that the Cape franchise would be taken away
without putting something in its place. In return for taking it away he,
therefore, proposed to give the “natives” a Union franchise and a limited
number of “native” representatives in Parliament . 14 His policy toward
the “coloured” population is discussed later.

In the second measure—the Union Native Council Bill—the govern¬
ment proposed the establishment of an annual Union Native Council, a
development of the present annual Native Congress. Presided over by
the Secretary of Native Affairs 15 this Council shall consist of thirty-five
elected members, ten each elected by the Cape, Transvaal and Natal,
and five by the Orange Free State, and fifteen appointed members, five
from the Cape, four each from Natal and the Transvaal, and two from
the Orange Free State. The term is for three years, one-third of the
membership retiring annually. Representatives of natives living under
tribal or communal conditions shall be chosen by chiefs and headmen;
elsewhere they shall be elected according to conditions laid down in gov¬
ernment regulations.

This Council may discuss and pass resolutions in regard to any mat¬
ters relating to the economic, industrial or social condition of the native
population, and any proposed legislation or existing law which especially
affects the natives. It cannot, however, discuss “political” subjects—a
provision which in view of the close relationship of economic and political
questions will probably be difficult if not impossible to define . 16 More¬
over, the Council, at the request of the Minister of Native Affairs, may
pass laws, binding only upon natives, in regard to matters especially author-

14 Speech, Cape Times, November 14, 1925.

45 Members of the Native Affairs Commission and Cabinet may, according to
the bill, speak but not vote at meetings of the Council.

16 Cf. the experience of the Colonial Council of Senegal in this respect, Vol. I,
p. 173.

THE HERTZOG NATIVE POLICY

139

ized by the Union Parliament. In other words, the bill envisages a native
parliament controlling native affairs, subject to the supervision of a
European Prime Minister. Eventually the expenditure of part of the
native taxes may be placed under its control.

In his Smithfield speech Prime Minister Hertzog said that this Coun¬
cil “will provide scope for the talented native who is today compelled
to go to the white man for anything necessary for the improvement of
the natives, including their representation in parliament. The opportu¬
nity will be vouchsafed him of representing his own people in his own
country without mixing with the white man, except where white leader¬
ship is essential. Where a white leadership is no longer essential, it will
not be forced down the throat of the native.

“What is more, the native will become more and more conscious of the
duty he owes to the native population, and that this population has first
claim on his services.

“The present schism between the tribal native and the detribalised one
will be healed.”

By means of this limited representation of native interests in parlia¬
ment, the Union Native Council, and the extension of the Transkei sys¬
tem of local government throughout native areas, the Hertzog Govern¬
ment believes it is laying the political basis of native communities. In
his Smithfield speech, the Prime Minister declared, “The native is still
in the infancy of his development and a considerable period must elapse
before he is an independent nation [sic]. It is our duty, therefore, to
protect him because by protecting him we protect European civilization.”
He also stated that within the native areas the native should be properly
educated and encouraged and local conditions should be made as attrac¬
tive as possible. “The guidance of the white man will be required for
many years but the object of the education must be to enable the native
to undertake self-rule in his own area.”

The great and fundamental obstacle to the establishment of rela¬
tively self-sufficing native communities is the shortage of native land. Half
of the native population now live in white areas and 15 per cent more
live in European cities, where they inevitably remain under European con¬
trol. If black areas and native councils are to be established more land
is essential.

In introducing an amendment to the 1913 Land Act, the Hertzog
Government has in theory recognized this necessity. The 1913 Act, it
will be remembered, 17 proposed to establish certain areas outside of native
reserves where natives alone could purchase land from the government

17 Cf. Vol. I, p. 82.

140

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

or existing European owners. The amendment to this Act, introduced
by the Hertzog Government, proposed to carry this idea into effect, but
in a seriously modified form. The Land Bill of 1927 sets aside the
areas recommended by the local committees in 1916 as “released areas.”
But instead of giving natives the exclusive right of purchase in these
areas, Europeans and natives alike may purchase land. One race may
therefore compete against the other. Outside the “released areas” a native
may not, however, purchase land. Within “released areas,” a non-native
cannot acquire land wholly surrounded by native land, and vice-versa.
The Act in itself does not add a single acre to native landholdings. But
it simply authorizes natives to purchase land in about eight per cent of the
area of the Union outside of existing reserves. The bill provides that no
association of natives, other than a tribe, shall purchase land, which bars
the acquisition of land by such organizations as the “I. C. U.” If Euro¬
peans hold land within “released areas” which they decline to sell, the
natives may be authorized to purchase land equivalent in acreage outside
of the “released areas” provided it is contiguous to native land. A sched¬
ule to the bill lays down stringent fencing provisions so as to prevent cattle
from trespassing on European land, and vice-versa. Although parlia¬
ment may authorize the government to extend the size of “released areas,”
there seems to be no intention to increase these areas. In other words, this
bill is intended to constitute a definitive settlement. While Europeans
may purchase land as well as natives in the “released areas,” apparently
the government believes that the natives, because of their lower standard
of living, will eventually force the Europeans out.

Another provision of the bill provides for the establishment of a
Native Land Purchase and Advance Fund, fed by sums derived from
mineral licenses on claims within native areas, fees from squatters, fines
imposed for violation of the Act, and sums which may be appropriated
by parliament. This fund is under the control of the Minister of Native
Affairs.

After a date fixed by the government, a native may not reside out¬
side of native or “released areas” (constituting about 16 per cent of the
total area of the country) unless he is the owner of the land or a servant,
labor tenant, or squatter. 18 A servant means a native in the continuous em¬
ployment of a European proprietor. A labor tenant is a native who in
return for using European land agrees to furnish labor to the European
employer for at least one hundred and eighty days out of the year. 10 A

“These areas outside of native and “released areas” are called Proclaimed
Areas.

“Any dependent of a labor tenant is also required to be in the service of the

THE HERTZOG NATIVE POLICY

141

labor tenant who fails to perform his one hundred and eighty days of
labor is liable to a penal sanction. A squatter is a native who occu¬
pies European land in return for the payment of rent, either in the form
of crop or of cash. It will be remembered that the Land Act of 1913
attempted to do away with squatting, but because of the vagueness of
its provisions and for other reasons, squatting has persisted in large parts
of the Union since 1913.

The new bill allows any number of servants to remain on European
land, but directly or indirectly it strictly limits the number of labor ten¬
ants and squatters. A proprietor wishing to employ a labor tenant, i.e.,
a native agreeing to furnish labor for one hundred and eighty days a
year, must secure an annual license from the district magistrate subject
to a fee fixed at 2s.6d for each tenant when there are more than five
and less than ten, and at two pounds for each tenant above the number
of fifteen. These fees are increased when the proprietor does not occupy
the land. The magistrate must submit the application to the divisional
council or to a board which may grant or refuse the application, sub¬
ject to review by the Minister of Native Affairs. This council may also
refuse to renew a license. By this means the councils, which will be
composed mostly of European farmers, may prevent a wasteful employer
from locking up a potential labor supply. If a council declines to license
the presence of labor tenants upon one man’s farm, the tenants will be
forced to move to another farm or to the cities unless they desire to become
continuous servants. Under this system, a labor tenant has no guarantee
of fixed residence for more than one year.

According to Article 19 of the bill a license, authorizing a squatter or
rent-paying native “lawfully residing” on the land before the application
of the Act, may be issued in the manner provided for licenses for the
employment of labor tenants. This license is subject to a fee of three
pounds in case the land is under European occupation; if not, the fee is
five pounds.

The fourth bill introduced by the Hertzog Government is entitled
the Coloured Persons Rights Bill. The Coloured Persons, who number
several hundred thousand, are the offspring of inter-racial unions many
of which are said to date back to marriages between the Dutch and Hot-

proprietor and a dependent is defined as a person between the ages of twelve
and eighteen. According to the Workers' Herald, “This means then that besides
giving the proprietor six months’ hard labor in return for the acquisition of a
small piece of land, the whole family of a Native labor tenant between the ages
of twelve and eighteen will become the servants of the non-Native proprietor
of the land. The analogy is unparalleled in civilized history, unless one goes
back to the case of the American Negroes.”

142

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

tentots. This bill provides that for a period of seven years the colored
population shall vote for one European representative in Parliament for
each province, except in the Cape where they already vote upon the same
basis as the whites. Colored voters during this period must meet literary
and property qualifications prescribed by the province, and have a stand¬
ard of life conformable to that of European civilization. At the end
of seven years, the government may, if authorized by a resolution of both
Houses, place the colored voters on the ordinary voters list.

A “coloured person” is defined as one who is not a European or a
native. A “native” means any member of an aboriginal race or tribe of
Africa and any person whose mother or father is or was a member of
such race or tribe; provided that where the father or mother of such a
person is or was a European or a member of the Cape colored race and
such a person was born before the commencement of the Act, he shall
not be regarded as a native, but as a colored person, entitled to these fran¬
chise privileges . 20

Thus the bill grants the franchise to the existing colored population.
Persons born of mixed unions in the future shall be regarded as natives.
The government claims that this bill for the first time in history lays down
the “principle of political equality as between the European and coloured
population.”

In explaining this proposal, the Prime Minister said in his Smith-
field speech, “We have to remember that we have to do with a section of
the community closely allied to the white population, and one that is
fundamentally different from the natives. He owes his origin to us and
knows no other civilization than that of the European (although he is
sometimes lacking in appreciation of it), and even speaks the language of
the European as his mother tongue. There can thus be no talk of segre¬
gation. That is the reason why during the last seven years, the Nation¬
alists in Parliament have held the view that Cape Coloured people must
be treated on an equality with Europeans—economically, industrially and
politically.

“The result of this policy has been than an alliance between them and
the native population has been stopped. Luckily they felt that their
interests were more closely allied to those of the European than to that of
the native. It is their wish just as much as it is ours that they should
stand by themselves with regard to the franchise.”

These four measures, the Representative of Natives in Parliament Bill,

10 There is a provision that upon the recommendation of the Governor-General,
parliament may declare a person born of mixed parentage after the application of
this Act, a colored person.

THE HERTZOG NATIVE POLICY

143

the Union Native Council Bill, the Native Land Amendment Bill, and
the Coloured Persons Rights Bill were laid on the table of parliament
in 1926. It was declared that the measures stood or fell together; par¬
liament could not enact one and reject the other. In March, 1927, these
bills were formally placed before parliament and referred to a Select
Committee which took evidence'from Europeans and natives. 21 Parlia¬
ment adjourned in July after adopting the part of the land bill relating
to released areas. It is expected that the report of the Committee will be
completed so that the parliament may act upon the remaining bills
in the next session.

5. Criticisms

A large number of natives and Europeans opened a flood of criti¬
cisms upon these measures,—notably the Native Conference held in Pre¬
toria in November, 1926, the Johannesburg Joint Council of Europeans
and Natives, and General Smuts. The criticisms directed against the
Native Council Bill and the Coloured Persons Rights Bill, which it seems
were less vigorous than those directed against the remaining legislation,
will be discussed first.

While the Johannesburg Council in a carefully worked out memo¬
randum was in favor of some kind of Council, it declared that the pro¬
posed Union Native Council was merely another name for the existing
nominated Native Conference authorized in the Act of 1920. The new
Council “does not give the Native any greater share in the Government
of the country than he has without it.” 22 This would seem to be rather
an extreme statement in view of the fact that the bill does authorize the
government to establish electoral machinery whereby native representa¬
tives to this Council may be chosen and that it vests certain definite leg¬
islative powers, with the consent of the government, in the Council.
Whether or not this body will really function will depend upon the regu¬
lations issued by the government. In view of changing conditions and
of growing native experience, it would seem that the government has
acted wisely in leaving the definition of the native electorate and of the
powers of the Council to administrative regulation rather than to the more
or less inflexible provisions of a parliamentary statute. The European-
Bantu Conference, held under the auspices of the Dutch Reformed Church,
advocated that a register of qualified native voters for the Council should
be maintained and that greater authority should be given the Council in
initiating discussions.

n House of Assembly Debates, March 31, 1927, No. 9, col. 209.

a “General Hertzog’s Solution of the Native Question,” Johannesburg Joint
Council of Europeans and Natives, Johannesburg, 1926, p. 4.

144

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

The followers of the Cape school did not protest against the Hertzog
proposal to give the “coloured” population the franchise upon the same
basis eventually as the European. But General Smuts, among others,
pointed out that under the bill it would still be illegal for a colored person
to sit in Parliament. Moreover, the establishment of machinery for a
separate voting register would, in his opfnion, impose hardships. “Many
a coloured person with a preponderance of white blood who has hitherto
by courtesy passed as a white will in future have to run the gauntlet
of the coloured list if he wishes to preserve his political rights. . . . The
coloured list may become a terrible ordeal for many.” 23 General Smuts
also declared that the “absurd and arbitrary” definition limiting colored
persons to those born before the Act shows “that the Government are
really doubtful of the coloured policy they are recommending to the coun¬
try, and that they wish to call a halt at a point where a halt is clearly
impossible. . . . The white people of the Union will have honestly and
frankly to make up their minds whether they will confer the superior
white status on all coloured people without distinction now and hereafter
throughout the Union, or whether' the risks of such a policy are too grave
and whether it is wise to wait and see whether miscegenation is or is not
on the wane in the Union.” He also pointed out that the plan made no
provision for Indian representation.

There is an even more fundamental difficulty with the Hertzog pro¬
posal to assimilate the existing “coloured” population with the European.
If the plan succeeds, there is no logical reason why the educated native
who differs little from the colored person or the mulatto should not also
be given the same consideration. In admitting the possibility of “col¬
oured” assimilation, the Hertzog Government has rejected its own reason¬
ing in regard to the necessity of establishing separate racial communities.
The real test of the plan will come when the colored person demands
social equality with the white. While they may not object to a few colored
voters or to colored skilled laborers, the Europeans, whether they inhabit
Cape Town or Bloemfontein, show no more signs of asking a “coloured”
gentleman to dinner than a native. Altogether, it seems that the pur¬
pose of the Hertzog proposal is the opportunistic one of enticing away
a number of colored leaders of the native population.

Even more vigorous criticisms have been directed against the Fran¬
chise and Land Bills. The Native Conference, meeting at Pretoria in
November, 1926, rejected the Franchise Bill altogether. The Johannes¬
burg Joint Council declared that under this bill the Cape native would

a General J. C. Smuts, Memorandum on Government Natives and Coloured
Bills, Pretoria, 1926, p. 14.

THE HERTZOG NATIVE POLICY

145

lose his status as a citizen. It declared that if natives were to be repre¬
sented in Parliament, they should be represented by natives and not by
Europeans. The Act provided no machinery for the election of the seven
representatives—there were no safeguards against abuse. Moreover, it
objected to the whole principle that native interests were something apart
from the interests of South Africa generally, and to the idea “that in
the government of the country, affecting as it does every member of the
community, the Native is to take no serious part; that whether the finan¬
cial policy of the Government is wise or unwise is not a question in the
decision of which the Native is to share; that industrial measures and
tariff modifications in which the Native may be more deeply concerned
than other members of the State may, if the Government of the day re¬
gards them as matters of confidence, be passed into law without the
Native representatives being allowed to record their votes.” It went on
to declare, “The Native population of South Africa is an integral part
of the community and has a right to adequate representation in all its
councils.” The bill contains no inducement to the natives “either to
advance towards civilization or to bear his share of the government of
the country.” It declared that the Prime Minister’s fears in regard to
the native electorate’s eventual overwhelming of the European electorate
were unfounded. The Cape native vote in 1921 amounted to only ten per
cent of the European vote, despite the fact that the Cape native had been
eligible for the franchise during three-quarters of a century. The Council
did not believe that the native would vote on native instead of on party
lines. General Smuts also declared that since the Union the native vot¬
ers had increased by 7,549 while the European voters in the Cape had in¬
creased by 35 ,i 85- 24 Moreover, he believed that in view of Section 35
of the South Africa Act providing that no person already in possession
of the franchise could be disenfranchised, 25 this bill disenfranchising Cape
native voters would be unconstitutional. The Hertzog Government ap-

“For the percentage, cf. Vol. I, p. 132.

“Article 35: “(1) Parliament may by law prescribe the qualifications which
shall be necessary to entitle persons to vote at the election of members of fhe
House of Assembly, but no such law shall disqualify any person in the Province
of the Cape of Good Hope who, under the laws existing in the Colony of the
Cape of Good Hope at the establishment of the Union, is or may become capable
of being registered as a voter from being so registered in the Province of the Cape
of Good Hope by reason of his race or color only, unless the bill be passed by
both Houses of Parliament sitting together, and at the third reading be agreed
to by not less than two-thirds of the total number of members of both Houses. A
bill so passed at such joint sitting shall be taken to have been duly passed by
both Houses of Parliament.

(2) No person who at the passing of any such law is registered as a voter in
any Province shall be removed from the register by reason only of any disqualifi¬
cation based on race or color.”

146 THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

parently believes that Article 35 cannot prevail against a majority vote of
both Houses of Parliament; the first article of the Representative of Na¬
tives in Parliament Bill simply states that the provisions of the Act shall
have effect notwithstanding Section 35. 26

In itself the Cape franchise has not been of material importance to
the Cape native and colored people, and its extension throughout the
Union, one is bound to admit, would create endless problems and diffi¬
culties. At the same time, the natives of the Cape and elsewhere cling
to the Cape franchise as a symbol of an independent and equal status with
the whites which they hope in the future may be realized. Any policy
which takes away the franchise without placing something substantial in
its place is looked upon, quite naturally, as a policy of repression. When
this legislation follows the color-bar bill excluding natives from skilled
employment in the cities and when it accompanies land legislation which
increases the restrictions imposed on natives occupying native land, these
fears among the native population are increased.

According to many South Africans the Land Amendment Bill pre¬
sents even more serious defects. General Smuts has declared that in
admitting European purchases in “released areas,” the new bill abandons
the principle of segregation set up in the Land Act of 1913 and which is
at the basis of the present government’s theory of Differentiation. He
says, “The door is once more set open to all the evils of mixed or piebald
landholding against which the Act of 1913 was intended to provide.” 27
Since the potential purchase areas for natives is limited to eight per cent
of the area of the country, the price of land held by Europeans in these
areas will naturally rise, and it is difficult to see how the government will
be able to prevent speculation. It has been pointed out that the fees
charged European farmers for squatter and tenant licenses are so drastic
that few farmers may profitably engage tenants or squatters, espe¬
cially when native servants, working continuously throughout the year,
may be found. Rather than pay these fees, they will probably serve notice
on the tenants and squatters to become servants or leave the farm. Such
natives will not be able to find room in over-crowded cities or reserves,
confronted by impossible living conditions there, many of them would con¬
sequently be forced to become servants to European landlords. The Jo¬
hannesburg Joint Council says, “There will be no freedom of contract
and the so-called servants will be indistinguishable from slaves. ... Is
this any better than the condition of the Natives in South Africa before

“The extent to which the Constitution of South Africa binds Parliament is
discussed in Vol. I, p. 193.

27 Memorandum, cited, p. 5.

THE HERTZOG NATIVE POLICY

147

the abolition of the slave trade?” While it did not wish to imply that
these natives could be bought or sold, they could be moved from one farm
to another by district boards and they had po incentive to acquire skill
or become independent peasant farmers. “Theirs will be forced labour
in its most acute form.” 28

While from the absolute standpoint these strictures may be sound,
the fact remains that the 1927 Bill does not seem to be much more severe
upon native residents on European farms than the Land Act of 1913
which was the product of the Smuts Government. Nevertheless, in fail¬
ing to set aside the reserved areas authorized by the 1913 Act, the Hertzog
Government opened itself to the charge that it was more interested
in reducing native residents upon native farms to the status of involun¬
tary servants than in increasing the native land holdings, which is essen¬
tial for the establishment of the native communities which the government
in theory supports.

The European-Bantu Conference, convoked by the Dutch Reform
Church, stated that the Local Committee Areas constituted the minimum
acreage to satisfy native needs, and that this acreage should be set aside
for native acquisition only.

6. Dangers of the Hertzog Policy

Apparently in an effort to win over the support of the Nationalist
party to its other native bills, the Hertzog Government accepted the
Color Bar measure which became law in the spring of 1926. Viewed as
part of the policy of establishing parallel black and white communities,
the color bar does not present in theory so many objections as it does
standing alone. Within the black communities, natives will be allowed
to develop an economic society in which natives may rise to the top. In
return, they will be excluded from competing with whites in European
communities.

The Hertzog native bills, as we have seen, thoroughly protect the do¬
minion of the white man in the white communities, which nevertheless
depend upon native labor. But what do they actually do in bringiog
about the establishment of black communities ? They authorize the estab¬
lishment of district councils and a Native Parliament with power to dis¬
cuss matters affecting native life, under severe European control. But
these councils cannot operate except in native communities and the gov¬
ernment has made no adequate provision for the creation of these com¬
munities as far as a large proportion of the native population is concerned.
This can be done only by a revision of the present land system which the

“ Ibid., No. 1, pp. 15, 17.

148

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

government has not dared to bring about. The fundamental objection
to the Hertzog program, as it at present stands, is that while it bars
native economic and political advancement in white communities, it does
nothing to create new opportunities for native advancement in black com¬
munities simply because these communities do not exist. If this program
goes through as it stands, the native population will probably for the time
being be worse off than before. But it will have one advantage. Through
the machinery which the government has established, the native population
may voice its demands for the removal of these color bar and land re¬
strictions. If the government attempts to suppress or ignore such criti¬
cism, it probably will have some form of revolution on its hands. It is
a dangerous policy to establish representative bodies and then give no heed
to their demands.

At the present time and for as long as can he foreseen, European
enterprise in South Africa will be dependent upon native labor. Because
of the existing land shortage, which will grow more and more acute,
thousands of natives will be literally forced to spend their lives in Euro¬
pean employment. It would seem only just, under these conditions, that
no obstacle to native advancement in European employment should be
imposed. Moreover, according to a dozen government commissions, the
abolition of the color bar in industry would be of advantage from the
standpoint of developing the resources of the country as a whole. While
this would probably lower the artificially high wages now paid to Euro¬
pean skilled labor, the opening of new channels of industry would not
only decrease the .post of living and hence increase real wages, but it
would make openings for the employment of many more white men than
can under the present economic system be engaged.

The abolition of the color bar should be accompanied by further
changes in the land system. The grave social problems which now exist
in the urban areas of South Africa will not be solved until many of the
natives living in these cities return to the farms. No community life can
be developed, however, as long as the reserves are over-populated as they
are to-day, and as long as a million or more natives are obliged to live a
precarious existence upon European estates. Public opinion in South
Africa is not disposed to give further land to the natives, and apparently
it is not disposed to extend purchase areas. Nevertheless, it should be
possible to give some independent and secure status to natives, servants or
squatters, now on European farms. In the past many of them have culti¬
vated land unoccupied by European owners. This squatting has been
opposed by the government on the ground that it intensifies the evils
of absentee landlordism and that native cultivation is inefficient and un-

THE HERTZOG NATIVE POLICY

149

supervised. It would seem, however, that the abolition of squatting and
of labor tenancy which would be the result of the proposed land bill will
curtail rather than increase agricultural development in South Africa. In
view of the restrictions imposed on the economic progress of the country and
upon the liberty of natives to live their lives on the land of their fathers,
the South African Government should seriously consider a plan of setting
apart certain farms adjoining released or native areas in which native
squatters woud be authorized to lease land from European owners in
return for security of tenure and some form of agricultural supervision.
This idea was recently sanctioned by the European-Bantu Conference,
called by the Dutch Reformed Church, which passed a resolution favoring
a system of native lease farming for fixed periods under the control of
a Land Board. To provide for agricultural improvements and training
the Conference favored a system of loans.

Some light may be thrown on this problem by a discussion of the situa¬
tion of the “crofters” in Scotland.

7. The " Crofter” System

Before 1885, a land system prevailed in the Scotch Highlands similar
in some respects to the situation of squatters on South African farms
to-day—a system apparently originating in the clan system, under which
feudal proprietors allowed tenants called crofters to occupy their land
in return for the payment of rent and services. The crofters had, how¬
ever, no legally recognized security of tenure; they were subject to the
payment of high rents; they were not compensated for improvements, and
holdings were not properly cultivated. In 1884 the British Government
appointed a commission to inquire into the condition of these crofters, and
as a result of their recommendations 20 legislation was passed 30 providing
that the owner could not remove the crofter except for breach of statu¬
tory conditions which included failure to pay rent. In case of removal,

“The condition of the crofter was described by this commission as follows:

“The crofter of the present time has through past evictions been confined within
narrow limits, sometimes on inferior and exhausted soil. He is subject to arbi¬
trary augmentations of money rent, he is without security of tenure, and has
only recently received the concession of compensation for improvements. His habi¬
tation is usually of a character which would almost imply physical and moral de¬
gradation in the eyes of those who do not know how much decency, courtesy, vir¬
tue, and even mental refinement survive amidst the sordid surroundings of a
Highland hovel. The crofter belongs to that class of tenants who have re¬
ceived the smallest share of proprietary favour or benefaction, and who are by
virtue of power, position, or covenants, least protected against inconsiderate treat¬
ment.” Report of Her Majesty’s Commissioners of Inquiry into the condition of
the Crofters and Cottars in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, C. 3980
(1884), p. 7.

“49 and 50 Viet. Cap. 29 (1886).

150

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

the crofter should be compensated for improvements as determined by the
Crofter’s Commission, established to supervise the working of the act.
Rent was fixed at the figure existing at time of the passage of the act
unless changed by agreement between the landlord and the crofter; or
on the application of either party, by the Crofter’s Commission. By this
means the crofter has security of tenure subject to the payment of rent
fixed by the Crofter’s Commission which sees to it that he makes proper
use of the land. The crofter may even extend his holdings on the estate
of a landlord, subject to the permission of the Commission . 31

It appears that largely as a result of this system, the crofters of Scot¬
land have become some of the most respectable and enterprising people
of the community. As we have seen in South Africa, European landlords
possess immense holdings upon which more than a million natives find
a hazardous and uncontrolled existence and upon which other natives
would, under proper encouragement, settle. No democratic government
would dare to attempt the expropriation of these European landlords, no
matter how improvidently they use their lands. But many of these land¬
lords prefer to receive rents from native farmers than to work the land
themselves. Through extending “released areas” in which natives may pur¬
chase land, through this crofter idea where squatters may acquire the undis¬
turbed use of land, and through a tax on the unearned increment of
land, the fundamental obstacle to a settlement of the native problem in
South Africa could eventually be overcome.

The obstacles to a solution of the race problem in South Africa are
formidable almost to the point of despair. While the leaders realize the
necessity of a new policy, the great masses of Europeans who control the
government and who own the land find it difficult to shake off century-
old beliefs and to support legislation involving the sacrifice of their im-

81 An example follows: “In 1902 the Ardcharnich Crofters made another ap¬
plication for part of Inverlael adjacent to the township. The Application was
opposed by the Landlord on various grounds, but particularly on the ground that
the assignment of the land applied for would impair the use of the remainder as a
Deer Forest and would be essential to him if he should resume farming operations
thereon. This objection could not be regarded as serious in the circumstances of
Inverlael, but important questions as to fencing arose. The land applied for, it
should be explained, consisted of (1) a long narrow strip situated between jhe
public road and the seashore, and (2) a considerable area of grazing ground
lying above the public road. If all this land were assigned it would require to
be fenced off from the rest of the Deer Forest, and as the Applicants could not
place a gate across the public road, both sides of the road for a distance of about
a mile would require to be fenced. This would be a serious undertaking for the
Applicants, and we accordingly restricted the proposed assignment to the land
between the public road and the sea. This land extended to 23 acres, which were
valued at £4.195 or ns for each of nine shares. The Applicants were ordered
to fence this land, and having done so they duly got possession.”

Report of the Crofter’s Commission, 1910-1912, Cd. 6788 (1912), xii.

THE HERTZOG NATIVE POLICY

151

mediate interests. Nevertheless, there are many signs of a growing appre¬
ciation of the problem. The Dutch Reformed Church, probably the most
important unofficial organization in the country, is taking the lead in the
movement of popular education. Through outlining these comprehensive
bills and proposing a concrete policy, the present Prime Minister has
shown an intelligence and courage which none of his predecessors has
demonstrated. The mere fact that the leader of the Nationalist party
has dared to support measures giving natives a form of representation in
parliament shows how long a distance South African opinion has traveled
during the last few years.

In the past, the so-called “liberals” in both Europe and America—
most of whom have been addicted to the Cape theory of assimilation—
have been unduly harsh in their judgment of the South African people.
They forget that Europeans came to this country with the same inno¬
cence as the Pilgrim Fathers came to America and like many American
pioneers regarded the primitive people who opposed them as Philistines
whom they were divinely called upon to destroy. They also forget that
the white man settled in some parts of South Africa earlier than the ances¬
tors of the present black inhabitants who, as a result of inter-tribal war,
came pouring out of Central Africa in comparatively recent times. An
appeal to history, therefore, is without value. The fact is that five and
a half million blacks live alongside one and a half million whites. As
the Natal Native Affairs Commission said, “Noted for their fecundity
and virility, they [the natives] will not die out or succumb to ordinary
adversity, and, as we can neither assimilate nor destroy them, political
forethought and common sense alike call for a settlement of the question
on a broad, enlightened, and permanent basis.” 32

The principles sanctioned by the Hertzog Government are an im¬
portant contribution to this settlement. Not the least of their value is
the fact that these principles may serve as a guide to other colonies, such
as Kenya and Rhodesia, the white settlement of which has, comparatively
speaking, only begun and where, consequently, the application of these
measures should be easier to achieve than in South Africa where a policy
of drift for the past two centuries has left an increasing accumulation of
conflicting interests.

**Cd. 3889, cited, p. 10.

APPENDICES—SOUTH AFRICA

I. The India-South Africa Agreement, 1927

APPENDIX I

THE INDIA-SOUTH AFRICA AGREEMENT, 1927

JOINT COMMUNIQUE

“It was announced in April, 1926, that the Government of India and the
Government of the Union of South Africa had agreed to hold a round-table
conference to explore all possible methods of settling the Indian question in
the Union in a manner which would safeguard the maintenance of Western
standards of life in South Africa by just and legitimate means. The con¬
ference assembled at Cape Town on December 17, and its session finished on
January 11. There was, in these meetings, a full and frank exchange of views,
which has resulted in a truer appreciation of mutual difficulties and a united
understanding to co-operation in the solution of a common problem in a spirit
of friendliness and goodwill.

“1. Both Governments reaffirm their recognition of the right of South
Africa to use all just and legitimate means for the maintenance of West¬
ern standards of life.

“2. The Union Government recognise that Indians domiciled in the
Union, who are prepared to conform to Western standards of life, should
be enabled to do so.

“3. For those Indians in the Union who may desire to avail them¬
selves of it, the Union Government will organise a scheme of assisted emi¬
gration to India or other countries where Western standards are not
required. Union domicile will be lost after three years’ continuous ab¬
sence from the Union in agreement with the proposed revision of the
law relating to domicile, which will be of general application. Emigrants
under the Assisted Emigration Scheme who desire to return to the Union
within the three years will only be allowed to do so on refund to the
Union Government of the cost of the assistance received by them.

“4. The Government of India recognise their obligation to look after
such emigrants on their arrival in India.

“5. The admission into the Union of the wives and minor children
of Indians permanently domiciled in the Union will be regulated by Para¬
graph 3 of Resolution XXI. of the Imperial Conference of 1918.

“6. In the expectation that the difficulties with which the Union has
been confronted will be materially lessened by the agreement which has
now happily been reached between the two Governments, and in order
that the agreement may come into operation under the most favour-
155

156

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

able auspices and have a fair trial, the Government of the Union of South
Africa have decided not to proceed further with the Areas Reservation
and Immigration and Registration (Further Provision) Bill.

“7. The two Governments have agreed to watch the working of the
agreement now reached and to exchange views from time to time as to
any changes that experience may suggest.

“8. The Government of the Union of South Africa have requested the
Government of India to appoint an agent in the Union in order to secure
continuous and effective co-operation between the two Governments.”

The following is a more detailed summary of the conclusions reached at
the Conference:

SUMMARY OF CONCLUSIONS

I. Scheme of Assisted Emigration

(1) Any Indian of 16 years or over may avail himself of the scheme. In
case of a family, the decision of the father will bind the wife and minor chil¬
dren under 16 years.

(2) Each person of 16 years or over will receive a bonus of £20 and each
child under that age a sum of £10. No maximum shall be fixed for a family.
A decrepit adult who is unable to earn his living by reason of a physical dis¬
ability may, at the discretion of the Union authorities, receive a pension in
lieu of or in addition to the bonus. The pension will be paid through some
convenient official agency in India out of a fund provided by the Union Gov¬
ernment to such amount as they may determine. It is expected that the
amount required will not exceed £500 per annum in all.

In every case the bonus will be payable in India on arrival at destination
or afterwards through some banking institution of repute.

(3) Free passage, including railway fares to port of embarkation in South
Africa, and from port of landing in India to destination inland will also be
provided.

(4) Emigrants will travel to India, via Bombay, as well as via Madras.
Emigrants landing at Bombay will be sent direct from the ship to their
destination at the expense of the Union Government.

Survey and certification of ships shall be strictly supervised and conditions
on the voyage, especially in respect of sanitary arrangements, feeding, and
medical attendance, improved.

(5) Before a batch of emigrants leaves the Union, information will be
sent to some designated authority in India at least one month in advance giving
(a) a list of intending emigrants and their families, (b) their occupation in
South Africa and the occupation or employment which they would require in
India, and (c) the amount of cash and other resources which each possesses.
On arrival in India emigrants will be (i) advised and, as far as possible,
protected against squandering their cash money or losing it to adventurers, and
(ii) helped as far as possible to settle in occupations for which they are best
suited by their aptitude or their resources. Any emigrant wishing to partici-

THE INDIA-SOUTH AFRICA AGREEMENT, 1927 157

pate in emigration schemes authorised by the Government of India will be
given the same facilities in India as Indian nationals.

(6) An assisted emigrant wishing to return to the Union will be allowed
to do so within three years from the date of departure from South Africa.
As condition precedent to re-entry, an emigrant shall refund in full to some
recognised authority in India the bonus and cost of passage, including railway
fares received on his own behalf and, if he has a family, on behalf of his
family. A pro rata reduction will, however, be made (i) in respect of a
member of the family who dies in the interim or of a daughter who marries
in India and does not return, and (ii) in other cases of unforeseen hardship
at the discretion of the Minister.

(7) After expiry of three years Union domicile will be lost in agree¬
ment with the proposed revision of the law relating to domicile which will
be of general application. The period of three years will run from the date
of departure from a port in the Union and expire on the last day of the third
year. But to prevent the abuse of the bonus and free passage by persons who
wish to pay temporary visits to India or elsewhere no person availing himself
of the benefits of the scheme will be allowed to come back to the Union within
less than one year from the date of his departure. For purposes of re-entry
within the time limit of three years, the unity of the family group shall be
recognised, though in cases of unforeseen hardship the Minister of the In¬
terior may allow one or more members of the family to stay behind. A son
who goes with the family as a minor attains majority outside the Union,
marries there and has issue, will be allowed to return to South Africa, but
only if he come with the rest of his father’s family. In such cases he will
be allowed to bring his wife and child or children with him. But a daughter
who marries outside the Union will acquire the domicile of her husband, and
will not be admitted into the Union unless her husband is himself domiciled
in the Union.

II. Entry of Wives and Minor Children

To give effect to paragraph 3 of the Reciprocity Resolution of the Imperial
Conference of 1918, which intended that an Indian should be enabled to live
a happy family life in the country in which he is domiciled, the entry of wives
and children shall be governed by the following principles:

(a) The Government of India should certify that each individual for
whom a right of entry is claimed, is the lawful wife or child, as the case may
be, of the person who makes the claim.

(b) Minor children should not be permitted to enter the Union unless
accompanied by the mother, if alive, provided that:

(i) The mother is not already resident in the Union; and

(ii) The Minister may in special cases permit the entry of such
children unaccompanied by their mother.

158

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

the Union unless proof of such divorce to the satisfaction of the Minister
has been submitted.

(d) The definition of wife and child as given in the Indians Relief Act
(No. 22 or 1914) shall remain in force.

III. Upliftment of Indian Community

(1) The Union Government firmly believe in and adhere to the principle
that it is the duty of every civilised Government to devise ways and means
and to take all possible steps for the uplifting of every section of their per¬
manent population to the full extent of their capacity and opportunities, and
accept the view that in the provision of educational and other facilities the
considerable number of Indians who will remain part of the permanent popula¬
tion should not be allowed to lag behind other sections of the people.

(2) It is difficult for the Union Government to take action, which is con¬
siderably in advance of public opinion, or to ignore difficulties arising out of
the constitutional system of the Union under which the functions of Govern¬
ment are distributed between the Central Executive and the Provincial and
minor local authorities. But the Union Government are willing

(a) in view of the admittedly grave situation in respect of Indian edu¬
cation in Natal, to advise the Provincial Administration to appoint a
provincial commission of inquiry and to obtain the assistance of an educa¬
tional expert from the Government of India for the purpose of such
inquiry ;

(b) to consider sympathetically the question of improving facilities for
higher education by providing suitable hostel accommodation at the South
African Native College at Fort Hare and otherwise improving the attrac¬
tiveness of the institution for Indians.

(c) to take special steps under the Public Health Act for an investigation
into sanitary and housing conditions in and around Durban which will
include the question of

(i) the appointment of advisory committees of representative In¬
dians; and

(ii) the limitation of the sale of municipal land subject to restrictive
conditions.

(3) The principle underlying the Industrial Conciliation Act (No'. 11 of
1924) and the Wages Act (No. 27 of 1925), which enables all employees,
including Indians, to take their places on the basis of equal pay for equal work,
will be adhered to.

(4) When the time for the revision of the existing trade licensing laws
arrives, the Union Government will give all due consideration to the sug¬
gestions made by the Government of India delegation that the discretionary
powers of local authorities might reasonably be limited in the following ways:

THE INDIA-SOUTH AFRICA AGREEMENT, 1927 159

(1) The grounds on which a licence may be refused should be laid
down by statute.

(2) The reasons for which a licence is refused should be recorded.

(3) There should be a right of appeal in cases of first applications
and transfers, as well as in cases of renewals, to the courts or to some
other impartial tribunal.

SECTION II

BASUTOLAND

South Africa and the Rhodesias

CHAPTER 10

THE CONTEST WITH THE BOERS

Totally surrounded by South African territory and having an area of
about twelve thousand square miles, broken by mountains of rugged beauty,
Basutoland has been called a little Switzerland. The Basutos who inhabit
this country are a branch of the Bantu race and originally consisted of
thirteen loosely organized clans. 1

About 1800, a native named Moshesh was born who was predestined
to unite these clans into a nation. King Moshesh of the Basutos, like his
opponent King Tschaka of the Zulus, is among the great figures of
African history.

I. Moshesh and the Boers

Moshesh united the Basuto people against the fearful onslaughts of
the Zulus who at the beginning of the nineteenth century terrorized the
whole of South Africa. Having beaten off these black invaders, Moshesh
found himself confronted with a still more dreadful foe—the white man.
To protect himself against the evil consequences of western industrialism,
Moshesh invited missionaries—representatives of the Paris Evangelical
Society—to take up their residence in his country and they have ever since
sturdily defended the interests of the Basutos. 2

At this period, the country over which Moshesh ruled occupied not
only the mountainous area now confined in its present boundaries, but part
of the rich agricultural plain which lies between Maseru and Bloemfon¬
tein. Trekking northward from Cape Town, Boer farmers asked
Moshesh’s consent to occupy these lands—a consent which in many cases
was given. Having occupied this land, the European farmers started to
sell it to newcomers, which irritated Moshesh who said they were only
tenants. Some of these farmers, under the restraint of no government

1 Cf. D. F. Ellenberger, History of the Basuto, Ancient and Modern, London,
1912.

a In 1858, one of the greatest missionaries in African history, Francois Coillard,
came to Basutoland where he worked for about twenty years. He also labored
twenty years in a native state to the north, Barotseland, discussed in Vol. I, p. 238.
Cf. C. W. Mackintosh, Coillard of the Zambesi, London, 1907, and Edouard Favre,
La vie d’un Missionnaire franqais, Francois Coillard, 1834-1904, Paris, 1922.

163

164

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

except Moshesh’s authority, went further and killed several Basutos, charg¬
ing that they had stolen cattle. In 1839, Moshesh appealed to the British
governor at Cape Town for protection against these new invaders—an
appeal which was repeated in 1842. 3

After years of hesitation the Governor, Sir George Napier, warned
farmers against encroaching upon Basuto lands, while in 1842 he made a
treaty of alliance with Moshesh, in which he promised to pay the king an
annual subsidy of seventy-five pounds. But the treaty did little more; its
chief weakness was that it failed to define the boundary between Basuto¬
land and the newly constituted Orange Free State. Differences over
the boundary soon arose which the parties concerned tried to settle at a
conference in 1845. In that year, Moshesh made a new treaty with the
British in which he agreed to accept a British resident who would try
mixed cases and control land leases to whites. But as the resident was
given no financial or military support, matters became more and more
confused until in 1848 to straighten matters out the governor of Cape
Colony annexed not only Basutoland but its troublesome neighbor, the
Dutch Orange Free State. This did not prevent the white farmers from
taking advantage of the dispute over the boundary line to occupy ad¬
ditional Basuto land which led the Basutos to retaliate with raids. In
1850, the British at Cape Town decided to suppress these raids,
which led the French missionaries to protest to the British Colonial
Office against a policy which one minute defended and the next attacked
the Basutos.

In this appeal they declared that there had been “an unwarrantable
disregard of the rights, the past history, the different habits, the relative
position and the respective wants of the native population.” They con¬
tinued : “This has led the natives to suspect the Government of a dis¬
position to divide in order to reign. . . . Natural rights, past grievances,
past benefits, past engagements and treaties, feudal allegiances, kindred
ties, family bonds, have been discarded and overlooked.” 4

Despite this appeal British troops were again sent against the Basutos
on the ground that they were thieves. Sir Godfrey Lagden says, “It was
virtually judgment without trial.” Nevertheless, the Basutos administered
punishment to the judge at the battle of Berea. Sick of the whole busi¬
ness, the British Government withdrew from the Orange River Sovereignty
and virtually invited the Boers, who established a provisional govern¬
ment at Bloemfontein in 1854, to handle the Basutos as they liked. For
the next few years, the Free State and Moshesh constantly quarreled over

* Cf. Sir Godfrey Lagden, The Basutos, New York, 1910, Vol. I, pp. 66 ff.

4 Ibid., p. 124.

THE CONTEST WITH THE BOERS

165

the boundary between them which had never been defined. Moshesh wrote
to President Boshoff of the Free State, “When we saw that the Whites
crossed the Orange river (in 1836) we wondered at it. They crossed by
lots. They begged from the Blacks for pasturages everywhere, one by one,
in a very good soft manner. We did not imagine that they would appro¬
priate the land to themselves, and when I heard that they were purchasing
farms from each other I hastened to issue a proclamation . . . telling to
the Whites: Do not barter the land, for it is not our custom of us Basuto
to do so. According to our custom, the land belongs to all the people, it
is bequeathed to our posterity, it is not disposed of by bargain and also it is
not our habit to define limits in it.” 5

In 1858, the Boers replied by war. But despite their destruction of the
French mission at Morija, the Free State proved no match for the Basutos
who, sheltered by mountain crevices, even manufactured their own gun¬
powder. At the intervention of Sir George Grey, the British High
Commissioner at Cape Colony, a treaty of peace was made defining a
boundary; but it was not carried out, and the Basutos were once more
left by the British defenseless again the Boers. In despair, Moshesh
again implored the aid of the Queen. In 1862 he said, “What I desire
is this: that the Queen should send a man to live with me, who will
be her ear and eye, and also her hand to work with me in political matters.
. . . My ‘House’ is Basutoland. So that the Queen rules my people only
through me. The man whom I ask from the Queen to live with me will
guide and direct me and communicate between me and the Government.
... I wish to govern my own people by native law, by our own laws; but
if the Queen wish after this to introduce other laws into my country, 1
would be willing; but I should wish such laws to be submitted to the
Council of the Basutos; and when they are accepted by my Council, 1
will send to the Queen and inform her that they have become law.” 6

This remarkable statement of the principle of Indirect Rule did not,
however, bring forth fruit; 7 and war again broke out between the Free
State and Moshesh. After reciting the offenses of the Basuto, which
were principally cattle-stealing, President Brand of the Free State issued
a proclamation saying: “Rise then, burghers of the Orange Free State!
To arms, in the name of God, for the defence of your rights and the pro¬
tection of your homesteads and property, and for the suppression of the
arrogance and violence of the Basutos! Be courageous and strong, and put
your trust in the Righteous Judge who hears the prayer of faith.” In

“Lagden, cited, p. 195.

0 Ibid., Vol. I, p. 315.

1 1mperial commissioners recommended that a government agent be appointed
at Basutoland, but no action was taken.

166

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

reply to this proclamation, Moshesh said. . . . “All persons know that
my great sin is that I possess a good and fertile country.”

Following this war, the Basutos were obliged to accept the Award of
1865 in which they agreed to deliver up their arms; to accept at their
capital of Thaba Bosigo a Free State magistrate; to pay within four days ten
thousand head of cattle and five thousand horses as war reparations, and
thereafter sixty thousand sheep and thirty thousand cattle as compensation
for robberies committed against the burghers. Moshesh also agreed to
cede certain lands and to deliver up his mo principal sons as hostages.
In despair, Moshesh again wrote to the High Commissioner at Cape Town
that he would never submit to the Free State and implored the protection
of the Queen. Meanwhile, irresponsible Basutos invaded the territory of
Natal and the Transvaal which led the Transvaal to declare war in which
the Free State later joined. For the first time in history, Free State troops
succeeded in invading the stronghold of the Basuto mountains, as a result
of which Moshesh was obliged to cede several hundred miles of territory
which he promised his people would immediately evacuate.

Accusing them of intervening in politics and menacing the Free State,
the Burgher government now expelled the French Protestant Missionaries
from Basutoland. 8

Criticism of this expulsion was so strong that the Free State
finally agreed to allow them to return provided they would pay five
hundred dollars for each mission station they had constructed—an offer
indignantly rejected. Meanwhile, the Basutos fretted under the terms
of the Award of 1865. An historian says: “The drift of affairs was now
obviously bad. The land ceded by treaty was bought up largely by specu¬
lators who thought more of the rise in value than finding tenants. Owing
to signs of unrest, farmers did not take up occupation freely. Conse¬
quently, the Basutos, observing the ground they had been forced to quit
remaining untenanted, returned in squads to cultivate and hunt. Stealing
became rife and the sanguine hopes of peace entertained by the Free State
were again withered.” 9

As a result of these actions, the Free State again declared war in 1867
following which it obliged Letsie, the son of Moshesh, to cede the whole
of his country over which he ruled, except for a small tract of land, to the
Free State in a treaty which led to a protest from the British Government.
The failure of Letsie to live up to these terms led the Free State again
to declare war. Thus subjected to repeated attacks, the Basutos became

8 President Brand of the Free State opposed the action on the ground that it
would deprive the Basutos of their one restraining influence. But he had no veto
over the vote of the Volksraad. C. W. Mackintosh, cited, p. 14.6.

# Lagden, cited, p. 410.

THE CONTEST WITH THE BOERS

167

reduced in numbers; their cattle were taken from them; and their country
became impoverished, and the people disorganized. The nation which
Moshesh had built up was on the verge of disintegration.

In a memorable document signed by the Duke of Buckingham in 1867,
the British Government finally agreed that to save Basutoland from the
Free State it should be annexed. This declaration angered the Boers who
continued their fight against the Basutos who were forced to cross from
Basutoland into Natal. Finally aroused out of the torpor in which the
“little England” school had placed it, the British Government now issued
a proclamation declaring Basutoland British territory and imposing an
embargo on the sale of arms to the Free State. In the Convention of
Aliwal North in 1869, 10 between Great Britain and the Orange Free
State, a boundary was drawn between the Free State and Basutoland
which returned to the Basutos a small portion of land but which ceded to
the Free State about half the territory which the Basuto nation had
originally occupied. As a result of these wars, about fifteen thousand
Basutos had migrated from their country in despair. 11

2. Relations with the Cape

Having saved the Basutos from extinction, the British now. proceeded
to send an agent to the territory. But as the Basutos had no intention of
giving up their national independence, conflicts arose. Still lacking in
enthusiasm for the administration of this country, the British Colonial
Office administered Basutoland only for two years when it agreed that
it should be annexed by and become a native reserve of the Cape Colony,
which was done in 1871. The Cape drew up a Code of Regulations for
Basutoland curtailing the powers of the chiefs in regard to the administra¬
tion of justice and the control of land. Apparently aroused at this Code,
Chief Letsie asked that the Basutos be given representation in the Cape
parliament. In reply, the Cape authorities declared that if Basutoland
were given such representation, it would become an integral part of the
Cape, subject to English and not native laws, and would thus be deprived
of many privileges.

Difficulties between Basutoland and the Cape again arose, particularly
when the Cape tried to apply the Peace Preservation Act and disarm the
Basuto people. The Basutos asserted that the Cape could not apply a
Cape law to Basutoland inasmuch as the act of annexation provided that
Basutoland should not “by virtue of its annexation be or become subject

10 Convention of February 12, 1869; Hertslet, Map of Africa by Treaty, Vol. II,
p. 814.

“Lagden, cited, Vol. II, p. 480.

168

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

to the general laws of the Colony.” But the Cape Government said
that the subsequent introduction of responsible government had relieved
it of this obligation not to apply general legislation. It thereupon pro¬
ceeded to enforce the proclamation. Some natives called “Loyals” sub¬
mitted, but the majority resisted and a rebellion broke out—the Gun War
of 1880-1881. The difficulties of subduing the Basutos proved so great
that the Cape Government passed a disannexation law abandoning Basuto¬
land . altogether. Once more it regained independence and once more it
found itself confronted by the Burghers of Bloemfontein.

Controlled by domestic conditions at home, the Imperial Government
was reluctant to undertake the protection of Basutoland, which it had
discarded in favor of Cape Colony a few years before. But finally the
British Crown issued an order in 1884 establishing a protectorate over
Basutoland, and vesting all legislative and executive power in a High
Commissioner 12 on condition that the Cape pay an annual subsidy of twenty
thousand pounds to the Basutoland Government, thus relieving the Im¬
perial treasury. 13 The office of High Commissioner is held by the same
person who is Governor-General of the Union of South Africa. In the
exercise of his powers as High Commissioner, the Governor-General acts
independently of the South African cabinet, and is responsible only to the
Colonial Office in London. 14 He is represented in Basutoland by a
Resident Commissioner.

In instructing the first Resident Commissioner, the Imperial Govern¬
ment insisted that expenditure should not exceed the twenty thousand
pounds contributed by the Cape Government, plus local taxes. The Resident
Commissioner should at first merely protect life and property on the border.
The Basutos were to be “encouraged to establish internal self government
sufficient to suppress crime and settle inter-tribal disputes.” When the
Boer War broke out in 1899, the Free State attempted to induce the
Basutos to side against the British. This attempt was thwarted, and
Basutoland was spared the scourge which swept other parts of South
Africa.

“The High Commissioner is authorized to appoint a resident commissioner and
magistrates, “and generally to take such measures, and to do all such matters and
things as he may think expedient for the like peace, order, and good government.”
Basutoland Orders in Council, High Commissioner’s Proclamations, etc., 1868-1913,
p. 1.

“This subsidy has long since been discontinued.

“Apparently, the authority of the High Commissioner in South Africa was
first recognized in the Basutoland Order in Council of 1884. The powers of the
High Commissioner have been defined in at least ten different instruments.
“Return of all Instruments showing the Nature and Extent of the Authority for
various purposes of the High Commissioner for South Africa over and in respect
of the several Colonies, Possessions, and Protectorates included in British South
Africa,” H. C. Return 130, 1905.

THE CONTEST WITH THE BOERS

169

This outline of the history of Basutoland has been recited to show
the fate of a primitive people obliged to deal upon a basis of equality with
white men responsible to no one but themselves—the Burghers of the
Orange Free State. Only the intervention of the British Government
in 1867 and 1884 saved the Basutos from extinction; but it was too late
to prevent the loss of half of their land. This was a case, of which the
history of the Ashanti is another example, 15 where a little more “imperial¬
ism” would have spared the native population a good deal of sorrow.

,8 Cf. Vol. I, p. 787.

CHAPTER ii

THE COUNTRY AND ITS GOVERNMENT
I. Population and Trade

At the present time, Basutoland has a native population of about
543,078—a number which increased 23.43 P er cent between 1911 and
1921, and 15.55 P er cent between 1904 and 1911. 1 While these figures
indicate that during the last ten years the native population of
Basutoland has increased about 8 per cent more rapidly than the popu¬
lation of South Africa, they are subject to much the same inaccuracies
as the South Africa figures. It appears that part of the Basutoland in¬
creases is due to immigration from the Herschel and other districts in the
Union. 2 Natural increases have not been greater because of the limited
resources of the country and the number of natives who are obliged to seek
work periodically in labor centers in the Union. In the opinion of govern¬
ment physicians, the birth rate of Basutoland is now declining, owing
partly to increased venereal disease, some cases of which are contracted at
the Johannesburg mines. According to the 1921 census, about 47,000
natives are absent at labor centers (37,827 men and 9,314 women) out of
543,000. Taking the adult male population at a fifth of the total or
108,000, this would mean that nearly two-fifths of the men (excluding
the ten thousand women) are away at work. While administrative officials
do not believe that this emigration has had any effect upon the tribal
organization of the country, agricultural officers believe that agriculture
would be improved if the men stayed at home.

Moreover, a recent report on education has declared: “It was com¬
plained that the character of the young men and of the children is sadly
lower than that of their parents, the change being particularly evident
during the last ten years. Especially notable are a general want of respect
in all directions, the increase of stealing, lying, insobriety and whoring.
It was suggested that the chief cause of all this backsliding is ‘going

1 The figure in 1904 was 347,731, and in 1911, 401,087. Basutoland Census,
1921, p. 5.

For some reason, probably because of the necessity of finding new land, the
population in the district of Qacha’s Nek in Basutoland increased eighty-five per
cent during the last ten years; while in three districts (Mafeteng, Mohale’s Hoek
and Quithing) it increased less than five per cent.

170

THE COUNTRY AND ITS GOVERNMENT

171

abroad’, not so much to the mining districts as to the sugar plantations
and farms in the Free State, and that Government could help greatly
in this respect by keeping a more careful scrutiny on labour-recruiting,
and insist on none being taken under the age of eighteen.” 3

This tendency to go abroad has been increased by the growing im¬
poverishment of Basutoland. According to one speaker in the National
Council: 4 “Most of the people in Basutoland are poor. . . . The pro¬
longed droughts have increased the number of the poor.” Another said,
“I don’t agree that there are no poor in Basutoland, the people have not
sufficient lands, some have one land from which they raise four or five
bags of grain. But what is the price of grain? About five shillings a
bag; the man has a family, how can he divide the five bags to buy clothing
and his other necessaries of life? The Basuto lead a difficult life in these
days. Of course there are some who go to the mines for fear of the gaol,
but what about the people who are rejected by employers of labour?” 8
One does not find in Basutoland the social development which may be
found in such native states as Uganda and in the Gold Coast. This may
be due to the ebb and flow of migratory labor.

The population density of Basutoland per square mile is 48.30, but
inasmuch as large areas of Basutoland are too mountainous to be habitable,
this figure does not mean a great deal. Officials state that Basutoland is
relatively over-crowded and that the people are now obliged to move
into the mountains and till rocky soil which hitherto has been untouched.
In 1924 Basutoland imported in excess of her exports about 58, (XX)
muids of grain. 0 For some reason, in 1925, the exports of wheat tripled,
and those of maize quadrupled, leaving a balance of exports over imports. 7
Whether this is due to improved methods of agriculture or merely to
temporary conditions, it is impossible to say.

The Basuto people keep great herds of sheep and goats, which require
more land than would be necessary under an intensive system of agricul¬
ture. In 1924, the exports of the country amounted to nearly 959,000
pounds, 716,000 pounds of which represented wool, and 183,000 pounds
of which represented Angora hair. The revenue of the government
amounts to about 252,300 pounds, 135,000 pounds of which comes from
the native head tax, and seventy thousand pounds from Basutoland’s share
in the customs collected by the Union. An export duty on wool brings
in more than fourteen thousand pounds. The country became so pros-

*F. M. Urling Smith, A Report on Native Education in Basutoland, 1925-1926,
Cape Town, 1926, p. 5.

4 Minutes of the 1924. Council (typewritten), p. 227.

8 Minutes, cited, p. 2^7.

8 Basutoland Report, No. 1244, 1924, p. 7. 'Ibid., No. 1294, 1925, p. 7.

172

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

perous that between 1907 and 1910, it made three loans to the Govern¬
ment of Swaziland, totalling about eighty thousand pounds. They were
consolidated at a rate of 3^ per cent in 1910, for a term of twenty-five
years. 8 By 1924, Swaziland had paid off forty-five thousand pounds of this
debt to Basutoland. A proclamation of the High Commissioner 9 ex¬
tended the date of payment of the remaining thirty-five thousand pounds
to 1943. It does not appear that the people of Basutoland were deprived
of the use of capital needed for local development by these loans, and,
unlike the case of the Togo loan to the Cameroons, 10 the value of the
capital sum loaned remains unimpaired. Nevertheless, the rate of 3^2
per cent interest is now not very remunerative to the Basutoland budget.

2. Administration

The Imperial High Commissioner at Pretoria is responsible for the
administration of Basutoland as of the Bechuanaland and Swaziland
protectorates. But the actual administration of the country, the capital
of which is Maseru, is in the hands of a Resident Commissioner under
whom are a number of magistrates. The Imperial High Commissioner
stands to the Resident Commissioner much in the same way as the French
Colonial Office stands to a governor. That is, all proclamations of Basu¬
toland are made by the High Commissioner upon the advice of the Resident
Commissioner who continuously consults him upon administrative matters.

Under this arrangement, the British have faithfully followed the
policy of keeping Basutoland a native state. Maseru, the capital, is a
city without street lights, sidewalks or sewers. The government declines
to expend money on Europeans. No European lawyers may practice in
Basutoland courts except when the offense is murder; and no European
is allowed to trade except with a license. 11 At present there are one
hundred and eighty-eight trading stations in the territory. No Europeans
can hold land from the government because it has no Crown land. Having
been led to believe that certain chiefs contemplated alienations to Euro¬
peans, the High Commissioner issued a Concessions Veto Proclamation in
1922, the preamble of which said it was “expedient to provide that no
concession or grant heretofore or hereafter made by any Native Chief
having authority in Basutoland should be recognized in any court of law
as of any force or effect in Basutoland with respect to any land or any
tribal property or rights unless and until the same has been sanctioned
and approved by His Majesty’s Secretary of State.” 12 The proclamation

8 Cf. Basutoland Proclamations, 1868-1913, p. 124.

® No. 6 of 1924. 10 Cf. Vol. II, p. 284.

11 Basutoland Proclamations, cited, p. 17. u Ibid., p. 20.

THE COUNTRY AND ITS GOVERNMENT

173

thus subjected all such grants to the approval of the Secretary of State (and
not to the High Commissioner).

While it recognizes a system of native courts, the British authority has
established a system of tribunals of its own to try cases involving Europeans
and the more serious crimes of natives. Each assistant commissioner may
hold a court and exercise such jurisdiction as is defined in his commission.
The Resident Commissioner acts as the supreme or high court of the
territory in regard to all cases, civil or criminal. But no sentence of death
can be carried into effect without the warrant of the High Commissioner. 13
Except in native cases, the law of Cape Colony is applied.

The administration of Basutoland is unique among British territories
in that the punishment of whipping may not be inflicted except for a
limited number of offenses, such as rape, distributing indecent publications,
and stock thieving. 14 The latter offence became particularly prevalent fol¬
lowing the World War, and led to a vigorous discussion in the 1924
Basutoland Council. In this discussion, the acting Resident Commissioner
said: “One thing I do not agree with in this discussion, and that is
the free way in which the councillors accuse the chiefs as thieves. There
is certain liberty allowed but you must keep within certain bounds. Some
members suggest that thieves be shot at sight; one that they be given
lashes once a week; one said that they should be bound with grass and set
fire to; another that we should brand them on the cheek.” It was finally
decided to ask the High Commissioner to issue a proclamation authorizing
the High Court (and not the court of the assistant commissioner) to
impose fifteen lashes for stock thieving—a request which was finally
granted. 18

3. The Native Government

At the head of the Basuto nation stands a Paramount Chief, the
descendant of Moshesh, through whom the British control the country.
The present occupant of this position is Chief Griffith, who is a Roman
Catholic. He does not command the undistilled devotion of all Basutos,
some of whom follow Chief Jonathan, another descendant of Moshesh, a
Protestant who has some claim to be head of the nation. The Paramount
Chief receives a stipend, paid out of the government budget, of about
eighteen hundred pounds a year.

Basutoland is divided up into seven districts and two sub-districts
occupied by a total of fifty-six principal chiefs who owe allegiance to Chief
Griffith. These chiefs receive subsidies from the government varying
from thirty to two hundred pounds a year. The next layer in this feudal

u Proclamations, 1868-1913, pp. 14, 39. 14 Ibid., pp. 16, 161. “ Ibid., 1924, p. 33.

174

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

cake consists of about five hundred sub-chiefs and of twenty-four hundred
headmen, who do not include the petty headmen. These sub-chiefs and
headmen receive tax gratuities from the government, amounting usually
to four per cent of the tax of their district. Thus in 1924, the government
paid gratuities amounting to seven hundred and seventy shillings to one hun¬
dred such officials in the Maseru district for having assisted in the collection
of 23,500 pounds.

These chiefs settle disputes among their subjects and control the dis¬
position of land. The smallest unit is the village over which a headman
presides. His court tries all but the more serious offenses and it usually
imposes fines on the basis of “two to one.” That is, if a Musuto steals a
sheep, the court orders him to pay back two, one of which goes to the
injured party and another to the headman as a fee. The court of the
sub-chief hears appeals from the courts of headmen, and also some original
cases arising out of an area called a ward. In some districts a number
of wards are grouped under a principal chief, who has a court which tries
appeals and other cases subject to review by the Court of the Paramount
Chief.

This court concentrates upon such matters as disputes over succession
to the chieftainship and appeals from the chief courts. The Paramount
Chief does not as a rule personally preside but appoints one of his entourage
as president of the court. In fact several courts of the Paramount Chief,
each with its president, may sit on different disputes at the same time.
Such is the hierarchy through which the country is administered. The
government transmits its orders or requests to the Paramount Chief who
in turn gives them to the chiefs immediately under him until they finally
reach every village in the land.

In an effort to establish some control over these tribunals, the Procla¬
mation of 1884 provided that a native could take an appeal from the court
of any chief to the Combined Court—a court composed of the European
assistant commissioner of the district concerned and the court of the
Paramount Chief and in case they do not agree, to the Resident Commis¬
sioner. 16 But this provision that a native could appeal to the Combined
Court without first coming to the court of the Paramount Chief aroused
the opposition of the Paramount Chief who asked, at the Basutoland
Council in 1908, that no such appeals should lie until after the case had
been tried by the supreme native tribunal. 17 While the government de¬
clined to amend the Proclamation of 1884 t0 this effect, it appears that

19 Proclamations, cited, p. 15.

17 Report of Proceedings of the Basutoland National Council, 1908, Cd. 4196,
1908, p. 14.

THE COUNTRY AND ITS GOVERNMENT 175

in practice the wishes of the Paramount Chief are now observed. Despite
this control many abuses in these native courts have occurred.

4. Criticism of Bacuto Courts

A number of years ago the educated natives—Basutos who had gone
to mission schools but who were commoners within their tribe—organized
the Progressive Association of Basutoland. This Association and its
members directed a good many criticisms against the system of native
justice. The Paramount Chief has found it almost impossible to supervise
the native courts because of their great number. There must be at least
three thousand native courts in the country. Procedure was criticized as
being slow, partly because any native, whether he was a party to the
dispute or not, had the right under native law to enter the court and ask
questions of the witnesses. As no limit to fees and fines was fixed, the
chiefs derived most of their income from this source, and hence were
tempted to administer “justice” with a view to increasing their fortunes.
Even now these native courts do not apparently keep any records, nor has
the British Administration attempted to control and revise judgments, ac¬
cording to the system applied in other British territories in Africa. 18 These
abuses were emphasized in a letter of a Basutoland native to the Bloemfon¬
tein Friend, December 2, 1921, as follows:

“The heartbreaking nature of the whole of the native misrule is particu¬
larly felt when one has a court case. He is kept waiting trial for his case
until there are so many cases to be dealt with that it will take months before
his own case is finished and as a result of the postponements the party loses
heart and goes back home where he finds a part of his stock has been lost
while he was waiting for his case to be tried. Should he lose heart and leave
the Chief’s Court before his case is tried, judgment will be given against him
as he will have been considered to have been guilty of contempt of the Chief’s
Court.

“The Chiefs refuse an appeal to the Resident or Assistant Commissioners’
Courts, but if one persists and goes to the European courts he is required to
produce letters from his Chief, failing which he is sent back to this same
Chief, who will address him something like this: ‘Those White men to whom
you went are mine, they cannot try your case without me’ and, taking revenge,
he dismisses the case.

“The unfortunate part is that the rules of the Basutoland Government
do not permit the White men, who are full of justice, to interfere with
Native cases that come under the judgment of the Chiefs. This means that
a Chief can and does deprive his people of cattle and other stock just as he
pleases without one having any recourse but to meekly submit. My object

,a Cf. index—native courts.

176

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

in writing this letter, therefore, is to bring before the notice of the White
men and particularly Government officials in Basutoland and the Union, the
great misuse of justice as carried out by the Chiefs of Basutoland. I voice
the opinion of many hundreds of my countrymen in asking that His Excellency
the Governor General will send out a commission for the purpose of inquiring
into the complaints of the people of this country, for we are true and loyal
subjects of His Majesty King George and we groan under a burden of
oppression.”

In his annual message to the Basutoland Council in 1922, the High
Commissioner declared that this question of native justice had caused him
“grave anxiety for some time past.” He said further, . . Members
of the Council have doubtless read or heard of the serious complaints which
have recently been published in various European and native newspapers,
both in Basutoland and elsewhere, as to the manner in which the Basuto¬
land native courts perform their work.

“I have regretfully come to the conclusion that these complaints are
not without some justification and I feel deeply concerned that such a
state of affairs should exist.

. . It is a great privilege for a chief to be entrusted with such
powers as are exercised by the native courts in Basutoland but the chiefs
and councillors must appreciate that such a privilege carries with it great
responsibility, and that any lack of diligence on the part of the native
courts in discharging promptly and impartially the important duties imposed
upon them, or any abuse of the powers entrusted to them, must react
unfavorably upon them and upon the whole Basuto nation.”

At the session of the Basutoland Council of 1922, a member proposed
that the court of the Paramount Chief should be replaced by a court of
five men, three elected by the people and two by the chief, all of whom
should be paid a salary. Another member proposed that an inspector,
appointed by the council, should supervise these courts. While these
proposals were not accepted, the council appointed a committee to draw
up a reply to the High Commissioner. It proposed that to reform the
administration of justice, the native laws—the Laws of Lerotholi—should
be revised and enforced. But when Chief Jonathan suggested that appeals
should go direct from the courts of the principal chiefs to the assistant
commissioners without first going to the Paramount Chief, Chief Griffith
accused Jonathan, his rival, of “deceitfulness” and of wishing to “deprive
me of my blanket.”

As a result of this discussion, the Basutoland Council enacted some
amendments to the Laws of Lerotholi, one of which provided that each
court should keep a register of cases and that each chief should personally

THE COUNTRY AND ITS GOVERNMENT

177

preside over cases unless prevented by illness, under penalty of a fine rang¬
ing from fifty shillings to five pounds. Any chief or headman who re¬
fuses a request for appeal is liable to a fine of twenty pounds. 10 Chief
Griffith also appointed three natives from the Basutoland Progressive
Association to sit as judges on the court of the Paramount Chief—thus
introducing a reformist element; while for a time he fixed a scale of fees. 20

It appears, however, that some jealousy arose between the old and the
new judges which led a native paper 21 to say that the quarreling must
be stopped; otherwise the “public, in utter disgust, would raise a hue and
cry of ‘alas! our chieftainship’ with one mournful gasp!” As a result of
these measures, it seems that justice is more swift now than a few years ago.

It is not surprising that abuses have existed in view of the independence
with which these courts have functioned. The introduction of the meas¬
ures of control found in other British territories, such as the installation
of records and review by district officers; the payment of salaries to judges
in place of gratuities, and the reduction of the number of petty courts are
reforms worthy of consideration.

5. The Laws of Lerotholi

As far back as in 1903, the Basutoland Native Council, hereafter to be
discussed, adopted a sort of native code known as the Basutoland Native
Laws of Lerotholi—named after the Paramount Chief of that time.
“They are all directed towards checking the arbitrary power of Chiefs
and towards regulating the proceedings and limiting the judgments in
native courts. They are all strictly in accordance with unwritten native
law as recognized by the Basuto, and are not in conflict with the letter
or the spirit of the Basutoland Government Regulations. . . . They are
of course not laws in the sense that law is understood in Government
Courts in Basutoland, but are rather a preservation and registration in
written form of wise and unobjectionable native law.” 22

In 1908, complaints arose that the chiefs did not obey these “laws,”
following which the request was made that they should be enacted and
enforced by the British authority—an idea which the government, as well
as the Paramount Chief, eventually declined to accept.

These laws have been amended frequently, the last changes having
been made in 1922 with a view to remedying abuses in the native courts.
Altogether there are twenty-five laws. The first provides that succession
of the chieftainship shall be by the first born male of the first wife. Law
Two recognizes that the Paramount Chief has full power over every chief,

“Laws 3, 19. Laws of Lerotholi. 10 Cf. Bloemfontein Friend, March 28, 1923.

M Naledi Ea Lesotho Labohlano, June 22, 1923.

” Despatch of H. C. Sloley, Resident Commissioner, Cd. 4196, cited, p. 4.

178

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

and that any person disobeying the summons of the Paramount Chief is
liable to punishment by the Chief’s Court. Some of the other laws are
mentioned elsewhere.

6. Land Tenure and Tribute

In addition to their judicial power, the Basutoland chiefs possess cer¬
tain rights over the land. All land is held by the nation, represented by
the chiefs. 23 The British government has not attempted to introduce
the Glen Grey type of holding found in the Transkei and in other parts
of South Africa, but has left the control of land to the chiefs. It appears
that each principal chief controls the land in his area through his sub¬
chief who allots each man three lots, one for kafir corn, one for mealies,
and a third for forage wheat. According to Law Eight of the Laws of
Lerotholi, “All chiefs and headmen must by law provide people living
under them with lands to cultivate. Further, it is their duty to inspect
lands, and if it is found that some people have more than is necessary,
then the chiefs or headmen shall deprive such people of such surplus lands
and grant to those who have not sufficient.” Certain land is set aside for
commonage, and used mostly for grazing purposes. Succession is con¬
trolled by tribal law. Owing to the shortage of land, in many cases
younger brothers are now obliged to go out to the mines to obtain a
living. Boundary disputes are frequent, and they are usually arbitrated
by the Resident Commissioner and the Paramount Chief. Once a dispute is
decided, beacons are erected and the boundary entered in the government
“Boundary Book.” By this means, a system of titles or of more secure
tenure may gradually be built up.

Basuto chiefs in olden times exacted tribute called “letsema” from
their people. Law Four of the Laws of Lerotholi says that any chiefs
may still call out their people “to take messages for them or to cultivate
their lands.” Anyone who refuses to obey becomes liable to a fine not
exceeding ten shillings or two days of work. Originally, letsema was
limited to four days in the year when the natives helped the chiefs with
spring plowing in return for which they received their food. But the same
forces have begun to operate in Basutoland as in Taganyika, 24 and the
chiefs find that they can make money out of free labor. Consequently,
they have increased their land holdings at the expense of the commoners.
Because of the increased size of the fields and of the number of men

33 A different system is followed in the protectorate of Bechuanaland. The area
of this protectorate is estimated to be about 275,000 square miles, of which a little
less than half has been proclaimed as native reserves. The remainder is Crown
land, but the government at present does not alienate it.

14 Cf. Vol. I, p. 458.

THE COUNTRY AND ITS GOVERNMENT

179

away at the Johannesburg mines, the people who stay at home must now
in many cases perform twelve days of letsema instead of four every year.
Many natives also complain of not being fed. The anonymous native
writer to the Bloemfontein Friend in 1921 said: “Believe me, Sir, the
Chiefs have turned the Basutos into a nation of slaves by making them
plough and hoe patches of land belonging to the Chiefs’ many wives without
food or payment. While at work those in charge of them even refuse to
allow them to go for a drink of water. Some time ago several men were
reported to have been killed by the young Chiefs where this ‘free’ labor
was in progress.” 25

As a result of the protest of the Basutoland Progressive Association
and efforts of the government, these abuses have apparently been les¬
sened. It appears, however, that, following the example of Tanganyika,
Basutoland should sooner or later commute the value of tribute into
money payments, part of which should go into a national Basuto treasury,
the administration of which and the responsibility for which should be
put in native hands under British supervision and control. 20

Finally, the Basuto chiefs have certain powers in regard to the collection
of taxes. Before 1899, the chiefs assumed full responsibility for the
collection of taxes which they turned over to the British Government.
At that time, the rate was only ten shillings a hut; but following the
Boer War, the tax was doubled and collection became more difficult. In
1905, the government came to the aid of the chiefs by placing the responsi¬
bility for tax collection in the hands of the European assistant commis¬
sioners in charge of the districts. At present, the chiefs and the head¬
men merely assist the assistant commissioner in compiling tax registers,
while they round up taxpayers at different centers which the commissioner
visits. 27 The commissioner writes the tax receipts and handles the funds.
Basutoland chiefs do not, therefore, have as much power in regard to
taxes as do the chiefs of Uganda or of Nigeria. 28 In 1920, the Basutoland
tax was increased to twenty-five shillings; 29 while in 1925 it was increased
two shillings in order to establish a special educational fund. In addition,
there is an export tax on wool, the incidence of which probably falls
upon the natives. While the natives of Basutoland are heavily taxed,
the rate is lower than in the Union of South Africa. 30

"“Justice in Basutoland,” Bloemfontein Friend, December 2, 1921.

"For this plan in Nigeria and Tanganyika, cf. Vol. i, pp. 458, 688. For the
Transkei scheme, cf. Vol. I, p. 96.

” Cf. Regulations, Proclamations, cited, 1868-1913, p. 140.

“Cf. Vol. I, pp. 575, 695. 29 Ibid., 1920, No. 53.

"The Union tax is two pounds, but as it is only a poll tax a native does not
have to pay more than one tax compared with the Basutoland native, who must
pay a tax for the hut of each wife.

180

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

A native who wilfully refuses to pay his tax within six months after
it is due is liable to a fine of five pounds or in case of default, to im¬
prisonment for three months. 31 This sentence does pot, however, cancel
his indebtedness. An interesting debate took place in the Basutoland
Council in 1925 upon this point, in which a number of speakers pointed
out that the longer a man stayed in jail the more his taxes would accumu¬
late. They proposed that instead of putting defaulters in jail, the govern¬
ment should allow them to work off their taxes on the roads (as is done in
other British colonies). But the Resident Commissioner, Sir Edward Gar-
raway, stated that this would be a form of “forced labor” which the Brit¬
ish Government could not support. 32

While at the present time, the assistant commissioners have the power
to exempt certain classes of natives from the tax, they apparently do not
grant exemptions simply on the ground of poverty. It appears that the
government, to save such natives from going to jail, urges them to sign a
contract with a labor recruiter to go out and work six months on the
mines. Inasmuch as no one can leave the territory without a tax receipt,
the labor recruiter usually advances the tax and later has it deducted from
the boy’s pay. 33 From the standpoint of native welfare, it would be
perhaps more desirable that, instead of indirectly obliging him to seek
work several hundred miles from home for a private employer, the govern¬
ment should furnish the means whereby impoverished natives could work
off their tax obligations on the roads or on some other public work. 34

7. The Pit so

Probably the most interesting feature of the institutions of Basutoland
is the National Pitso or Council which now meets annually at Maseru,
the capital. Originally, the Pitso meant simply a gathering of a tribe or
clan. The first National Pitso of the Basutos was held in 1875. 35 But
no such body met periodically until 1903, when at the suggestion of British
officials, a National Council was formed. Three meetings were held be¬
tween 1903 and 1910. In the latter year, a government proclamation
placed the council upon a permanent basis. 36

Following the example of the Transkei, the Pitso is presided over by
the Resident Commissioner. He is the only European, however, who is a
member of the body. The other members are composed of ninety-four
chiefs and other natives nominated by the Paramount Chief with the

31 Proclamation No. 3 of 1911. Proclamations, cited, p. 138.

33 Minutes of the 1925 Council, (typewritten) p. 238.

33 Cf. the discussion in the 1925 Council, ibid., pp. 227 ff.

34 Cf. Vol. II, p. 496. 35 Lagden, cited, p. 483.

^Proclamation of March 31, 1910, Proclamations, cited, p. 121.

THE COUNTRY AND ITS GOVERNMENT

181

approval of the Resident Commissioner, and of five members nominated
by the Resident Commissioner who usually selects former native officials,
teachers, or ministers. Including the Resident Commissioner and the
Paramount Chief, the council thus has one hundred members.

Twenty-one representatives come from the Maseru district, nineteen
from Leribe, twelve from Berea, fourteen from Mafeting, thirteen from
Mohale’s Hoek, nine from Quithing and six from Qacha’s Nek. The
number of these representatives was apportioned originally by the Para¬
mount Chief, in consultation with the Resident Commissioner, upon the
basis of population. But since 1910, the population has been moving to
the mountains with the result that while in 1911 Leribe had four thou¬
sand more people than Maseru, it now has eight thousand more people.
Consequently the chiefs of Leribe demand greater representation. This
demand for more seats is affected by the rivalry between the Paramount
Chief Griffith, who lives in the Maseru distrist, and Jonathan, who lives
in Leribe. If Griffith would increase the number of Leribe representa¬
tives, he would thus strengthen Jonathan’s influence.

In addition to the movement to readjust representation upon a popula¬
tion basis, there has been a movement to introduce elective representation
into the council, which has been led by the young men in the Progressive
Association. Partly through their influence, the people in the Leribe
district now meet in local “Pitsos” to nominate the Leribe representa¬
tives. Jonathan then sends in these names to the Paramount Chief for
approval. A case recently occurred in which the Leribe people nominated
two young men in place of old chiefs. But these nominations were re¬
jected by the Paramount Chief—an action which the Resident Com¬
missioner supported on the ground that the appointing powder was vested
in the Paramount Chief. The rejection of the Leribe nominations,
needless to say, was a further strain upon the relations between Jonathan
and Griffith. Nevertheless, Jonathan continues to follow the advice of
local Pitsos; and people in other districts, who witness this practice, have
asked that they be given siitiilar control.

In 1924, the leader of the Progressive Association, Simon Phamotse,
moved that the members of the council be chosen proportionately to the
number of people in each district. But the conservatives pointed out that
the representatives did not come from the districts as such but from the
chiefs. The majority of the council turned the idea down. Nearly a
fourth of the present members now on the council were originally ap¬
pointed to membership in the first Pitso of 1903. Consequently, the
conservatives are firmly intrenched. It is nevertheless possible that the
Basuto educated young men, who are making the same demands as the

182 THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

Uganda young men, will eventually obtain some recognition of the elective
principle.

The Pitso meets in the Council House at Maseru which was built
in 1909. Chiefs and their followers come galloping in from all parts
of the country on the ponies for which the country is famous; and live
in houses especially erected for the use of councillors. Seventy-nine mem¬
bers are paid fifteen pounds each as expense money. The remaining mem¬
bers, the more important chiefs, are paid twenty pounds each, except the
Paramount Chief, who receives twenty-five pounds.

Strangely enough, members must attend the sessions of the councils
dressed in European clothes. 37 When entering or leaving the chamber,
each member, as in the House of Commons, bows to the chairman—the
Resident Commissioner, and also to the Paramount Chief or his representa¬
tive. The leading chiefs sit upon chairs arranged in an inner circle. One
of these chairs, cushioned with leather, is occupied by the Paramount
Chief and is located directly to the right of the dais which the Resident
Commissioner occupies. Back of the leading members are benches used by
lower chiefs and commoners. Within the last few years, Chief Griffith
has not attended very regularly on the ground that he is “indisposed.”
He has, however, always sent a representative, which is in fact required
by the regulations.

The level of debate in the Pitso (as well as in the Transkei Council)
is probably higher than in any legislative body in Europe or America.
While speakers talk with enthusiasm, they talk with great dignity and
earnestness, and their gestures are marvellously effective. Devotion to
the memory of Moshesh, the founder of the nation, is strong, and the
chairman always opens the meeting with the salutation, “Paramount Chief,
sons of Moshesh, and members of the Council.” The members lowest in
rank open the debate, while the principal chiefs talk toward the close.
The Paramount Chief closes the debate, and as a rule the question under
discussion is decided according to the opinions of the Paramount Chief or his
representative. Voting, however, is the exception, since the council has
only advisory power; few committees are appointed. The debates of the
Pitso take place in the Sesuto language but are translated for the benefit
of visitors into English. The Minutes of the Council are published in
Sesuto only.

8. Powers

Basutoland is governed by two kinds of laws: (1) native laws, which

the council has codified under the heading of the Laws of Lerotholi; (2)

87 Regulations for the Conduct of the Basutoland Council, para. 3.

THE COUNTRY AND ITS GOVERNMENT

183

English laws, which take the form of proclamations issued by the High
Commissioner. As far as the first type of legislation is concerned, the
council is virtually supreme, subject to a veto of the Resident Commis¬
sioner which is seldom exercised. But inasmuch as native law is a well-
defined body of rules, the council makes few changes except to meet new
conditions.

Thus Law Twenty-Three of the Laws of Lerotholi was enacted by
the council to meet the growing menace of burr-weed. It provides that
any person refusing to eradicate burr-weed shall be fined a goat, and any
headman who does not order his people to eradicate burr-weed shall be
fined five pounds by his chief. In a recent address to the Pitso (1923),
the High Commissioner complained that the chiefs were not enforcing
the burr-weed law, and that if it was not enforced in the future, the
government would be obliged to make a proclamation in regard to the
subject which would place the enforcement of the rule in the hands of
British officials and courts. 38 This actually happened in 1921, when the
government enacted an Anthrax Proclamation, 30 which obliges any chief
or headman who suspects that any animal in his district is suffering from
anthrax to report the fact to the assistant commissioner. Failure to
report is punishable by British and not native courts, and the chiefs must
report directly to the British official, and not through the Paramount
Chief. While the natives dislike this encroachment upon native authority,
British officials justify it on the ground that the native authority proved
unable to act in matters protecting the health not only of the in¬
habitants of Basutoland, but of the neighboring white farmers in the
Union, some of whom exaggerate the presence of stock and other diseases
in Basutoland, in order to justify the demand for annexation. At the
present time, Basutoland is suffering from the invasions of locusts, the
suppression of which is still in the chiefs’ hands. But they have done
their job so poorly that the British authorities have threatened to enact a
proclamation in regard to it.

According to the proclamation of 1910, the Pitso was created for “tbe
discussion of the domestic affairs of the territory.” The British Govern¬
ment is, however, under no legal obligation to consult the council before
enacting legislation binding the country. In practice, it is consulted in a
large number of cases. Viscount Gladstone, when High Commissioner
for South Africa, divided proclamations into three groups: (1) procla¬
mations such as customs laws which only indirectly affect the Basutos and
which could not with any advantage be placed before the council; (2)

“For the same question in regard to the Gold Coast by-laws, cf. Vol. I, p. 799.

39 No. 7 of 1921.

184

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

proclamations the issue of which could not be conveniently postponed until
a meeting of the council, such as East Coast Fever Regulations and laws
to prevent the spread of dangerous diseases among men and animals such
as plague and anthrax; and (3) laws which directly and intimately touch
the daily life of the Basutos, such as native taxation and other domestic
legislation. Laws in the latter group will always be submitted to the
Pitso for discussion before they are enacted. But in all cases, the de¬
cision whether or not any law should be laid before the council before
it is issued, and whether or not it should be enacted rests with the High
Commissioner.

Unlike the Transkei Council which has an effective control over
finance, the Basuto Council cannot prevent increases in taxes. Thus in
1920 the government, with the consent of the Paramount Chief, increased
the tax from twenty to twenty-five shillings, despite the unanimous oppo¬
sition of the council. At the annual council meeting, the government
informs the council of the amount of revenue collected in the past year
and of the manner in which it has been expended. But it does not con¬
sult the council about future expenditures. This was the object of the
criticism of a native councillor in 1923 who declared, in regard to the
increase of European salaries, “It is not right to make use of another’s
money without consulting him. The tax is paid by the Basutos and must
not be expended without their knowledge. We should not be given
round figures only about the Establishments, etc. We should know who
the Government employees are and what they are doing and what each
individual’s pay is.” 40

So far, the government has shown no disposition to submit the Esti¬
mates to the council. In these different respects the council therefore
has much less actual power than the Transkei Council. It does, however,
maintain an indirect control over, or at least receives information from
departmental officers such as the veterinary surgeon and the chief medical
officer, who explain measures which the government has taken to improve
native welfare.

In recent sessions, there has been a growing demand that the powers
of the Pitso be extended. In closing a debate in the eighteenth session
the Paramount Chief said, “Your Honor has heard the opinion of this
Council. . . . During the discussion some members complained that draft
laws were not laid before the Council, and I heard the President replying
that he was not compelled to do so. They said even if you are not com¬
pelled, they wished to know how long they would be ‘saddled’ with laws
they have not known about. I support their ‘cry,’ Your Honor, that you
40 Minutes of the 192 3 Session, p. no.

THE COUNTRY AND ITS GOVERNMENT

185

may recommend to His Royal Highness [the High Commissioner] that
if any matter is to affect us, it should be placed before the Council first,
so that we may be aware of it.” Another chief said, “We are human
beings and have feelings. It is painful when laws are passed without
letting us know of them.” These remarks were provoked by the discus¬
sion of a proclamation issued by the government which licensed debt col¬
lectors or “agents.” The native word for “agent” means also “lawyer,”
hence the Basutos were afraid that the proclamation would authorize the
entrance of European lawyers into the country.

When the session of the Pitso ends, the Resident Commissioner for¬
wards the minutes and a summary of the “cries” or resolutions of the
natives to the High Commissioner at Pretoria, who replies stating whether
or not the “cries” can be granted.

While the Basutoland Council is not as highly developed from the
standpoint of political science as the Transkei Council, one feels that it
is more fitted to the social framework of the people than is the Transkei
Bunga. The council is not dominated and controlled by European offi¬
cials, and it is organized on a tribal basis. Probably because native law
is enforced by native and not by European courts, the Pitso debates the
amendment of native law less frequently than does the Bunga. At the
present time, however, the Union Government pays much more attention
to the opinion of the Bunga in regard to taxation and proclamations than
does the High Commissioner in regard to Pitso resolutions. If native
institutions in the Basutoland are to grow, it would appear that the Pitso
should be given greater power. The establishment of a native treasury,
similar to that in the Transkei or in Nigeria, should be considered.

While Basutoland is faced with the same division between the tradi¬
tional governing class and the educated commoner found elsewhere in
.Africa, it has done little to grapple with the problem of improving the
intelligence and the character of the chiefs. Despite the regime of prohi¬
bition, a number of chiefs have become addicted to drunkenness. In
1908, the Resident Commissioner at the Pitso meeting said, “Even this
Council which is beginning to be looked at by other native nations as
a thing to envy you on account of, is in danger of being spoiled by drink.

I hear that while you are here in Maseru you bring drink into the vil¬
lage.” He also declared, “The Basuto nation has opportunities that I
think no other native race possesses. You are at peace. You are allowed
to manage your own affairs to a great extent, and now you put your¬
selves in danger of losing the position to which you might attain through
having these opportunities, by giving way to drunkenness.” 41 The gov-

41 Cd 4196, cited, p. 16.

186

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

emment seldom if ever deposes a chief, no matter how incompetent he
may be. While this policy shows every consideration for the principle of
traditional authority, it must be remembered that in the old days a ruler
who proved permanently incompetent could be deposed by a revolt of the
people—which the presence of British authority now prevents. Some
serious efforts should be made to educate the sons of chiefs if tribal insti¬
tutions are not to decay. 42

Meanwhile, many commoners have received an education from the
mission schools; and, organized into the Basutoland Progressive Associa¬
tion, they have, as we have seen, demanded the infusion of the democratic
principle into tribal government. For a time, the chiefs attempted to sup¬
press the meetings of this association; but it has found a kindly supporter
in the person of Chief Jonathan who believes it will strengthen his position
vis-a-vis his rival, the Paramount Chief.

But despite the gap between the educated and the traditional govern¬
ing class, the “intellectuals” of Basutoland do not wish to abolish their
chiefs in favor of the Transkei system of direct rule. They merely wish
the introduction of the elective principle in the Pitso and the abolition of
abuses in the administration of justice and in the imposition of tribute.

Whether commoners or kings, the Basuto people carry themselves like
free men. Unlike the tribes who inhabit the Transkei, the Basutos were
never conquered by British authority, but entered voluntarily under the
present regime to escape the onslaughts of the Dutch. To-day the educated
lads realize that the chiefs are a symbol of the Basuto nation and conse¬
quently must not be destroyed.

9. The Development of Native Life

In view of the overcrowded conditions of Basutoland, an agricultural
and pastoral country, the improvement of native methods of production
and of animal husbandry is of urgent importance. Agricultural experts
believe that the adoption of modern methods, especially of ploughing, would
increase the yield of native agriculture four times. Efforts in this direction
are made by a Department of Agriculture which absorbs about nine per
cent of the annual expenditures. But the present system of land tenure
and over-crowding makes improvement difficult. The land shortage is so
acute that the government has been unable to obtain land from the chiefs
for the purpose of erecting an agricultural school. Soil erosion has also
created a problem which the agricultural department is attempting to
combat by afforestation.

°Cf. the efforts of Tanganyika and Sierre Leone, Vol. I, pp. 463, 867.

THE COUNTRY AND ITS GOVERNMENT

187

A veterinary surgeon attached to the Department of Agriculture and
nine stock inspectors attempt to improve native stock and to free it from
disease. In 1924, this staff, together with the Basutoland police, inocu¬
lated about 33,000 head of stock for rinderpest. In this work, the govern¬
ment employs seventy-nine native dipping supervisors. Along the frontier
of the Orange Free State and Cape Colony, the government has made
the dipping of sheep obligatory in order to prevent the spread of disease
into the Union. In 1924, two hundred and twenty-five sheep and goats
died from these dipping operations, a fact which, despite the compensation
for such deaths paid by the government, leads to complaints. The natives
are, however, now coming to appreciate the value of dipping and are de¬
manding the speedy erection of more tanks.

IO. Medical Work

According to the Estimates, the Basutoland Government employs nine
medical officers and about fifteen European nurses, while it supports five
native hospitals. 43 The government also expends nearly as much upon
a leper settlement, treating about four hundred and sixty lepers, as upon
the medical service proper. In 1924, fifty-eight persons were discharged
from this settlement as arrested cases—an encouraging sign of progress.
Compared with the Union, the Basutoland Government makes liberal
provision for the medical needs of its population. While from the abso¬
lute standpoint much remains to be done, it should be remembered that
Basutoland on account of its altitude is free from many of the tropical
diseases which affect other parts of Africa and that consequently its needs
are not as great.

II. Education

Basutoland expends an unusually high percentage of its revenue—
about fifteen per cent—upon education. 44 But the only school which the
government itself maintains is an Industrial School at Maseru, which
trains natives to become carpenters, wagon-makers, etc. It is difficult
to understand the motives which prompted the establishment of this
school, inasmuch as Basutoland is exclusively an agricultural country and
as the school’s graduates can find no opportunities for employment in the
Union on account of the Color Bar. The government pays the salaries
of several officials—a director of education, an inspector of schools and
two native inspectors, but the remainder of its expenditures take the form
of grants-in-aid to private mission schools in the territory and of three
“Allowances are also paid to three private practioners.

** 35 ,*05 pounds on education and 2,485 pounds on the Industrial School. Cf.
Appendix III.

188

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

hundred pounds to the South African Native College at Fort Hare. In
1924, a grant of 21,538 pounds was made to the Paris Evangelical Mis¬
sion Society, of 6,530 pounds to the Roman Catholic Mission, and of
3,315 pounds to the Church of England mission—a total of 31,373 pounds.
The number of children enrolled in these various schools has increased from
14,171 46 to almost forty-two thousand children, constituting a third of
the school population—a percentage which appears to be higher than in any
other British territory in Africa. The average attendance is, however, only
about thirty thousand. 40

In 1920, the government increased the native tax from one pound to
one pound, five shillings, in order to increase the grants-in-aid to mission
schools. In 1925, the High Commissioner proposed that still further
expenditures be made on education, and that for this purpose an additional
educational levy of two shillings per taxpayer should be imposed. The
government was prepared to pay one quarter of the regular native tax
together with the special levy into an education fund which, it was
estimated, would yield a total of about forty-four thousand pounds. An
educational fund was shortly thereafter established, based on a rate of three
shillings per man, plus a quarter of the general tax. 47 Before putting
this fund into use, the government asked the Colonial Office to send out
an educational expert, Mr. F. M. Urling Smith, to study the needs of
education in Basutoland. After visiting the country, Mr. Smith pointed
out that practically all of the grants-in-aid to mission schools were ex¬
pended on salaries and that consequently the equipment of the schools was
for the most part inadequate. 48 This condition was due also to the fact
that the missions were undertaking a more ambitious educational program
than the financial situation warranted.

Despite the fact that these were mission schools, the teachers (who were
practically all native) did not seriously attempt to “train the characters of
the children committed to their care.” Mr. Smith declared: “The in¬
culcation of honesty, cleanness, truthfulness, sense of duty and responsi¬
bility, sympathy, kindness to animals, esprit-de-corps, seems to be almost
entirely neglected.” Some of these shortcomings were due to lack of
European inspection and supervision. “The Roman Catholic Mission does
more than the others to keep a watchful eye on, and give a helping hand
to, its people.” 40 The Basutoland Government exercised little control

** Special Reports on Educational Subjects, Cd. 7622 (1905), p. 49, Vol. 13.
In 1903, the government expended 6,660 pounds on education.

** Basutoland Report, No. 294, 1925, p. 10.

4T Basutoland Education Fund Proclamation, No. 13 of 1927.

48 Report on Native Education in Basutoland, 1926, p. 17.

48 P. 22.

THE COUNTRY AND ITS GOVERNMENT

189

over these schools. The director of education could give advice, but he
could not insist on the “observance of regulations or syllabus of work;
he can in no way control teachers or pupils in the schools; he cannot
insist on seeing the accounts of schools, whether they receive government
aid or not. . . 50 The report therefore recommended that the gov¬

ernment assume complete control over the educational policy of the coun¬
try; that it should consider the advisability of drawing up a new syllabus
of work and itself conduct examinations; that no school should be given
a grant which did not fulfil the requirements of the regulations in the
matter of equipment and efficiency, as decided by the report of a European
inspector. The report likewise suggested that the government consider
the advisability of establishing its own training college for teachers.

Of the 495,000 people in Basutoland, about 136,000 or one-third pro¬
fess to be Christians. The leading denomination is the Paris Evangelical
Society whose missionaries first came to Basutoland in 1859, and who stood
by them in their troubles with the Boers. The Catholics come next.
The percentage of native Christians appears to be larger than in any
other territory in continental Africa except possibly in South Africa, the
colony (as distinct from the protectorate) of Sierre Leone and in
Buganda. 61

Despite these educational and religious efforts, 62 the improvement of
native life in Basutoland is extremely difficult because of the withering
influence of European industrialism which, as we have seen, 63 has cast the
same plight upon Basutoland as upon the Transkei. Until the territory
becomes more self-sufficient from the economic standpoint than it is at
the present time, the prospect of developing a native institutional life is
not particularly bright. The fate of the Basutoland native is thus bound
up with the fate of the native in South Africa proper.

"P- 35 - 61 Cf. Index—Christians.

“The Basutoland government expends a larger proportion of its revenue upon
native welfare than any other government in Africa, cf. the table, Vol. II, p. 889.

M Cf. Vol. I, p. 105.

CHAPTER 12

RELATIONS WITH THE UNION

Apparently it was the intention of the authors of the Union of
South Africa eventually to.make certain that the destiny of the natives of
the three Crown Protectorates of South Africa, Swaziland, Bechuana-
land, and Basutoland, should be joined to that of the Union natives.
Article 151 of the Act of Union, 1909, provides:

“The King, with the advice of the Privy Council, may, on addresses from
the Houses of Parliament of the Union, transfer to the Union the government
of any territories, other than the territories administered by the British South
Africa Company, belonging to or under the protection of His Majesty,
and inhabited wholly or in part by natives, and upon such transfer the
Governor-General in Council may undertake the government of such ter¬
ritory upon the terms and conditions embodied in the schedule to this
Act.” 1

The schedule provides that upon the transfer of these territories, legis¬
lation shall be made by proclamation of the Governor-General in Council—
the Transkei system. 2 In administering these territories, the Prime Min¬
ister shall take the advice of a commission having at least three members
who shall hold office for ten years and who shall not be removed during
this period except upon addresses from both houses of parliament. If
the Prime Minister does not accept a recommendation of the commission,
he shall state his views and the record shall be laid by the Prime Min¬
ister before the Governor-General in Council, whose decision shall be
final. In case the Governor-General does not accept the recommendation
of the commission, the Prime Minister at the request of the commission shall
lay the record before both houses of parliament unless the Governor-
General believes that its publication would “be gravely detrimental to the
public interest.” 3 It is not clear whether the Governor-General has some
discretion in exercising these powers, or whether he automatically follows
the advice of the Prime Minister.

1 These are covered by Article 150 of the Act.

1 All such proclamations shall be laid within seven days before both houses of
parliament which may request the Governor-General to repeal the same.

*The Permanent Native Affairs Commission for the Union, created in 1920,
was apparently modelled after the commission outlined in this schedule, cf. Vol I,
p. 114.

190

RELATIONS WITH THE UNION

191

The Governor-General shall appoint a Resident Commissioner for each
territory (as at present) who shall prepare annual Estimates for each
territory which shall be forwarded to the Native Affairs Commission and
to the Prime Minister.

All duties on goods imported into these territories shall be collected
by the Union which shall advance toward the cost of administration of
each territory a sum representing the value of the duties collected on goods
imported into such territories. 4

If the revenue of any of these territories is insufficient to meet the
expenditure, the deficiency may be made good from the funds of any other
territory, or by the Government of the Union. Surpluses shall be used
in the first instance for the repayment of any sums previously advanced.
All revenue shall be expended on behalf of the territory, except that the
territory may be called upon to make a contribution to the cost of defense
and other common services of the Union, but such a contribution shall not
assume a higher proportion in the total cost of the Union expenditures
than that which the customs payable to the territory bears to the total
customs. It shall not be lawful to alienate any land in Basutoland or
any land forming part of the native reserves in the Bechuanaland Protec¬
torate and Swaziland from the native tribes inhabiting those territories.
The sale of intoxicating liquors to the natives in these territories shall be
prohibited. The custom of holding Pitsos or other forms of native assembly
shall be recognized. No differential duties shall be levied. There shall
be free intercourse for the inhabitants of the territories with the rest of
South Africa, subject to the pass laws.

Thus it would appear from this schedule that if and when the three
protectorates are annexed to the Union, they should be given virtually
the same form of administration as now exists in the Transkei. The
people of South Africa have recurrently advocated the annexation of these
protectorates. They have asserted, often without reason, that they are
centers of cattle disease. On the other hand, the Union could not pre¬
sumably continue to impose an embargo on Bechuanaland cattle, as it now
does, if Bechuanaland came into the Union. 4a

4 Cf. Article 12, Schedule.

4 * It is the policy of the Union government to prohibit the entrance of cattle from
neighboring territories, except in case animals from Basutoland and Swaziland
weigh not less than 800 pounds, and that animals from Bechuanaland weigh not
less than 1000 pounds in the case of oxen and 750 pounds in the case of cows.
Proclamation No. 40, 1926, Government Gazette Jan. 8, 1926.

The result of these restrictions has been severely to restrict the native cattle
market of Bechuanaland. At the Bechuanaland Advisory Council, one chief said,
“We wish principally to know what the future of the Protectorate is to be as the
Union Government has stopped our cattle export trade.” Minutes of Native
Advisory Council, 1924, p. 3. The Bechuanaland Resident Commissioner was frank

192

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

Neither the natives of Basutoland nor of Bechuanaland want the type
of administration which exists in the Transkei, since it fails to recognize
chiefs, native courts, or communal land tenure—which are not, more¬
over, guaranteed in the Schedule to the South Africa Act. In 1908, the
Basuto chiefs petitioned King Edward VII against entrance into the pro¬
posed Union. 5 In 1919, the Basutos sent a delegation to the King nom¬
inally to congratulate him on winning the war, but really to protest
against joining the Union. In 1925, the Bechuanaland Advisory Council
passed a resolution that the Schedule of the South Africa Act should be re¬
pealed or that His Majesty be graciously pleased to grant leave to the chiefs
to proceed to England to explain why “that document is not fair to them.” 6
The reason for these objections was stated by one chief as follows: “Fore¬
most among our fears is that our Chief would lose his power. He would
lose his power over his people and the right to his ground, and the Chief
would only be recognized as a Chief when appointed by the Government.
The power to allocate lands would be taken from the Chief and entrusted
to Commissioners. The tax would be collected by these Commissioners, not
by the Chiefs. The amounts paid yearly to the Chiefs in respect of Con¬
cessions, etc., will be taken from them and declared tribal moneys. . . .
In the Union, Native Reserves are looked upon as Crown Lands, and
regulations applying to Locations are made applicable to Native Reserves,
whereas, in the Protectorate, Native Reserve and Crown Lands are two
distinct things. . . 7

Natives also oppose annexation out of the belief that the disabilities
which now weigh upon Union natives would be extended to them. As
one member of the Bechuanaland Council said, “We would like to spare
our people in the Protectorate disabilities such as our people in the Union
are under.” Another chief said that the South Africans “talked about a
Republic of their own.” He continued: “They want their own flag.
They talk of refusing honors from His Majesty the King. Since 1913,
there has been in force in the Union an Act known as the Native Lands
Act. We then realized that this Act was passed against the welfare of
the native. They talk of segregation. The Transvaal Government does
not allow natives to purchase land.” 8

Despite this opposition, the British Government, through the Imperial
High Commissioner, apparently believes that amalgamation will soon come.
In reply to the Basuto petition against inclusion in the Union, in 1908,

in telling the Council that the Union of South Africa had imposed this cattle
embargo to protect the interests of the white farmers.

5 For the petition, cf. Uagden, cited, p. 620.

* Minutes of the Bechuanaland Native Advisory Council, 1925.

1 Ibid., p. 6. 8 Ibid., p. 6 ff.

RELATIONS WITH THE UNION

193

the Secretary of State, Lord Crewe, said: “His Majesty does not wish
that there should be any immediate change, and no change will take place
for some time, but he sees that, if South Africa is united, it will be de¬
sirable as well as necessary for the Basutos to be prepared some day to
come under the same Government as the rest of South Africa.” 0 A.
few years ago, the Duke of Connaught informed the natives of Bechuana-
land that the Union Government was the government of the King; that
the “Union was like the House of the King: four of his sons were already
in that house, viz., the Cape, Natal, Orange Free State and Transvaal;
that it would be a good thing for all sons of the King to enter that house •
in due course, but that there was no knowing when the transfer of the
Bechuanaland Protectorate to the Union might take place. His Royal
Highness said it might be in five or ten years’ time or more. . . Lord
Gladstone is reported to have said the same thing. 9 10

Since the natives of the protectorate when in the Union are subject
to the same disabilities as Union natives, it does not appear that annexation
would alter their status in this respect, provided the schedule is observed.
This proviso raises some important constitutional questions in regard to
the force of Article 151 and the Schedule of the South Africa Act. In
the first place, is the King, “with the advice of the Privy Council”, auto¬
matically obliged to transfer to the Union, the government of these three
protectorates at the request of both houses of the Union parliament? Un¬
der the present constitutional organization of the Empire, the Crown acts
ordinarily upon the advice of the Ministers of the Dominions concerned.
But in this particular instance, he is to act “on the advice of the Privy
Council”, which w-ould imply that the British Government had some
discretion in giving or withholding its consent to the transfer of these
territories.

In the second place, once this transfer takes place, may the Union
Parliament amend the Schedule so as to strike out the guarantees which
this Schedule now contains? The Act provides that all bills to amend
the Schedule shall be reserved for the significance of His Majesty’s pleas¬
ure. But in this case His Majesty could apparently be obliged to follow
the advice of the South Africa Ministers. Moreover, Article 152 of the
South Africa Act provides that Parliament may by law repeal or alter
any of the provisions of the Act. 11 It would appear therefore that the
government of South Africa has the power to do away with the restrictions
imposed by the Schedule.

9 Lagden, cited, p. 624.

10 Minutes of Meeting of Native Advisory Council of Bechuanaland, 1925, p. 11.

“Except for a number of provisions which do not include Article 151.

194

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

It thus appears that the Act of Union does not contain adequate guar¬
antees that the three native Protectorates, upon being transferred to the
Union, will remain native states. Such guarantees could be embodied
in an intra-imperial agreement between the British and the South African
Governments, following the precedent of the agreement between the Irish
Free State and the British Government of 1921. In order to secure
international recognition of its semi-independent status, South Africa
might agree to register this agreement with the Secretariat of the League
of Nations which would presumably give the natives of the three Pro-
• tectorates a form of international guarantee which at present they do not
have. 12

“The British Government, however, protested to the League against the regis¬
tration of this agreement, and its international status is therefore uncertain. Cf.
Manchester Guardian, December 16 and 24, 1924.

APPENDICES—BASUTOLAND

II. Note on the Swaziland Concessions
III. Native Welfare Expenditures, Basutoland, Swa¬
ziland, AND BECHUANALAND

APPENDIX II

Note on the Swaziland Concessions

White settlers and prospectors first entered the territory of Swaziland,
governed at that time by King Mbandini, in 1878. Nine years later they
took steps to protect their interests by requesting the appointment of a British
Resident. But no such action at that time was taken. Pressed by the whites,
King Mbandini granted in 1888 a charter of self-government to the Europeans
as far as their own affairswere concerned, subject to the King’s veto. Theoph-
ilus Shepstone was appointed Advisor and Secretary to the King while the
registered concessionaires elected fifteen property owners to a Government
Committee which also contained five members nominated by the Chief. But
this effort of the whites to establish an administration in cooperation with
the Chief was soon overturned by native disturbances which led the British
and the Transvaal governments to send to Swaziland a joint commission to
report on the state of affairs. Upon its advice, the British and the Transvaal
governments established a provisional commission to which was added Mr.
Shepstone as the representative of the Swazis. In 1890 the King and Council
of the Swazi nation enacted an Organic Proclamation authorizing .this tri¬
partite commission to control European affairs.

Between 1884 and his death in 1889 King Mbandini had granted a large
number of concessions to Europeans in return for money and other payments.
The South Africa Republic, apparently wishing to secure access to the sea
across Swaziland, obtained concessions granting it the sole right to levy customs
and licenses, to build telegraphs and railways, and to control all postal and
survey services. In 1889 it secured what was known as the “Private Revenue
Concession” which practically gave the holder the right to collect all private
revenue of the King, including rents and duty on transfers of concessions, in
return for an annual payment to the King of 12,000 pounds during four years.
The Transvaal government made a net profit from this concession of over
9,000 pounds.

Four other kinds of concessions were granted by the King; those conveying
land, mining rights, the right to graze stock, and to cut timber. “Practically
the whole area of the country was covered two, three, or even four deep by
concessions of all sizes, for different purposes, and for greatly varying periods.
In but very few cases were even the boundaries defined; many of the areas
had been subdivided and sold several times, and seldom were the boundaries
of the superimposed areas even coterminous. In addition to this, concessions
were granted for all lands and minerals previously unallotted, or which having
been allotted, might lapse or become forfeited. Finally, it must be remembered
197

198

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

that over these three or four strata of conflicting interests, boundaries, and
periods there had to be preserved the natural rights of the natives to live,
move, cultivate, graze, and hunt.” 1

During the height of the concession regime, “The Paramount Chief was
receiving an income, chiefly from concession rents, of 12,000 pounds annually,
and the whole of this was squandered and thrown away by the ignorant and
frequently drunken chiefs. There is to-day nothing whatever to show how
this huge sum of probably not less altogether than 70,000 pounds was spent.” 1
In 1899 Chief Bunu, the new occupant of the throne, died a victim of the
vices in which the wealth from these concessions had enabled him to indulge.

In order to straighten out conflicts arising out of these concessions, the
Organic Proclamation of 1890 authorized the establishment of a chief court,
and empowered it to confirm the validity of disputed concessions. By a later
Proclamation of the native king the court was authorized to confirm if
necessary all concessions, whether disputed or not.

During the next three years this Court passed on these concessions but
progress was practically impossible because of the fact that several of the most
valuable concessions had been acquired by the South African Republic.

In 1893 the British government entered into a treaty with the South
African Republic in which the latter government was given power to acquire
from the Swazi nation an Organic Proclamation granting the South African
Republic powers of legislation and jurisdiction over Swaziland—in other
words, establishing a protectorate. When the Swazi chiefs did not sign such
an Organic Proclamation, the British and South African government signed
a new treaty virtually authorizing the South African Republic to establish
a protectorate, without the consent of the Swazis. 1 The administration of the
South African Republic during the next four years was marred by internal
revolts, while it was practically withdrawn during the Boer War—leaving
the Swazis to revert to their early condition. At the close of the War the
British Government issued the Swaziland Order in Council, 1903, 4 trans¬
ferring to the governor of the Transvaal the powers formerly exercised by
the Republic of South Africa. An Order in Council, 1906, transferred this
power to the High Commissioner for South Africa. 8

Upon succeeding to the rights of the Transvaal government, the British
government decided to expropriate the various monopolies held by individuals
and it accomplished this in the 1904 Proclamation at a cost of £40,000 paid
out of the revenues of the country. In 1905 it cancelled the Private Revenue
Concession. Sums collected during the war period by the British authorities
were placed in a Swazi Trust Fund.

In 1904 a Proclamation was promulgated which, in addition to establishing

'Swaziland, Report for 1907-1908, Col. No. 596, Cd. 4448-5, p. 13.

* Report, cited, p. 8.

’Convention of Dec. 10, 1894. Hertslet, Map of Africa by Treaty, Vol. Ill,
p. 1031.

Statutory Rules and Orders, 1903, p. 781. s Ibid., 1906, p. 891.

NOTE ON THE SWAZILAND CONCESSIONS 199

an administration over the country, authorized the appointment of a Com¬
mission to inquire into the whole question of concessions. Its duty was to
disentangle the confusion over concession boundaries and to define the
rights and servitudes of concessions whose boundaries were approved. It was
required to inquire into all monopolies granting exclusive rights and to report
upon those which were considered vexatious or fraudulent.

In 1906 the Concessions Commission recommended a Settlement based on
the principle that land should be preserved for the exclusive use of the
natives in sufficient quantities not only for the present needs of the nation
but for natural increase. It was estimated that one-third of the total area
of the concessions, exclusive of mineral areas, taken together with those con¬
cessions formerly the property of the Transvaal government, would ensure
to the natives the necessary land. Consequently, the Swaziland Crown Lands
Order in Council, 1907, authorized the High Commissioner to make grants
of Crown land which it defined as any land not being set aside as native
reserves* The Concessions Partition Proclamation was thereafter issued
on October 19, 1907, which subjected all land and grazing concessions to a
deduction without compensation of one-third of their area for the sole and
exclusive use and occupation of the natives; the remainder was left with the
concessionaires who now received freehold title from the Crown.

Although the European concessionaires did not complain against this settle¬
ment, the natives sent an unsuccessful deputation of protest to England.

Of the total area of Swaziland, 4,274,014 acres, 1,635,774 acres have been
set aside for the exclusive use of the natives and they have, in addition,
purchased 77,076 acres. The remainder of the country is either held by
concessionaires whose concessions were confirmed by the Proclamation or is
Crown land. The area of Crown land which remained after the Partition of
1907 amounted to 1,150,000 acres of which the Crown had alienated, up to
1925, about a million acres to Europeans.

Between 1907 and 1910 Swaziland borrowed £80,000 from Basutoland
partly for the purpose of meeting payments in connection with the
expropriations.

The validity of this settlement was challenged by the King of Swaziland
in a case which was finally decided by the Judicial Committee of the Privy
Council in 1926J In this case, the King of Swaziland brought an action of
ejectment against a European land owner whose lands originally formed part
of a concession known as the “Unallotted Lands Concession” granted by the
King of Swaziland in 1889 on an understanding that the rights of the existing
native occupiers should be respected. In 1908 the concession was expropriated
by the High Commissioner, who returned a portion of the concession to the
former holder in the form of a freehold title.® The King in the name of the
natives claimed that the rights of the native occupiers were not affected by this

* Statutory Rules and Orders, 1907, p. 180.

T Sobhuza II and Miller, La<w Reports, A. C. 1926, p. 518.

* Part of the land was set aside as a native reserve.

200

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

transfer; but the Crown contended that when the land passed to the Crown
and was then alienated, the rights of the natives were extinguished.

The King of Swaziland also argued that in succeeding to the rights of the
South African Republic in Swaziland the British Crown secured no power be¬
yond those stated in the convention of 1894, which provided that “the natives
are guaranteed in their continued use and occupation of land now in their
possession, and of all grazing or agricultural rights to which they are at present
entitled. . .

The Privy Council declined to accept the position that the power of the
Crown to alienate land in this territory was controlled by the agreement of
1895. Their Lordships declared that the power of the Crown to alienate
land “was exercised either under the Foreign Jurisdiction Act or as an Act
of State, which cannot be questioned in a Court of Law. The Crown could
not, excepting by statute, deprive itself of freedom to make Orders in Council,
even when these were inconsistent with previous Orders.” Their Lordships
also said that “The true character of the native title to land throughout the
Empire including South and West Africa was with local variations, a uniform
one. . . . 10 The notion of individual ownership is foreign to native ideas.
Land belongs to the community and not to the individual. The title of the
native community generally takes the form of a usufructuary right, a mere
qualification of a burden on the radical or final title of whoever is sovereign.
Obviously such a usufructuary right, however difficult to get rid of by
ordinary methods of conveyancing, may be extinguished by the action of a
paramount power which assumes possession of the entire control of the land.”

It would appear that this judgment still further confuses the situation, since
in the Tijani case the court held that the paramount power could not extin¬
guish these usufructuary rights.

“Art. 3, Convention of December 10, 1894.

10 Here- they cite A. Tijani v. Secretary of South Nigeria, cf. Vol. I, p. 756.

NOTE ON THE SWAZILAND CONCESSIONS

201

APPENDIX III

Native Welfare Expenditures in Basutoland, Bechuanaland and Swaziland
(1925-26)

Percent of

Amount per

Amount

Total Ordinary

100 inhabi-

Expenditure 1 *

tants 3

BASUTOLAND

Medical .

£23,163

9 -*

£ 4.26

Leper Colony.

20,747

8.1

3.82

Total Medical.

43 . 9 *o

17.2

8.08

Agriculture .

7,090

2.8

1.31

Veterinary .

17,198

6.7

3.16

Total Vet. and Agr...

24,288

9:5

447

Education.

39 . 9*5

* 5-7

7-35

Total Basutoland ....

108,113

42.4

19.90

BECHUANALAND

Medical .

6,909

7-3

4-37

Veterinary .

10,129

10.7

6.40

Education .

3,870

4 *

2.45

Total Bechuanaland .

20,908

22.1

13.22

SWAZILAND

Medical .

5,859

7.0

5*5

Veterinary .

13,062

* 5-7

11.48

Education 3 .

4 ,hs

S-o

364

Total Swaziland.

23,067

27.7

20.27

1 Percentages based on ordinary expenditures as follows: Basutoland, £255,510-;

Bechuanaland £94,667 and Swaziland £83,381.

3 Figures based on populations as follows: Basutoland 543,078; Bechuanaland,
158,152 and Swaziland 113,772.

3 Does not include estimated £2,000 spent for schools for European children.

SECTION III

THE RHODESIAS AND NYASALAND

CHAPTER 13
SOUTHERN RHODESIA

Between South Africa and the Belgian Congo stretches a belt of
country which was the object of the envious eyes of both Portugal, Ger¬
many and the British Empire a number of years ago. 1 The winner of
the struggle was the British Empire which today claims within its domain
the Colony of Southern Rhodesia, and the Protectorates of Northern Rho¬
desia and of Nyasaland.

Parts of all three of these territories resemble South Africa in climate
and geography, and hence have attracted white settlers. In the Rhodesias
valuable gold, coal and zinc mines will be found. Both the farmer and
the miner have been dependent upon native labor; both have required
land. Consequently, they have been obliged to meet, even if on a much
smaller scale, the same racial problems as has South Africa.

I. Lobengula and the South Africa Company

Before 1898, the territory now known as Southern Rhodesia—named
after Cecil Rhodes—consisted of two regions called Matabelaland and
Mashonaland, inhabited respectively by two native nations or tribes of
that name. The largest group, the Matabeles, was governed by a notable
chief, named Lobengula. They were an offshoot of the bloody Zulus who
came north and occupied this country in the early part of the nineteenth
century. For a while, the Matabele warriors periodically raided the
Mashonas—as a result of which the country was periodically bathed in
blood. About 1880, European concession hunters came roaming through
Lobengula’s country in a thirsty search for claims. But the agents of Cecil
Rhodes, that great imperialist, outwitted them all by securing two con¬
cessions—the Rudd and Lippert concessions—upon the basis of which
the company which Rhodes formed, called the British South Africa Com¬
pany, took over Lobengula’s country.

Too timid to administer the country itself, the British Government
granted a charter to the South Africa Company, in 1889, 2 which author-

*Cf. H. M. Hole, The. Making of Rhodesia, London, 1926, Chs. XVI, XVII.

a The text is given in The Statute Law of Southern Rhodesia, from the Charter
to December 31, 1910, p. 1.

205

206

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

ized it “to acquire by any concession, agreement, grant or treaty, all or any
rights, interests, authorities, jurisdiction and powers of any kind or nature
whatever, including powers necessary for the purpose of government and
the preservation of public order.”

Until 1894, Lobengula was, however, viewed as an independent ruler,
upon whose territory British officials merely exercised certain powers over
Europeans. 3 But in 1892, the Matebele rebelled, apparently because in¬
coming settlers had taken their land. The uprising was soon suppressed
and Lobengula’s government destroyed. 4 In 1894, the company estab¬
lished direct administration over the country, under the control of an
administrator and Council of Four. The appointment of these and other
officials was subject to the approval of the Secretary of State. 5

In 1896, another rebellion occurred, again provoked apparently by the
land and other questions. It was followed by the Southern Rhodesia
Order in Council, 1898, which not only created a Legislative Council,
having nominated and elected members, but also established a Resident
Commissioner as a representative of the British Government, with certain
powers with respect to the Company Administrator. The Resident Com¬
missioner submitted all ordinances enacted by the Southern Rhodesia Legis¬
lative Council to the Imperial High Commissioner then at Cape Town and
later at Pretoria. The High Commissioner had certain powers relating to
the settlement of natives on the land, to be discussed later. He could refer
any question relating to natives for investigation and report by any judge
of the High Court, and the High Commissioner would act with reference
to any such report as he thought fit. The appointment of a Secretary of
Native Affairs, and all Native Affairs officials, was subject to the approval
of the High Commissioner. Their salaries were fixed by the Governor sub¬
ject also to the High Commissioner’s approval. In all these matters, the
High Commissioner was advised by the Resident Commissioner. The com¬
pany government could not impose any disabilities upon the natives which
did not equally apply to Europeans, without the previous consent of the
Secretary of State, save in respect of the supply of arms, ammunition, and
liquor. 6

8 In 1891, the British Government issued the Mashonaland Order in Council,
authorizing the High Commissioner (at Capetown) to exercise whatever powers
Her Majesty had in the territory. No land title could be valid without his
approval.

4 Serious charges have been made that local officials of the company deliber¬
ately picked a quarrel with the tribes in order to gain control of the country.
Cf. John H. Harris, The Chartered Millions, London, 1921, Part III.

5 Cf. Order of Council of 1894, C. 8773, p. 13, which was based upon an agree¬
ment between the government and the company.

"This provision originally appeared in the Order in Council of 1894. An inter¬
esting question arises in regard to racial disabilities in an Immorality and Inde-

SOUTHERN RHODESIA

207

Thus down until 1923, the South Africa Company ruled Southern
Rhodesia through a Company Administrator who was a substitute for a
Governor, and through a Legislative Council. Its administration was con¬
trolled, as far as native affairs were concerned, by the Imperial High Com¬
missioner, represented in Southern Rhodesia by a Resident Commissioner,
ranking second to the Company Administrator.

In addition to its administrative activities, the Company carried on great
commercial undertakings. It operated cattle ranches and citrus estates;
while it held a proprietary interest in the Rhodesia and Mashonaland
Railways, and a monopoly of mining rights. So heavy were capital invest¬
ments during this period, that the Company did not pay a single dividend
before the settlement of 1924. On the contrary, it was obliged to make
advances to cover administrative deficits.

2. The Settlers and the Company

Meanwhile, Rhodesia gradually acquired a white population, which in
1921 numbered about 34,000 souls, many of whom were farmers who had
acquired land from the company government. From the beginning, the
European population found itself in opposition to the Company Adminis¬
trator who took his orders from a London Board. When the settlers were
given four elected members in the Legislative Council (with an official
majority of five) in 1898, opposition for a time subsided. But the death
of Mr. Rhodes who had served as a link between the London Board and
the administration on the spot, created apprehension; and conflicts soon
arose between the official majority and the settlers’ representatives. In
1903, the Company agreed to accept a Legislative Council of seven official
and seven elected members. In order to protect the financial position
of the Company, the 1903 Order provided that should the Legislative
Council fail to pass the Estimates, the Administrator could continue to
expend public revenue essential for administration. 7

In 1904, another Order, aimed at the same end, provided that no fiscal
vote should be proposed in the Council except by the Administrator. 8 At
this time, the annual deficit amounted to between two hundred fifty thou¬
sand and three hundred thousand pounds, which led the settlers, who were
obliged to pay taxes, to criticize the administration as extravagant and to

cency Act, passed by the Legislature in 1916 ( Statute Laiu of Southern Rhodesia,
1911-1922, p. 373), which prohibits white women from soliciting natives, and natives
from soliciting white men, but does not prohibit white men from soliciting native
girls.

’Southern Rhodesia, Order in Council, 1903, The Statute La<w of Southern
Rhodesia, From the Charter to 1910, p. 42.

8 Southern Rhodesia Order in Council, 1904, ibid., p. 43.

208

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

move the reduction of salaries of the company officials in the Legislative
Council—an effort blocked by the 1904 Order. The settlers also accused
the Company of misapplying administrative revenue by putting it into com¬
mercial accounts. 9 Their antagonism was further aroused when the
Company proposed to raise a loan of five million pounds, the proceeds of
which were to go to the Company to cover past deficits. At a conference
held at Salisbury, the capital, a mass meeting resolved that the adminis¬
trative rights of the Company should come to an end. Settlers also de¬
manded the establishment of an elective majority as a step toward re¬
sponsible government. A deputation was sent to London to negotiate in
regard to outstanding differences; but it was unsuccessful. In October,
1907, a number of directors visited Southern Rhodesia where they gave a
pledge that to bridge the period up to the grant of self-government they
would apply to the Crown for an Order in Council reducing the nominated
members to five, but on condition that the position of the Company in
fiscal matters should be protected.

A serious difference of opinion now arose between the Company and the
Crown over the meaning of this reservation as to finances. The Company
at first insisted that the Administrator should retain his power to make
expenditures in case the Council refused to vote the Estimates. But the
Colonial Office took the position that this would nullify the whole idea
of an elected majority and that the financial position of the Company
would be adequately protected by a provision that the council should con¬
sider no appropriation nor legislation interfering with the land and other
rights of the Company without first obtaining the approval of the Admin¬
istrator. The Company finally gave way, 10 and the Crown issued an Order
in Council the stated purpose of which was “to ensure to the Company
the control of financial matters while preserving to members of the Legis¬
lative Council full liberty of discussion and debate.” It attained this
end by authorizing seven elected members as opposed to five company
members on the council, subject to the reservations discussed above in
connection with financial and land legislation. 11

In 1913, the number of elected members was increased to twelve and
that of nominated members to six. In 1917, the number of elected mem¬
bers was increased to thirteen.

Since the term of the Company charter was only for twenty-five years,
Company rule should have come to an end in 1914. But at the time, the
Imperial Government, with the concurrence of the Legislative Council,

8 Cf. P. F. Hone, Southern Rhodesia, London, 1909, Chs. IV-VII.

10 Correspondence Relating to the Constitution of Southern Rhodesia, Cd. 7264
(1914).

11 Southern Rhodesia Order in Council, 1911, Statute Laws, 1911-1922, cited, p. 1.

SOUTHERN RHODESIA

209

agreed 12 to extend the life of the charter for a maximum period of ten
years. The charter, nevertheless, could be modified if the Legislative Coun¬
cil asked the Crown to establish “responsible” government—a request
which must be supported with proof of fitness “financial and otherwise”
to carry on such a system. Apparently the settlers agreed to prolongation
of Company rule in the belief that the only alternative was incorporation
in the Union of South Africa, then distasteful to them, owing to the strife
between British and Boers.

3. Status of Unalienated Land

About this time the Company, having accumulated a deficit of
£7,750,00°, declared that a new government would not be obliged to
take over this deficit, inasmuch as the Company would retain the min¬
erals and the land of the territory The claim of the Company to the
land rights of Southern Rhodesia had been opposed by the settlers as
early as 1908. When the Company renewed their claim as an offset
to the deficit, the Legislative Council in 1914 passed a resolution say¬
ing that the ownership of unalienated land was not vested in the Com¬
pany as its private property; but that its powers over the land were
conferred by the Crown on the Company merely as a governing body
for the time being responsible for the administration of the country, and
that the residual rights in the land would therefore pass to the Crown
upon the termination of the company rule. On the other hand, humani¬
tarian interests in England, represented by the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines
Protection Society, took the position that the lands belonged neither to
the Company as such nor to the government of the country, but to the
native population. 13

This question was referred by Order in Council to the Judicial Com¬
mittee of the Privy Council for an advisory opinion. This body handed
down an important opinion in 1918, which appears to form the legal basis
of British land policy in East Africa today.

The argument advanced in behalf of the natives was that they were
the owners of the unalienated lands long before either the Company or
the Crown became concerned with them and that their titles could not be
divested without legislation which had never been passed, or their consent
which had never been given, and that the unalienated lands belonged to
them still. Hence, if the Company had any title at all, which was denied, it

13 Supplemental Charter, March 2, 1915, ibid., p. 36.

s * Cf. Extracts from the Argument of Mr. Leslie Scott, in The Struggle for
Native Rights in Rhodesia, published by The Anti-Slavery and Aborigines Pro¬
tection Society, London, 1918.

210

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

was only the title of a trustee, the beneficial interest remaining in the na¬
tives and the legal title and rights to possession reverting to them whenever
the Company cease to govern the country . 14

In reply to this argument, their Lordships declared that “it was really
a matter of conjecture to say what the rights of the original ‘natives’ were
and who the present ‘natives’ were, who claimed to be their successors in
those rights.” Emigration and immigration had occurred. Moreover, the
land was communal. They stated that, “In any case, it was necessary that
the argument should go the length of showing that the rights, whatever
they exactly were, belonged to the category of rights of private property,
such that upon a conquest it is to be presumed, in the absence of express
confiscation or of subsequent exproprietory legislation, that the conqueror
has respected them and forborne to diminish or modify them.”

Moreover,

“The estimation of the rights of aboriginal tribes is always inherently
difficult. Some tribes are so low in the scale of social organisation that
their usages and conceptions of rights and duties are not to be reconciled with
the institutions or the legal ideas of civilized society. Such a gulf cannot be
bridged. It would be idle to impute to such people some shadow of the rights
known to our law, and then to transmute it into the substance of transferable
rights of property as we know them. In the present case it would make each
and every person by a fictional inheritance a landed proprietor ‘richer than
all his tribe.’ On the other hand, there are indigenous peoples, whose legal
conceptions though differently developed are hardly less precise than our own.
When once they have been studied and understood, they are no less enforce¬
able than rights arising under English law. Between the two there is a wide
tract of much ethnological interest, but the position of the natives of Southern
Rhodesia within it is very uncertain; clearly they approximate rather to the
lower than to the higher limit. ... If the native holdings under Lobengula
were not in the nature of private rights, . . . they were at the disposal of
the Crown when Lobengula fled and his dominions were conquered; if they
were, any actual disposition of them by the Crown upon a conquest, whether
immediately in 1894 or four years later, would suffice to extinguish them as
manifesting an intention expressly to exercise the right to do so. . . . The
Company’s alienations by grant are unquestionably valid, yet the natives have
no share in them. ... By the will of the Crown, and in exercise of its rights
the old state of things whatever its exact nature, as it was before 1893, has
passed away and another and, as their Lordships do not doubt, a better has
been established in lieu of it. Whoever now owns the unalienated lands,
the natives do not.”

The British South Africa Company based its claims upon the Rudd
concession granted by Lobengula, and upon the Lippert concession which
14 Law Reports, A. C. 1919, p. 211.

SOUTHERN RHODESIA

211

the Company later acquired. It was the contention of the Company that
the King in these two concessions “sold his country out and out to the
company.” But their Lordships would not accept this argument. The
rights transferred by Lobengula, apart from the mines, were only admin'
istrative rights. “As a title deed to the unalienated lands it is valueless.”
The Company also based its claims upon occupation and contended 'that
since the Crown had not annexed the territory concerned, it could not
claim the land. On this point, their Lordships made an interesting state¬
ment :

“No doubt a proclamation annexing a conquered territory is a well under¬
stood mode in which a conquering power announces its will urbi et orbi. It
has all the advantages (and the disadvantages) of publicity and precision.
But it is only declaratory of a state of fact. In itself it is no more indis¬
pensable than is a declaration of war at the commencement of hostilities. As
between State and State special authority may attach to this formal manner
of announcing the exercise of sovereign rights, but the present question does
not arise between State and State. It is one between sovereign and
subject. . . . The fact being established that a conquest of Lobengula and his
dominions had occurred, the question is what Her Majesty’s Government
thereupon elected and intended to do in Her Majesty’s name. It cannot
be said that not to annex forthwith was a renunciation of all right to annex
at any time, or that a disposition of the public lands in the conquered terri¬
tories, as ample as if formal annexation had taken place, is less operative
than if that form had been employed. The true view seems to be that if,
when the Protecting Power of 1891 became the conquering power in 1893,
and that under the Orders in Council of 1894 and 1898 set up by its own
authority its own appointee as administrator, and sanctioned a land system
of white settlement and of native reserves, it was intended that the Crown
should assume and exercise the right to dispose of the whole of the land
not then in private ownership, then it made itself owner of the land to all
intents and purposes as completely as any sovereign can be the owners of land,
which are publici juris, and that the forms of an annexation to itself followed
by a grant and conveyance to others for the purpose of grants over to settlefs
do not avail by their presence or their absence to affect the substance of these
acts of State.”

While their Lordships were of the opinion that the Company merely
held these lands in an administrative capacity and consequently could not
retain them upon giving up the government of Rhodesia, they did state
that “If in the exercise of the authority conferred, the party authorized
is obliged to expend his own moneys in the discharge of the authority
conferred upon him, it is incident to the relationship, that he is entitled to

212

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

look to his principal and employer for reimbursement. . . 16 It de¬

clared that in this event, the Company had the right to look to the Crown
to secure to it, “either out of the proceeds of further sales of the lands, by
whomsoever made, or if the Crown should grant away these lands or pro¬
ceeds to others, then from public funds, the due reimbursement
of any outstanding balance of aggregated advances made by it for
necessary and proper expenditure upon the public administration of South¬
ern Rhodesia.”

In other words, while the Company could not claim ownership of the
unalienated land, it could claim from the Crown the administrative deficit
incurred.

Thus in this opinion, the Judicial Committee makes a distinction be¬
tween native conceptions of land tenure which are “low” and those which
are “high.” Those tribes whose conceptions of land tenure approach Euro¬
pean conception may secure the enforcement of their rights by British
courts. But the land of more primitive people will not receive such pro¬
tection. It does not appear, however, that their Lordships made any
exhaustive inquiries into the land system of the Matabele to determine into
what category it fell. They failed to recognize that in a community
where the prevailing tenure was communal, a native might hold land ac¬
cording to individual tenure . 16 During the discussions in regard to the
Rhodesian land question, the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines Protection
Society in England proposed that natives who could prove twenty years*
beneficial occupancy of land outside of the reserves should remain undis¬
turbed; a suggestion which was, however, not adopted by the Colonial
Office . 17 The attitude of the Privy Council in ignoring all native rights
in this case is in striking contrast to its judgment three years later in the
Olowa land case in Nigeria where it held that the Crown was obliged to
respect the usufructuary rights of native communities in the land . 18 The
Nigeria judgment makes no distinction between primitive and more ad¬
vanced conceptions of land tenure. While it does not grant to natives the
rights known to British law, it states that the usufructuary rights of the
natives in the land should be respected. In the Rhodesia case, their Lord-

”Cf. P . 25.. .

14 Cf. S. Olivier, “Are We Going to Act Justly in Africa,” Vol. iii, Contem¬
porary Review, (1920) p. 198. Also “Native Land Rights in Rhodesia,” ibid.,
August, 1926.

17 The Court apparently went beyond the Case for the Crown, which said,
“It is submitted that as regards the natives as a class and as distinguished from
individuals who have acquired or retained any right in any individual plot or
plots of land their rights are those and only those which have been conferred by
Her late Majesty or Her Successors by Order in Council or by Proclamation
Ordinances or regulation made by authority of an Order or Orders in Council.”

18 Cf. Vol. I, p. 755.

SOUTHERN RHODESIA

213

ships sweep away all such rights in favor of the Crown. 19 It is, therefore,
a matter of policy what lands should be used by the natives and upon
what terms. Obviously, this judgment has great political importance. As¬
suming that native conceptions of land tenure in other parts of East Africa
are the same as in Rhodesia, the Crown may as a result of this opinion
herd natives into reserves or deprive them by other means of the land
which they formally occupied, and alienate such land to white settlers.
Under the law laid down by the Privy Council for West Africa, it seems
that such alienations would not be legal. 20

4. Native Reserves

In its original charter, the South Africa Company was obliged to pay
“careful regard to the customs and laws of the class or tribe or nation, to
which the parties respectively belong, especially with regard to the hold¬
ing, possession, transfer and disposition of lands . . . but subject to any
British laws which may be in force in any of the territories.” 21

It does not appear, moreover, • that the Company paid any attention
to these provisions. European settlers poured into the country about
1890, and received large grants of land. According to a recent commis¬
sion, “The Matabele began to feel the pressure of European settlement
within a very few months after the occupation. By the middle of 1894,
practically the whole of the gold belt areas of Matabeleland had been
alienated to companies or individuals, and although a large number of the
farms granted were not at first actually occupied, it became necessary to
consider the desirability of demarcating areas in other parts of the country
which should be reserved from European occupation, and where the natives
could live according to their own tribal system.” 22 In another attempt to
make the Company respect the interests of the natives, the Crown issued
an Order in Council of 1894 which provided for the appointment of a Land
Commission which should assign to the natives of Matabeleland “land
sufficient for their occupation whether as tribes or portions of tribes, and
suitable for their agricultural and pastoral requirements, including in all
cases a fair and equitable proportion of springs and permanent water.”
This commission found that the company government had already alienated
so much land to Europeans upon which natives had resided that it would
be necessary to provide natives with lands away from their original homes.

” Cf. Vol. I, p. 3x3, for the Masai case which is also inconsistent in certain
respects. * Cf. Vol. I, p. 199, for the 1926 Swaziland judgment.

21 Para. 14, Charter of October 28, 1889. As far as land is concerned this pro¬
vision was overruled by Article 81 of the Order in Council of 1898.

23 Interim Report, “Southern Rhodesian Native Reserves Commission,” 1915,
Cd. 8674, p. 7.

214 THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

Consequently, it decided to set aside two large tracts (the Shangani and
the Gwaai Reserves), estimated to have an area of six thousand five hun¬
dred square miles. “Partly owing to their natural aversion from aban¬
doning districts which they had occupied for several generations, and
partly because of the distance of the reserves from their existing kraals,
the Matabele did not at once, nor indeed for many years, avail themselves
of the Gwaai and Shangani Reserves, and no efforts were made by the
Government to induce them to settle on the ground provided for them.” 23
Following the Matabele Rebellion—which had been caused in part by this
land policy—the Company reached a compromise with the natives by
which some of them were allowed to remain on European property. But
with the increase of European immigration, this property became more
and more occupied. Although some of the settlers made tenancy agree¬
ments with the natives, others demanded that the natives move off the
l^nd. In the meantime, the company collected quitrent. But many of
the natives still declined to go to the Shangani and Gwaai Reserves; and
consequently the administration finally instructed the district commis¬
sioners to make recommendations in regard to sufficient land for the natives
in their respective districts. They were instructed to base their recom¬
mendations upon the average amount of nine acres of arable land per
man allowed under the Glen Grey Act of Cape Colony. The native com¬
missioners attempted this time to leave the tribes as far as possible undis¬
turbed ; “but in some districts they were faced with the difficulty of finding
any suitable land that had not already been alienated.” Consequently,
in certain cases, they created a number of small reserves sandwiched in
between European farms. In 1902, the Executive Council of the Company
definitely approved these recommendations, but no boundaries were actually
delimited.

In later years, difficulties arose over the fact that the areas selected
by the commissioners could not be satisfactorily located. The area of
these districts in some cases had also been under-estimated. Thus the
commissioners thought that the Sabi reserve contained only four hundred
thousand acres; but a later survey showed that it contained 1,554,000
acres. Moreover, many natives continued to live upon European farms
where the rapid increase of native stock soon cut into the pasturage wanted
for European herds. Many farmers therefore served notice on the natives
to leave. A number of settlers and other officials asked that the reserves
be cut down.

This situation led the British Government to make an agreement in

Report, cited, p. 6.

SOUTHERN RHODESIA

215

1913 with the South Africa Company for the appointment of a com¬
mission to inquire whether the reserves were sufficient for the requirements
of the natives, having regard for present needs and also for probable future
necessities consequent upon the spread of white settlement. 24

After making a thorough survey of the country, this commission cut
down the existing area of the reserves by about a million acres 26 and
regrouped some of the districts so as to separate more definitely white
from native acres, which meant the eviction of thirty-five thousand natives.
The findings of this commission were attacked on the ground that its
members had at one time or another been in the employ of the chartered
company. 20 The most specific criticism, however, was made against the
proposal of the commission to deprive the Sabi reserve of a belt of land
twelve miles wide, amounting to 291,800 acres, which should be utilized
for a railroad right-of-way. 27 The critics of this proposal said that this
much land was not needed for the railway but was needed for the natives
inasmuch as only one-third of the Sabi reserve was good land. 27 *

In 1920, an Order in Council was issued, vesting the reserves as
finally defined in the High Commissioner (at Pretoria) and setting them
“apart for the sole and exclusive use and occupation of the native in¬
habitants of Southern Rhodesia.” No person other than a native may
occupy any portion of a reserve except by special permission given by
the administration, with the approval of the High Commissioner. 28

By this means, the protection of the reserves is placed not only under
the Government of Southern Rhodesia but also under the representative
of the British Crown. This Order in Council gives to natives of Southern
Rhodesia one hundred and four native reserves ranging from five thousand
acres to 3,475,170 acres in size, and having a total area of twenty-two
million acres. On the other hand, the government has alienated about
thirty-one million acres to Europeans. About forty-three million acres
remain for future allocation. 29

The reserves of Southern Rhodesia are nearly as large as those of the

24 Cd. 8674, cited, p. 3. The Commission in its report rejected the idea that
"as the native population increases, every individual is to retain an indefeasible
right to land sufficient for his occupation and suitable for his agricultural and
pastoral requirements according to the primitive methods of native life.” For this
would eventually give them the whole of Southern Rhodesia.

“ Ibid., p. 24.

29 Correspondence with the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines Protection Society.
Cmd. 547 (1920).

21 Report, cited, p. 44.

Cf. A. S. Cripps, The Sabi Reserve, Oxford, 1920.

Southern Rhodesia Order in Council, 1920. Cmd. 1042 (1920).

28 In 1925, the Rhodesia Legislative Council passed a Native Reserves Aug¬
mentation Act which extended the native reserves in the Wankie and Inyanga
districts. Statute Law, cited, 1925, p. 10.

216

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

Union of South Africa although the Union of South Africa has nearly
six times the native population of Rhodesia. Taking native population
into consideration, the Rhodesia reserves are proportionately about twice
the size of those of Kenya. 30 Rhodesia natives also have more land per
capita than the natives of Basutoland and of the Transkei.

While therefore the Rhodesian natives have not fared badly from the
standpoint of the quantity of land, the fact remains that in some cases
they have been dispossessed of land traditionally regarded by them as their
homes, and in which what European law would regard as “rights” had
been vested. As a result of these reserves, natives have been obliged—and
without compensation—to move off land which they have occupied for
generations.

5. Native Land Purchases

Notwithstanding the creation of these reserves, the Order in Council
of 1898 authorized natives to buy land upon the same basis as the whites. 31
While it appears that the Chartered Company declined to alienate land
to natives, some of them made purchases from Europeans before 1925
amounting to forty-five thousand acres. In 1911, the Native Affairs Com¬
mittee of Inquiry reported that there was “a wide-spread feeling that
natives should not acquire possession of land in the neighbourhood of farms
occupied by Europeans.” It recommended that natives for the present
should not acquire land outside the reserves. 32

At the time when the new constitution was being drafted in 1921, the
Southern Rhodesia delegates suggested to the Colonial Office that the High
Commissioner set aside specific districts in which natives alone might acquire
land—the principle of the South Africa Land Act, 1913. 33 But the
Secretary of State for Colonies replied that the present policy enshrined
a long accepted principle and he would be unwilling to agree to an altera¬
tion, the corollary of which seemed to be the exclusion of natives from
other areas; but that if full and impartial enquiry should show, after
Responsible Government had come into force, that some amendment of
the law was necessary, His Majesty’s Government would be prepared to
consider an amendment. 34

Following the recommendations of the Chief Native Commissioner
and a resolution of the Legislative Council in 1919-21 the Governor of
Southern Rhodesia appointed in 1925 a commission to conduct this “full

80 Cf. Vol. I, p. 322.

81 Article 83. But no contract alienating native property is valid without
administrative consent.

33 Report, A. 12-1911, p. 10.

83 Cf. Vol. I, p. 82.

Cmd. 1573 (1922), p.4.

SOUTHERN RHODESIA

217

and impartial inquiry.” The Commission reported that the principle of
segregation was favored by the European farmer who “considers that his
stock and produce will be endangered by the proximity of Native land
holders, whose less progressive and careless methods will spread disease
among his crops and cattle. . . It continued, . . in many cases
he suspects the honesty of the Native, and fears that his crops and imple¬
ments will be stolen; and he objects from social reasons to the Native as
a neighbour; moreover, he has no doubt that his land will depreciate in
value if a Native buys a neighbouring farm.”

The Commission further declared: “The Native . . . prefers to live
among his own people, and has no wish to acquire land among white people
if he can obtain suitable land elsewhere; he dreads the trouble which arises
from the white man not understanding him, and the worry to which
he is subjected by the impounding of his straying flocks and herds, with the
consequent expense he is put to in releasing them from the pound; in
many cases he realizes the growing difficulty of obtaining land in com¬
petition with the whites.” 35

It was the opinion, of the Commission that “until the Native has ad¬
vanced very much further on the paths of civilization, it is better that the
points of contact in this respect between the two races should be reduced,
and a lengthy period afforded for the study of the whole question of the
future of the relations between the two races, in an atmosphere which is
freed as far as possible from the set-backs which would ensue from the
irritation and conflicts arising from the constant close proximity of mem¬
bers of races of different habits, ideals and outlook upon life.”

The Commission believed that inasmuch as forty-three million acres
remained for disposal, the setting apart of separate areas would be a
practicable proposition and that “Southern Rhodesia is in a very fortunate
position compared with the Union of South Africa in being able to give
effect to a policy which the bulk of its inhabitants so clearly desire.” 36

Consequently the Commission recommended that Europeans should
be allowed the exclusive right to purchase land in what are now pre¬
dominantly white areas; while the natives should be allowed to acquire
land in or near to districts where they now reside, which usually means

85 Report of the Land Commission, 1925, C.S.R. 3-1926, p. 4.

“The Commission stated that if no restrictions were imposed, “Although in the
aggregate the amount of land purchased by Natives for some years to come may
not be considerable, yet such purchases would be scattered throughout the country,
and might seriously retard the influx of settlers, who would be unwilling to come
to a district where, after they had expended capital in making a home among
people of their own race, they might at any time be confronted with neighbors of
the other race; as settlement becomes closer, so would such proximity be felt to
be more objectionable.”

218

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

adjoining existing native reserves, so that eventually both the reserves and
the purchase areas will support the same native community, having the
same native institutions. The Commission proposed “native purchase”
areas of 6,851,876 acres and European areas of 17,423,815 acres. In¬
cluding existing reserves and holdings, this settlement would mean that
the European area of Rhodesia would represent approximately 62 per cent
of the total and the native areas, 37 per cent. In return for getting a real
right of purchase, the natives would surrender the potential right of pur¬
chasing land in any other part of Rhodesia, which has been little realized
in the past, and the uncontrolled exercise of which in the future might
cause racial conflict. If this settlement is carried into effect, 37 the natives
will, within these limits, gradually extend their reserves and develop
farms of their own. The adoption of this policy is much more probable
in Southern Rhodesia than in the Union of South Africa. It is a policy
which Kenya should seriously consider before it is too late.

6. Rhodesia's New Constitution

Following the judgment of the Privy Council to the effect that the
Company should be reimbursed for the net deficit incurred during its ad¬
ministration, the British Government appointed the Cave Commission to
determine what the exact sum should be. Originally, the Company stated
that the deficit, with accumulated interest, amounted to 7,866,000
pounds. The Cave Commission, however, rejected the claim for interest
and as a result of its recommendation the Crown made an agreement with
the Company in which it took over the administration of the territory, and
agreed to pay the sum of 3,750,000 pounds, 38 which the Company agreed
to accept in full discharge of its claims in Southern Rhodesia for ad¬
ministrative deficits. The Company retained the lands which it was de¬
veloping on a commercial basis, and all mineral rights. 39

Following this payment, the assets of the British South Africa Company
stood at 7,065,000 pounds. In addition, it possesses 1,732,055 Rhodesia
Railway Trust shares at one pound each upon which a dividend of four
per cent is paid. It also owns mineral rights which yielded a net income
in the year ending March 31, 1922, of 129,000 pounds. Finally, it
possesses land amounting to 10,195,000 acres. Of this, more than four
million are in Southern Rhodesia, about 2,760,000 are in Northern
Rhodesia, and about 2,500,000 are in Nyasaland. Likewise the Company

87 The consent of the home government is necessary inasmuch as the purchase
clause is in the Rhodesian constitution.

88 Cf. also Directors’ Report and Accounts. The British South Africa Company,
July 24, 1924.

30 For the text of the agreement, cf. Cmd. 1894 (1923).

SOUTHERN RHODESIA

219

receives half of the revenue derived from future sales of land in North¬
western Rhodesia for forty years. 40 The Company also holds nearly seven
hundred thousand acres in Bechuanaland. The issued capital of the Com¬
pany is nearly nine million pounds. It will thus be seen that the liquid
assets of the Company amount to about 65 per cent of the issued capital. 41
The value of the frozen assets is probably much greater than
that of the liquid assets. It appears that sooner or later the South
Africa Company will realize great profits from its holdings. In fact,
the vast holdings of this Company which controls the Rhodesian railway
and owns all mining rights, casts a shadow over the future of the country.

Meanwhile some of the European population had been agitating for
responsible government, while others, influenced by General Smuts’ party,
attempted to induce Rhodesia to become a fifth province in the Union of
South Africa—a suggestion which was rejected in a referendum of October,
1922, by a majority of about 2,780 in favor of responsible government. 42

One of the difficulties in granting responsible government to the thirty-
four thousand Europeans inhabiting Rhodesia was the question of native
affairs. Could this European minority be entrusted with complete control
over the eight hundred thousand native inhabitants of the country? A
commission, headed by Lord Buxton, believed that a local government
could be safely entrusted with the responsibility, provided its exercise was
subject to outside control similar to that established over the former Com¬
pany Government or that established by the Crown in the constitution
granting self-government to Natal in 1893. 43

As a result of the recommendation of this commission, the Crown
maintained, in the constitution granted in 1923, all of the old provisions
in regard to the appointment and removal of native affairs officials, and
the investigation of native questions by the judge of the high court. 44
In addition, the constitution provides that the Governor of Southern
Rhodesia must forward to the High Commissioner any information relating
to native affairs which the High Commissioner may request. The position
of the Resident Commissioner, which existed under the Company, is, how¬
ever, abolished. The native reserves are also placed under Imperial
guarantee of a stronger type than exists in Kenya. 45

These restrictions upon the Chartered Company in the past may ex-

40 Cf. Vol. I, p. 326.

**The Times, (London), July 18, 1923, p. 17, col. b.

42 Inasmuch as the history of this question of responsible government does not
immediately concern the native problem, we cannot go into the details here. Ex¬
cellent accounts are given in the numbers of the Round Table covering the period.

43 Lord Buxton’s Committee’s Report, Cmd. 1273 (1921).

44 Statutory Rules and Orders, 1923, p. 1078.

45 Cf. Vol. I, p. 321.

220

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

plain the superior position which, from the native standpoint, Rhodesia
occupies to-day in comparison with South Africa or of Kenya. 48

7. Distribution of Natives

The native population of Southern Rhodesia is distributed as follows:
Native Population

On the reserves . 532,737

On European farms . 122,460

On Crown Land . 151,912

On mines and in towns, etc. 27,364

Total native population. 834,473^

Natives living on European farms are subject to the Private Locations
Ordinance, 1910, 48 which provides that every land holder must enter into
a written agreement with natives residing on his land. The native com¬
missioner may remove from a location any native who refuses to enter
into such an agreement. Every landlord must take out a license in respect
of every adult male residing in the location—one shilling a male if the
landlord actually occupies the land, two shillings otherwise. No license
shall authorize more than forty adults to occupy a location having an area
of fifteen hundred morgen. 49 Unlike the Kenya and South Africa squatter
legislation, the Rhodesia law does not require a native to perform service
for a stated number of days a year. The Native Affairs Committee of
Inquiry of 1911 considered that the Rhodesia ordinance, though unpopular,
was a safeguard against “kafir farming.” But it pointed out that rents
charged to natives by owners had increased fifty or one hundred per cent. 50

The practice of renting European land to natives, which is authorized
by the ordinance, is also unsatisfactory to Europeans. In 1925, the Land
Commission reported: “The evidence of the farmers in the country is
almost unanimously in favour of the abolition of this form of private
location, which is regarded as quite unnecessary in connection with the
question of labor supply, and as tending to keep land out of the market,
owing to the fact that syndicates and large private land owners are
enabled to make a revenue by way of rents from Natives out of land which
they are not developing, but which they are holding up with a view to

46 Cf. Vol. I, pp. 76, 322 ff.

4T Report of the Chief Native Commissioner, 1925, C.S.R. 7-1926, p. 1.

48 Statute Lavj of Southern Rhodesia, 1910, p. 1013.

40 A penalty of five pounds is imposed for each male native in excess of this
number. Nevertheless, a land owner may, with the consent of the administration,
permit natives to reside on his land, provided no burden is imposed on them either
by way of rent or labor below the ordinary rate of wage or otherwise.

60 Report of the Native Affairs Committee of Inquiry, 1911, p. ic.

SOUTHERN RHODESIA 221

ultimate sale to settlers at an enhanced price. In some instances as much
as three pounds per annum is charged as rent to each adult Native. . . 61

The commission nevertheless believed that to prevent the existing loss of
labor to Europeans, squatter agreements should exact from the squatter a
certain period of labor in return for the use of land.

Until recently, natives living on Crown land have been apparently
subject to none of the restrictions applied to natives on European farms.
They have merely been obliged to pay an annual quit-rent of a pound to
the government. They have, moreover, had no security of tenure outside
of the reserves. As a result of the Order in Council of 1920, setting aside
definite native reserves, natives are being obliged to move off unalienated
Crown land into these reserves, the population of which has consequently
been increasing.

8. Pass Law

The movement of Rhodesia natives is controlled by restrictions similar
to those which exist in other inter-racial communities. The pass law
requires that every native foreigner entering the territory must obtain
from a Pass Office either a visiting pass or a pass to seek work, the validity
of the latter being limited to thirty days. Every male native within
the territory over fourteen days must register himself at the Pass Office
of the district where he resides. Any native desiring to leave his district
in search of work may obtain free of charge from the Pass Office a “pass
to seek work” which is good for thirty days. Every emploj'er must ask
a new employee for his certificate upon which he indorses the date and
terms of employment.

No railway ticket may be issued to a native without this certificate.
Nine classes of natives are exempt from the obligation to have a pass. 52

9. Native Administration

Native administration under responsible government in Southern
Rhodesia is conducted on the same lines as it was by the South Africa
Company—a tribute to the policies which the native affairs officials of
the Company had worked out. The Prime Minister of the colony is, as

61 Report, cited, p. 33.

“Natives’ Passes Law, 1914, Statute Law of Southern Rhodesia, 1911-1921,
p. 269.

In Rhodesia, a curious system called the “Box System” has arisen under which
traders keep boxes in which natives may deposit their goods for safe-keeping or
as security for payment of amounts due. In 1912, an ordinance was passed re¬
quiring the registration of box-keepers. Both the register and the boxes shall be
open for inspection. No box or its contents should be sold by the box-keeper
except with the consent of the native concerned and that of the Magistrate.

Credit to Natives—Box System Ordinance. Ibid., 1911-1922, p. 221.

222

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

in the Union, also Secretary of Native Affairs. Native administration is
directly supervised by a Chief Native Commissioner, under whom are three
Superintendents of Natives, who in turn supervise thirty-two native districts,
each in charge of a Native Commissioner. More than three*hundred chiefs
are paid a stipend by the government. 53 They do not apparently exercise
any judicial power.

The government has created a native trust fund, 54 the revenues of
which come from rents of trading sites in the reserves 55 and other sources,
and which are used for the development of the reserves such as the plant¬
ing of trees and the purchase of grade bulls. So far, the natives have no
control over this fund. Native taxes—amounting to a pound a year 56 —
provide a revenue to the government of 328,370 pounds. In return, the
government expends 137,218 pounds on the Department of Native Affairs
and thirty-two thousand pounds in grants to native education. Certain
expenditures, difficult to calculate, are made for the promotion of native
health and agriculture. It is probable that more than half of the direct
taxes of the natives are directly returned to them—a proportion which
appears to be as high as in Kenya or South Africa. 57 Southern Rhodesia
could study with profit the new Taxation and Development Act of South
Africa which, as we have seen, definitely earmarks a portion of native
taxation for native purposes.

The Rhodesian Constitution (Article 47) authorizes the government,
with the approval of the High Commissioner, to establish in any native re¬
serve native councils of the chiefs and other natives, for the discussion of
matters of direct interest to the native population. The Governor is
empowered to confer on these councils “such powers of management over
local matters as he may think desirable.”

Although some natives have requested that these councils should be
established, the government so far has taken no action in this respect.
According to the Commission of Native Education, the natives are not
yet fitted to carry out the duties of such councils. 58

But if the natives of Kenya and of South Africa are “fitted” to perform

63 Cf. the Native Regulations issued by the company in 1898, C. 9138 (1898).
p. 17. These Regulations were amended in 1910 {ibid., p. 115), and in 1924,
{Statute Law of Southern Rhodesia, 1924, p. 34.)

M Regulations for Establishment and Administration of the Fund. Statute Law
of Southern Rhodesia, 1924, p. 357.

35 Cf. Native Reserve Regulations. Ibid., 1923, p. 131.

M And ten shillings for each additional wife. Native Tax Amendment Ordi¬
nance, ibid., 1911-1912, p. 515.

67 Cf. Vol. I, pp. 382 ff. But cf. also Vol. I, p, 653, in general to Nigeria where
335,000 pounds more than the entire sum of direct taxation is returned directly to
the natives.

58 Report of the Commission on Native Education, C.S.R. 20-1925, p. 115.

SOUTHERN RHODESIA

223

these duties, one should suppose that the natives of Rhodesia would be
equally able to talk about matters affecting themselves. Similar experi¬
ments elsewhere in Africa show that the ability necessary to perform these
duties can be acquired only by experience. It is difficult to see what
dangers the establishment of such councils would create, especially when
they are kept under close administrative control. 69

io. European Defense

Southern Rhodesia, following the example of South Africa, has adopted
the system of compulsory military service for Europeans. The Southern
Rhodesia Defense Act of 1926 lays down the principle that every citizen
is liable to assist in the defense of his country, but because primarily
cf the financial burden, every citizen is not actually obliged to fulfil this
obligation. Under the new act, the government may from time to time
fix the number of citizens who may be obliged to undergo this training.
The organization of military forces of Rhodesia consists of a Permanent
Force, a Territorial Force, and certain reserves. The Permanent Force
consists of the permanent South Africa police. The Territorial Force is
recruited partly from volunteers and partly from conscripts, but compulsion
is to be employed only when sufficient volunteers do not present themselves.
In 1925, there were eight military districts in Rhodesia maintaining rifle
companies having an enrollment of 2,456.°° Under such a system, native
revolts may be quickly quelled.

#B Southern Rhodesia has also taken commendable steps in developing native
education. In 1920, it established two schools for the promotion of native agricul¬
ture and industry, due to the initiative of Mr. H. S. Keigwin, a native commis¬
sioner. But it appears that the original idea has since been departed from in that
home industries have not been developed as was originally intended. The bulk
of the educational work among natives is carried on by different missionary socie¬
ties. The American Methodist Mission at Umtali is doing effective work in teach¬
ing agriculture.

60 Report of Defense, 1925, C.S.R. 6-1926, p. 4.

CHAPTER 14

THE LABOR SITUATION

As we have seen, the European farmers and mine operators of
Southern Rhodesia—numbering about thirty-four thousand—depend for
their existence upon native labor. 1 The farmers are organized into a
Rhodesian Agricultural Union while thirty-seven mining groups are as¬
sociated in the Rhodesia Chamber of Mines.

The labor situation may be seen from the following table:

Natives in Industrial Employment in IQ25

Work other than mining

Mining

Totals

Indigenous .

4+1561

10,572

55,133

Alien.

63,000

29,072

92,072

Total .

107,561

39.644

147,205

The supply of local labor has increased from 28,701 in 1910 to 55,133
in 1925. One-fifth of the native population—representing the males
available for work—is about 167,000. Thus a third of the potential
workers is in European employment—a percentage somewhat less than
that of the Transkei, Basutoland, and Kenya.

As the above table illustrates, European enterprises rely more upon
alien than upon local labor. Of the 43,000 alien natives entering the
Colony in search of work in 1925, nearly twenty thousand came from
Northern Rhodesia, seventeen thousand from Nyasaland, and six thousand
from Portuguese East Africa. In order to obtain this labor, Rhodesian
employers made use of a recruiting organization in some ways similar
to the organization in South Africa called the Rhodesian Native Labor
Bureau.

I. The Native Labor Bureau

Following various abortive efforts at organization beginning in 1895, 3
the first Rhodesian Native Labor Bureau was established in 1903, with

'The total value of Rhodesia mineral production in 1923 amounted to about
4,300,oc» pounds. In 1925 the gold production was 582,000 gold ounces in com¬
parison with 9,600,000 ounces in the Transvaal (and 19,062,000 ounces for the
world). Rhodesia Chamber of Mines Report, 1925, p. 64. In 1925, about 760,000
tons of coal were also produced.

3 Report of the Chief Native Commissioner, 1925, p. 4.

8 At this period, the Chamber of Mines considered schemes to import labor
from Algeria, the Transkei, Abyssinia, the West Indies, and Gazaland. Report,
1900, p. 31.

224

THE LABOR SITUATION

225

a manager appointed by the government. In order to provide this Bureau
with revenue, the government enacted in 1906 the Labor Fees Ordinance,
which required every mine operator employing twenty-five laborers to pay
a tax of one shilling per month per native employed, which the government
would turn back to the Bureau. 4

In 1911, the Bureau was incorporated upon its present basis.
All employers, whether of mining or agricultural labor, may become
members upon the payment of subscriptions, the rate of which varies
in accordance with their labor demands. Members promise not
to obtain labor outside of Southern Rhodesia except through the Bureau.
Each member is entitled to receive from the Bureau the proportion of
the total labor recruited by it which the labor under his employ—
called a complement—bears to the total demand. In addition to paying
the original stock subscription, all members of the Bureau must also pay
capitation fees on the labor supplied, originally fixed for the mine owners
at five pounds a man and for the farmer at two pounds. Moreover, the
farmer must pay the labor tax.

The Bureau maintains a system of agents and runners, some of whom
are on salary and some on commission. The boys, having signed a contract,
walk in some cases five or six hundred miles, which takes a month, to get
to a station on the railway. Despite the fact that the agents supply boys
with food, many of them arrive at these stations in an under-nourished
condition. Frequently boys of the age of ten or twelve, or even younger,
are recruited. Unlike the two recruiting organizations in South Africa,
the Rhodesian Bureau itself bears the expense of the fees which are paid
to the Northern Rhodesia Government, and of the railway fares to
Bulawayo. The bureau advances to each boy two blankets and a jersey,
the cost of which is deducted from his pay.

Despite the payments which it receives, the Bureau has had its financial
difficulties from the beginning. In order to increase the security necessary
for a Bureau loan, the government enacted a new Labor Tax Ordinance in
1911 which levied a labor tax not only on the mine employers but also
on the farmers who had previously been exempt. The Secretary of State
for the Colonies, however, disallowed the ordinance on the ground that
it obliged farmers to contribute to an organization which many of them
did not use. As a result, the 1906 Labor Fees Ordinance continued in
effect until after the World War. But in order to keep the Bureau above
water, the government granted it an annual subsidy of twelve thousand
pounds—an amount which was reduced in 1926 to ten thousand pounds.
Thus the mines have been obliged to pay higher capitation fees than the

4 Laws of Southern Rhodesia, 1914, p. 855.

226

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

farmers and they alone have been subject to the labor tax. Despite their
privileged position, farmers represented in the Legislative Council have
complained vigorously against granting a government subsidy to an or¬
ganization which the more popular employers do not need to use. 5

In 1924, the expenses of the Bureau came to more than 37,657
pounds, 6 which amounted to about seven pounds per man recruited. These
expenses were covered by 11,600 pounds in capitation fees; 20,865 pounds
in labor tax fees collected by the government, and twelve thousand pounds
in a government subsidy. 7 Thus nearly thirty-three thousand pounds out
of the total revenue of 47,037 pounds was due to government aid. From
the financial standpoint, the Bureau is therefore semi-governmental in
character, and the taxpayers of Rhodesia are obliged to contribute to the
Support of what some of them do not regard as a public enterprise. Only
10.54 P er c ^nt of the labor in 1924 employed on the mines was supplied
by the Bureau. Out of a total of 43,205 alien natives who entered
Rhodesia for employment in 1924 only 4589 were supplied by the Bureau.
The majority of the natives prefer to come to the mines independently of
the Bureau, in order to escape the system of compulsory deferred pay
which applies to Northern Rhodesia and Portuguese boys. Moreover,
the Government of Nyasaland does not permit recruiting. 8 The Bureau
performed, however, a great service to European interests by starting the
boys coming to the mines. The Rhodesian Agricultural Union Congress,
1925, passed a motion stating that it should be maintained as a kind of
insurance against labor shortages in the future. 9

Considerable ill-feeling has existed over the fact that the mine owners
have been taxed more heavily for the support of this Bureau than the
farmers, who in 1925 took 65 per cent of all the Bureau recruits. 10

Steps to remove the discrimination between the mine owners and the
farmers were taken in 1913 when, as a result of protests from the mines,
the capitation fees paid by mines were reduced from five pounds
to 3.10.5, pounds, while the farmers’ capitation fees w ? ere increased to that
figure. But despite this change, the mines still bore the burden of the
labor tax of one shilling per man per month, collected on all labor, re¬
gardless of whether or not it had been recruited by the Bureau.

8 Legislative Council Debates, 1922-1923, Vol. 3, pp. 954. ff.

®This includes 4,530 pounds in interest payments and redemption of debentures.

7 In addition, there were revenue from interest, and sundry sources. Report,
Rhodesian Native Labor Bureau, 1925, p. 9.

8 In order to protect the local labor supply, and to guard natives against suc¬
cumbing to hunger on journeys to work, cf. Rhodesia Chamber of Mines, 1911,
p. 61. Nevertheless, because of the comparative over-crowding of Nyasaland, the
Nyasaland boys voluntarily seek work in large numbers in Rhodesia.

0 Rhodesia Herald, October 2, 1925.

10 Report, Rhodesian Native Labor Bureau, 1925, p. 19.

THE LABOR SITUATION

227

In 1921, a Native Labor Committee on Inquiry 11 reported that the
“present system of recruitment is not entirely popular with the native
laborer.” It appears that one reason for this unpopularity is that Bureau
boys receive wages lower than those paid before the War, in contrast to
wages paid to “voluntary” labor which have risen. 12

As a result of the recommendation of this committee, the farmer mem¬
bers of the Bureau agreed in February, 1922, to accept an additional fifteen¬
shilling fee, to enable the Bureau to refund to the mines a proportion of
the labor tax which they paid under the Labor Fees Ordinance. 13 Later
on, the government relieved all mines employing less than two hundred
laborers from the labor tax. 14 Formerly all employers of more than
twenty-five men had been liable to the tax. This action diminishing the
revenue of the Bureau was followed by the reduction of the government
subsidy in 1926-1927 by two thousand pounds. At the same time the
government served warning 15 that it could not promise to continue the
subsidy for more than one year. In explaining this position, the Prime
Minister said, “We do not wish this Government to be turned into a
recruiting agency at all, and if the interested parties cannot amongst them¬
selves finance the Bureau, it will simply mean that the Bureau will have
to terminate, and those who want labour will have to find it where they
can.” 16

Thus the Bureau is faced with a prospect of greatly reduced revenues
on the one hand, and with the fact that the employers of Rhodesia use
its services only to a limited and diminishing extent on the other.

2. The Mozambique Convention

In 1914, the Rhodesian Government made a labor convention with
the Government of Portugal, providing for the recruiting of Portuguese
natives, similar in terms to the Mozambique Convention to which South
Africa is a party. A new agreement was signed in 1925 between the
governor of Southern Rhodesia, a representative of the High Commissioner
of the Portuguese Republic, and the chairman of the Rhodesian Native
Labor Bureau, under which the Portuguese agreed to allow the Bureau
to recruit a monthly average of fifteen thousand natives from the district

11 Southern Rhodesia, A. 16, 1921.

ia Cf. the Cost of Living Committee, A.-2, 1921, S.R. p. 11, which says that the
Labor Bureau reduced minimum wages in May 1914 by two shillings a month for
farm labor and by 2s 6d for mine labor—figures which remained in force in 1921.

13 Report, Rhodesian Native Labor Bureau, 1922, p. 4.

“Labor Fees Ordinance Amendment Act 1925, Statutes of Southern Rhodesia.

u Rhodesia Herald, October 2, 1925.

18 Legislative Council Debate, cited, col. 602.

THE LABOR SITUATION

selves <i' " enu, it will simply mean that the Bureau will have

to termin e who want labour will have to find it where they

228

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

of Tete, subject to obligations similar to those in the convention with South
Africa, elsewhere discussed. 17

Although 3,718 Portuguese natives were employed altogether on the
mines, only 178 Portuguese natives were recruited by the Bureau in 1925. 18
This is presumably because the convention was put into effect only in the
middle of the year. But because of the system of passport fees, taxes, and
compulsory deferred pay, Portuguese natives will probably not find the
Bureau’s offerings particularly attractive.

Thus two-thirds of Rhodesia’s labor supply comes from without the
colony. These figures themselves demonstrate that Rhodesia industry
suffers from a labor shortage, which will probably increase in the future.
The development of communications and of native agriculture will provide
employment at home for more and more natives in Nyasaland. The same
factor is beginning to operate to cut down the number of laborers in
Northern Rhodesia who seek outside work. The competition of the Broken
Hill, Bwana M’kuba and Congo mines is already taking labor which other¬
wise might go to Southern Rhodesia. The Tete district of Portuguese
Mozambique remains as the most hopeful outside source. In view of the
extensive reserves set aside for Rhodesian natives, it is doubtful whether a
larger percentage of them will voluntarily seek work in the future than do
at the present time.

3. Demand for Government Aid

Thus the same set of circumstances as found in South Africa and in
Kenya has led to a local labor shortage, which in turn has led not only to
the importation of labor, but to the demand for government aid which in
the early days appears to have been given.

In 1897, a Commissioner, Sir R. Martin, reported to the Imperial
Government that forced labor had undoubtedly existed in Matabeleland
if not in Mashonaland. Administrative officials had furnished labor not
only for the government but also for mining companies and for individuals.

17 Cf. Vol I, p. 29. For the text, cf. Colony of Southern Rhodesia Government
Gazette, July 31, 1925, p. 379. The Portuguese Government maintains a curator at
Salisbury. The Bureau agrees to pay the Portuguese Government a sum of one
hundred pounds a year, and each recruiting agent must also pay a fee of ten
pounds a year. The Bureau pays to the Portuguese curator a fee of one pound for
each laborer as a passport fee every two years. The Bureau collects the Portu¬
guese taxes due from Tete natives; and the Rhodesian Government guarantees
that the curator shall receive annually four thousand five hundred pounds from
these sources. One half of the wages earned by Tete laborers shall be paid upon
their return home—the system of compulsory deferred pay.

Presumably the Bureau deducts from the wages of the Tete labor the passport
fee and the tax which it turns over to the Portuguese Government.

“ Report, Chamber of Mines, 1925, pp. 17-18.

THE LABOR SITUATION

229

They first attempted to obtain this labor through the chiefs, but if this
procedure did not succeed, they employed force. 19

In 1902, the Resident Commissioner, Sir Marshall Clarke, also re¬
ported to the Imperial Government that the natives “work in the mines
either from direct pressure brought to bear on them by the Administration
a pressure only short of force, or the necessity of earning enough to pay
their taxes” 20 —a charge which the mines “denied absolutely.”

In 1901, the Secretary of State issued orders to officials in the Native
Affairs Department that neither directly nor indirectly should they induce
natives to seek work. But following the pressure of the mines, the
administration revised these circulars in 1907 and requested native com¬
missioners to point out to natives the state of the labor market. The
circulars did not, however, authorize officials to induce natives to work.
Two years later, the Chamber of Mines submitted a long memorial to the
government, stressing the labor shortage and protesting against the labor
policy of the government. It declared that “no beneficial results” are
apparent from the 1907 circulars, since they “fail to embody any induce¬
ment or incentive to the native to work for his own benefit.” It further
stated that it was “the obvious duty of the State, through its recognized
officials, ceaselessly to place before the native population the benefits to be
derived from industry. . . .” It urged that early action should be taken
to stimulate habits of industry among the natives “and thus save the country
from any retrograde movement.” 21

In reply, the government stated that it was opposed to higher taxation
or to compulsory labor. It would, however, advise natives to go out and
work. Meanwhile, it appointed a committee to investigate native affairs.
While this committee reported that there was a labor shortage in the
country, it opposed the suggestion of a number of employers that recruiting
should be carried out by government officials. The committee stated the
argument against government recruiting as follows:

“Its advocates entirely repudiate the idea of compulsion, but on careful
consideration it will be seen that to be effective the part to be taken by public,
officials must either involve a certain degree of pressure, which, in the native
mind, would not be distinguishable from compulsion, or it would expose the
prestige of the Government to risk of contempt, because the methods adopted
would necessarily be such as to indicate that there was no intention to
exercise undue influence. The plain truth of the matter is that, if Govern-

19 The company denied that actual physical force had been used. Report by
Sir R. E. R. Martin, K.C.M.G., on the native administration of the British South
Africa Company, together with a letter from the Company commenting upon that
report , July, 1897, C. 8547.

20 Report, Chamber of Mines, 1903, p. 49.

91 Ibid., 1909, p. 48.

230

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

ment should find it necessary or expedient to take active steps through its
officials in recruiting labor, it would have to carry out the work in a whole¬
hearted manner. It could not afford to risk rebuffs in the shape of unsuc¬
cessful attempts, whether expressed in the form of wish or order, to induce
compliance with its desires. Knowing this, officials would sooner or later
be tempted to resort to measures which would bring the Administration into
disrepute.” 33

In 1925, a similar statement was made by Sir John Chancellor, the
Governor of Southern Rhodesia, in reply to certain resolutions of the
Agricultural Union. He said:

“It has been claimed that the provision of an adequate supply of labor
is a national question, and that it should therefore be undertaken by Govern¬
ment. That is a fallacious argument. That everyone should have clothes to
wear and food to eat are also national questions, but they are questions for
every individual to solve for himself. A fundamental principle of the British
Empire is that everybody enjoys freedom under the British flag. Every
subject of the King is free to enter into a contract or to abstain from entering
into a contract for the disposal of his labour. Any measures taken by Govern¬
ment to apply compulsion to natives to secure an adequate supply of labour
for private employers would be opposed to the traditional policy of His
Majesty’s Government, and would be altogether repugnant to the sentiment
of the Imperial Parliament. Any agitation to secure the introduction of com¬
pulsory labour would react unfavourably upon the reputation of Rhodesia,
which in regard to its native policy stands, and has always stood, very high.”

This passage should be commended to the attention of the Governors of
East Africa who have laid down a somewhat different policy. 23

4. Condition of Labor

Labor on the Rhodesia Mines and elsewhere is subject to the protection
of the Mines and Minerals Act and Native Labor Regulations, similar to
those in force in South Africa. 24 These regulations provide for the control
of recruiting and the attesting of contracts as in South Africa. Desertion
is punishable by a fine not exceeding ten pounds, or in default of payment
by imprisonment for a period not exceeding two years, or to such imprison¬
ment without the option of a fine. The government may appoint labor
inspectors. 25 The mortality rate on the Rhodesia Mines has declined from

33 Report of the Native Affairs Committee of Inquiry, 1910-1911, A. 12-1911,
P- 35 -

23 Cf. Vol. I, p. 509.

24 Statute Law of Southern Rhodesia, 1911-1922, pp. 203-330.

35 In 1924 there were no prosecutions under these regulations, while complaints
of natives in regard to the non-payment of wages numbered eighteen in comparison
with twenty-nine in 1923. Report on Public Health, C.S.R. 16-1925, p. 5.

THE LABOR SITUATION

231

49.27 per thousand in 1910 to 15.38 per thousand in 1925.-'' This rate
is higher than on the mines of South Africa, but much lower than on
the mines in the Belgian Congo. 27 It does not appear that there is any
government supervision of labor conditions on the farms.

In 1922, the Southern Rhodesian Government enacted a Native
Laborer Compensation Law providing for compensation on the following

scale:

1. Permanent partial incapacitation.from 1 to 10 pounds

2. Permanent total incapacitation.from 10 to 25 pounds

3. Death .10 pounds

These rates are proportionately about half those paid Europeans, taking
into consideration the difference of wages. 28

Although no legislative color bar exists on the Rhodesia mines, 20 the
fifteen hundred Europeans employed as skilled laborers in these
enterprises resent native competition as much as do the South African
miners. Following the World War, the European unions brought about
a strike partly to secure increased wages and partly to drive out non¬
union European laborers. While the mine operators settled the strike
by inducing the Union to accept the principle of the open shop, in return
they promised that the policy not to substitute colored for white labor
would remain unaltered.

In an address at a labor conference, the Chairman of the mining
representatives declared:

“We have no intention at the present time to employ either more or less
natives than are at present employed. You know as well as I know, the
conditions obtaining in this country. There are mines which would not exist if
they were not wholly and solely worked by the native. ... As regards the
bigger mines, I speak with due authority when I say that it is our wish and
our hope that we may continue working always with white men in so far as
it is possible. ... I am speaking with all seriousness on the question of the

*® Report, Chamber of Mines, 1911, p. 112; ibid., 1925, p. 50. In the latter year,
12.73 P er cent was due to disease, while 2.65 per cent was due to accident.

Cf. Report on Public Health, 1924, p. 9. In commenting on the increase in
mortality due to disease from 1344 per thousand in 1923 to 16.11 in 1924, said:
“The sickness and mortality rate amongst native mine laborers increased during
the year, and it is interesting to note that the higher rate of sickness was ascribable
to diseases which are associated with a short rainy season and a low rainfall,”
such as pneumonia, scurvy, and dysentery.

17 Cf. Vol. I, p. 570.

38 Statute Laic, cited, 1911-1922, p. 608. In the same year the Rhodesia Govern¬
ment enacted a Compensation Law for Europeans which (art. 11) authorizes under
certain circumstances the payment of seven hundred and fifty pounds or three years’
wages for permanent or partial incapacitation, and of two years’ wages in case
of death.

“This is forbidden by the racial equality clause of the constitution, except with
the consent of the High Commissioner.

232

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

colour bar. . . . We have a vast race in the natives, and there is nothing
to prevent them increasing their knowledge and utility and becoming more
and more a great factor in labour. . . . Just look at what is taking place
at the present time at the Wankie Colliery; a handful of whites, plus
the intelligent native, are turning out two-thirds of the output which was
turned out before the strike. The majority of the mines in the asbestos
industry are in the same position. . . . The native to-day reads our papers,
he has his own little organizations—however faulty they may be—and you
cannot expect the native to do otherwise than to say to himself: ‘We have
proved what we can do.’ . . . Owing to these strikes they are given re¬
sponsible positions which, to my mind, is aiding and abetting the greatest
possible danger in this country, which is the possibility of the native supersed¬
ing the white man in his work.” 30

From this address, it would appear that the color bar in Rhodesian in¬
dustry rests upon a shaky basis.

In a number of respects, the native of Southern Rhodesia is subject to
fewer restrictions and enjoys more “privileges” than does the native in
South Africa. He has more land than the native of South Africa. The
squatter legislation is less restrictive, and for the moment a native may
purchase land where he likes. A smaller percentage of men are away from
the reserves. The Rhodesian pass system is less exacting than that in South
Africa.

On the other hand, European enterprise relies for two-thirds of its
labor upon outside sources—an unhealthy system from the standpoint of
the imported native and of industry. Moreover, these outside sources will
almost certainly in the future dry up. Despite the adoption of labor saving
machinery and labor saving crops, it is doubtful whether rapid economic
development in Rhodesia will take place as long as the native population
remains at its present figure.

Moreover, the burden of responsible government falls so heavy upon
the population of thirty-four thousand whites, among whom few men
of sufficient leisure to enter politics can be found, that it is not improbable
that, despite its past attitude, Rhodesia will eventually become a fifth
province in the Union of South Africa. 91 Whatever benefit the Euro¬
pean community would derive from such a step, the Rhodesia native

30 Report, Chamber of Mines, 1920, p. 44.

31 Rhodesia is now called a colony. It has a governor appointed by the Crown;
but a prime minister and cabinet of six ministers responsible to a parliament
which for the present contains only one chamber, of thirty members. Women may
vote. There is only one political party—the People’s party—which came into
existence on the issue of responsible government instead of union with South
Africa. The government imposes an income tax, but as yet there i9 no taxation
imposed upon unoccupied land—a tax the adoption of which is being considered.
Cf. Legislative Council Debates, 1925, col. 374.

THE LABOR SITUATION

233

would be obliged to cast in his fate with the South African native,
thus losing many of the privileges which he now enjoys. Such a step
would probably mean, as it did in the case of the Free State
and the Transvaal, that the Imperial Government would abolish the con¬
trol which it now exercises over Rhodesian native policy. In such a
case, the Union of South Africa might attempt to use the relatively large
native reserves in Rhodesia for the overflow of native population from the
Union. Natives would presumably lose the right of purchase in Rhodesia
just as Union natives virtually lost it in the Union through the Land Act
of 1913. Any such measures would injure the Rhodesian population
without doing the Union natives any permanent good; in fact, such a
measure might delay agrarian reform in South Africa.

CHAPTER 15

NORTHERN RHODESIA

Northern Rhodesia is a territory which covers an area larger than
England, and is inhabited by about 1,100,000 blacks and forty-two hundred
whites. The country is traversed north and south by the Rhodesia and
Mashonaland Railway over which much of the copper of the Congo passes
on the way from the Katanga to the Portuguese port of Beira. East and
west the territory has no railway connections and it now takes three or
four weeks to travel from Fort Jameson to Livingstone, the capital. The
settler population is concentrated within the railway strip except for about
two hundred and fifty settlers in the Fort Jameson area. Inasmuch as
perhaps two-thirds of the area is a plateau having an elevation of between
four thousand and five thousand feet, a large part of the country is
climatically suitable for white settlement.

On the other hand, the native population is more sparse than in most
of the other territories in Africa, averaging 3.5 per square mile. This
sparsity is partly due to the ravages of sleeping sickness which the govern¬
ment is now starting to combat, and to the drains upon the native popula¬
tion which the labor centers of Rhodesia and the Congo—not to mention
the centers along the railway line—have imposed.

1. Company Administration

Livingstone was the first European to visit Northern Rhodesia and
Barotseland. He was followed by other Europeans, entering Central
Africa from the East Coast, who engaged in a series of encounters with
Arab slave raiders. Urged on by the efforts of Cecil Rhodes, the British
Government in 1891 extended the sphere of action of the British South
Africa Company to include the territory north of the Zambesi as far as
the Congo Free State, but excluding Nyasaland. The Company appointed
Mr. H. H. Johnston as Administrator who was then also British com¬
missioner for Nyasaland, and it paid him the sum of ten thousand pounds
annually which he could use at his discretion in the administration of the
two territories. 1 A few years later the Company divided up the territory
into Northwestern and Northeastern Rhodesia, each under a Company ad-
1 Memorandum of agreement, C. 7637 (1895).

234

NORTHERN RHODESIA

235

ministrator. For a time the administration enacted legislation for North¬
eastern Rhodesia subject to the approval of the Governor of Nyasaland.
In 1911, these areas were combined into the Protectorate of Northern
Rhodesia. 2 Throughout its history, Northern Rhodesia has not been
self-supporting. 3

The total deficit under the South Africa Company rule (until 1919)
amounted to a million and a quarter pounds. Except for an Advisory
Council established in 1917, containing five elected members, the white
population had no control over the administration. When the Company
attempted to impose an income tax to relieve the deficit in 1920, the
Council asked that the measure be deferred until a Legislative Council with
control over revenue had been established—a body which was recognized in
the new Constitution of 1922. 4

2. The Land Settlement

The judgment of the Privy Council in regard to the land of Southern
Rhodesia did not apply to the territory in the north. Consequently, the
Buxton Commission appointed to study terms of settlement recommended
that this question as well as that of the administrative deficit of Northern
Rhodesia be referred to the Judicial Committee.® But instead of referring
the land and finance question to adjudication, the Company and the
Crown decided to come directly to an agreement, in which the Company

a Because of the desire for white settlement, the proposal has been made that
Northeastern Rhodesia be united with Nyasaland; that the railway strip be made
a separate colony or joined with Southern Rhodesia; and that Barotseland be made
a separate native state similar to Basutoland. The East Africa Commission,
however, reported that as far as the union of Northeastern Rhodesia with Nyasa¬
land was concerned, no local opinion favored such a division. Report of the East
Africa Commission, Cmd. 2387 (1925), p. 101.

This commission which visited East Africa in 1924 was composed of a repre¬
sentative of each of the three parties of parliament. It was instructed to report
on the measures to be taken to accelerate the general economic development of
British East Africa and the means of securing closer coordination of policy on
such matters as transportation, cotton-growing, and disease; on the steps necessary
to ameliorate the social condition of the natives of East Africa; on the economic
relation between natives and non-natives; and on the taxation of natives and the
provision for services directed to their moral and material improvement.

3 In 1913, revenue was 126,640 pounds and expenditure 204,984 pounds. Ad¬
ministrative Revenue and Expenditure in Southern and Northern Rhodesia, 1913.
Cd. 7352 (1914).

* An income tax has also since been imposed, but only one per cent of the
settlers are said to pay the tax because it applies only to incomes of more than one
thousand pounds.

5 The Commission declared that “a claim might be put forward that the un¬
alienated lands, which in the case of Southern Rhodesia, the Judicial Committee
declared to belong not to the Company, but to the Crown, and on the proceeds of
the sale of which the Company’s reimbursement depends, belong in Northern
Rhodesia to neither of them, but to the natives.” Its Report is printed in Cmd. 1471

236

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

agreed to abandon its claim to reimbursement of any part of its deficit
in Northern Rhodesia. 6 Moreover, “full and entire control of the lands”
would be taken over by the Crown. But the Company would retain three
freehold areas which it held under certificates of claim issued by Sir H. R.
Johnston to the North Charterland Exploration Company, a subsidiary
of the South Africa Company. As many natives inhabit part of this land
which is in the most densely populated area of the country, the Crown
reserved the right to set apart such native reserves in the area as it might
deem proper.

In return for abandoning its claims for reimbursement of the deficit
the Company receives one-half of the proceeds derived by the Crown from
the sale or lease of lands in Northwestern Rhodesia, for a period of forty
years. The agreement appears, therefore, to contemplate a policy of white
settlement. 7

So far the North Charterland Exploration Company holds an immense
concession, subject to the assignment of native reserves, of 6,400,000 acres,
while the British South Africa Company itself holds three freehold areas
amounting to 2,758,400 acres; and the government has alienated about
three million acres more, making a total of 19,000 square miles, out of a
total area in the Protectorate of 291,000 square miles. 8

Apparently the Northern Rhodesia Government supports the ideas of
native reserves, 9 not only because it wishes to alienate land to settlers but
because it wishes to bring the native population, now so thinly scattered
throughout the country, more closely together for administrative
convenience. 10

Recently a Native Reserves Commission has been studying this
question of reserves in the East Luwanga district. The Missionary
representatives do not believe, however, that further land alienations should
take place. At the Northern Rhodesian Missionary Conference held in
1924, a resolution was passed, which said, “Since large portions of the
country have already been alienated and ceded to European owners it is of
opinion that almost all the balance will be needed to meet the require-

* Except for half the deficit for 1923-1924 which the Crown agreed to assume,
or fifty thousand pounds, whichever might be less.

7 For the text of the Agreement of September 29, 1923 see Cmd. 1894 (1924) ; a
summary is printed in Cmd. 1914.

8 Annual Report, Northern Rhodesia, 1924-25, p. 10.

9 It cannot, however, alienate from the Barotse people territory reserved under
agreements between Lewanika and the South Africa Company of October 17,
1900, and August 11, 1909. Cf. Article 41, Northern Rhodesia Order in Council,
1924. These agreements have not been published, and the South Africa Company
declined to furnish them to the writer.

10 The policy of moving native villages for administrative purposes has else¬
where been condemned. Cf. Vol. II, p. 491.

NORTHERN RHODESIA

237

ments of the native population. It should be remembered that much of
the unalienated land is unsuitable for cultivation, other areas are in the
tsetse fly belt, and, judging from the history of similar peoples the
population is likely to double itself in the next twenty-five or thirty years.
In view of this the Conference is strongly of opinion that no more land
should be alienated without the express sanction of the Governor until a
Reserves Commission has reported and the needs of the Native Peoples
are fully met. . . .

“The Conference suggests that all unalienated lands be regarded as
held in trust for the native peoples and pleads that part of the proceeds
of any land sales be definitely apportioned for land improvements in the
native areas. 11

It will be difficult for the administration of Northern Rhodesia to
give sufficient attention to these considerations not only because of the
importunate demands of Europeans but also because of the pressure from the
South Africa Company which receives one-half of the proceeds from all
land sales.

Following an agreement with the Company in regard to the deficit,
a constitution for Northern Rhodesia was issued in 1924 creating, in
addition to a Governor and Executive Council, a Legislative Council having
an official majority, but with five unofficial members who now are elected
by the European population. The Northern Rhodesia Order in Council
contains guarantees against discriminatory legislation such as are found
in the Southern Rhodesia Constitution. Natives may acquire land upon
the same basis as non-natives, and no natives shall be removed from any
kraal except by order of the Governor. 12 Inasmuch as Northern Rhodesia
is not self-governing, as is Southern Rhodesia, the constitution contains
no clause reserving rights to the High Commissioner over native affairs.

3. Native Policy—the Barotse Kingdom

For administrative purposes the government has divided the country,
into nine districts, each in charge of a magistrate, which in turn are divided
into thirty-four sub-districts each in charge of a native commissioner. Each
sub-district contains about 250 villages and a population of 10,000 people.
Headmen and chiefs receive insignificant subsidies ranging from ten
shillings to ten pounds a year. The courts of chiefs settle disputes, sub-

u Proceedings of the General Missionary Conference of Northern Rhodesia,
Lovedale, 1924, p. 24.

“Northern Rhodesia Order in Council, 1924, Statutory Rules and Orders, 1924,
p. 395; Legislative Order in Council, ibid.

238 THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

ject to an appeal to the commissioner. But a native may go directly to
the commissioner with a dispute except in Barotseland where native courts
have exclusive jurisdiction. 13

Among the most important tribes of Northern Rhodesia are the
Awemba people, inhabiting the plateau of Northeastern Rhodesia, and the
Barotse nation, living on the Zambesi river. 14

The Barotse people, who number several hundred thousand, are
governed by a Paramount Chief who in the eyes of his subjects
can do no wrong. Chief Lewanika, who ruled the tribe at the coming
of the Europeans, was, together with Chief Khama of Bechuana-
land and Lobengula of Matabeleland, onfc of the outstanding figures
of African history. Under the influence of Chief Khama, Lewanika
enacted a regime of prohibition throughout his kingdom. While he never
embraced Christianity he was for many years under the influence of
Francois Coillard, the great French Protestant Missionary. Following
his consent to the treaty of protection in 1890, the King turned against
Coillard who had advised the establishment of the Protectorate. Later,
however, this ill-feeling disappeared. 16

In 1891 the British and Portuguese governments made a treaty fixing
on the Zambesi river as the boundary line between Portuguese and British
Africa, up to the point where it reached the territory of the Barotse
kingdom, which should remain in the British sphere. A disagreement
soon arose as to the extent of this kingdom. Portugual lay claim to terri¬
tory which Lewanika asserted fell within his kingdom. At the instance
of the South Africa Company, the British and Portuguese governments
agreed to submit the Barotse boundary to the arbitration of the King of
Italy in 1903. 16 While the award increased part of Lewanika’s territory,
it did not grant him jurisdiction over tribes, such as the Balovale, which
had merely paid tribute to him. 17 The actions of the Paramount Chief
of Barotseland are subject to the control of a national assembly called the
Kotla. This assembly meets daily. The Chief as a rule attends the session
for a few minutes to show his people that he is well. But the Kotla
enacts no important business until after the Chief withdraws. The

13 The best study of administration in both Northern and Southern Rhodesia
is H. Rolin, Les Lois et l’Administration de la Rhodesie, Brussels, 1913.

14 Cf. C. Gouldsbury and H. Sheane, The Great Plateau of Northern Rhodesia,
London, 1911, chs. II-VIII. Also E. W. and Dale Smith, The Ila Speaking Peoples
of Northern Rhodesia, 2 vols., London, 1920.

16 C. W. Mackintosh, Coillard of the Zambesi, London, 1907, Ch. XXI.

“ Declaration of August 12, IQ03, Cd. 3731 (1907).

17 Award respecting the Western Boundary of the Barotse Kingdom. Cd.
2584 (1905). The Wangoni people are divided between Northern Rhodesia,
Nyasaland, and Tanganyika.

NORTHERN RHODESIA

239

Kotla tries important cases and makes native laws. 18 In theory the judg¬
ment of the Kotla is final, but in practice an aggrieved native may take his
dispute to the European Commissioner. Very few appeals are thus made
out of fear apparently of the Chief. The European Government appears
to exercise very little control over the Barotse tribunals. The land
occupied by the Barotse nation constitutes a reserve from which European
farmers and miners are excluded. Traders may enter if they first provide
themselves with a government license.

In 1890 and 1898 the British South Africa Company made two
treaties with Chief Lewanika through which it gained control of Barotse¬
land. 10 In return for certain concessions the British South Africa Com¬
pany agreed to set aside 10 per cent of the native tax of Northwestern
Rhodesia for the Barotse nation. Part of this tax would go to Chief
Lewanika personally and the remainder to the tribe as a whole. In 1925
the British Government made a new agreement with his successor, Yeta III,
which replaced the 10 per cent collected from the whole of former North¬
western (Barotseland) Rhodesia with 30 per cent of the tax collected from
natives of the Barotse district. The amount paid into this fund was
sixty-three hundred pounds in 1926-27.

Out of this fund the British Government annually paid Chief Lewanika
twelve hundred pounds—a sum now increased in the case of Yeta III to
seventeen hundred pounds. 20 The balance goes into the Barotse Trust
Fund, established in 1905. This Fund is controlled by a Board of Man¬
agement composed of five officials and two missionaries—there are no
native members. The Paramount Chief is, however, invited to depute
a member of the Kotla to attend the meetings, but he may not vote. 21
This money is used primarily to support a Barotse national school at
Mongu having three European teachers, twenty native instructors and 782
native pupils. This school has an industrial and agricultural section.
While the Barotse people no doubt receive great benefit from this school,
it would seem that the Trust Fund is based on the wrong principle

18 D. W. Stirke, Barotseland, Eight Years among the Barotse, London, 1922,
Ch. III. F. Coillard, Le Haut Zambeze, Pau, 1898, pp. 197 ff.

“It appears that while Lewanika favored these treaties in order to strengthen
his power, his chiefs opposed them. Cf. C. W. Mackintosh, Coillard of the
Zambesi, pp. 382 ff.

30 In an agreement of 1924, the government undertook to make an annual pay¬
ment of five hundred pounds to the Paramount Chief, and two thousand pounds for
division among his “Indunas,” in return for the abolition of the twelve days of
unpaid labor formerly exacted by the more important chiefs. The government
also, agreed to pay to the Paramount Chief three hundred and fifty pounds a year
in lieu of his half shares in fees paid for game licenses, and five hundred pounds
a year for the surrender of his rights to “ground” tusks outside the Barotse district.
Colonial Reports, No. 1292, Northern Rhodesia, 1924-25, p. 15.

21 Barotse Fund Ordinance, Ordinances of Northern Rhodesia, 1925, p. 73.

240

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

because it is administered entirely by Europeans. It would appear de¬
sirable to convert it into a Native Treasury such as is found in many
other British territories in Africa, for the administration of which the
Paramount Chief and the Kotla should be responsible.

4. Native Taxes

European settlers in Northern Rhodesia have found a ready market for
their cattle and dairy products in the Katanga—the mining center of the
Congo. About 1200 head of cattle are sent every month from North¬
western Rhodesia to the Congo. But the absence of railways and feeder
roads in other parts of Rhodesia makes it impossible for the natives to
produce crops for export. They are, nevertheless, subject to a poll tax
of ten shillings a year in Northwestern Rhodesia and 7s 6d in Northeastern
Rhodesia. Inasmuch as they are unable to sell products of their toil, most
of them must, in order to pay this tax, seek work from European em¬
ployers. Wages on the farms are four pence a day (six pence on the
mines), a figure which appears lower than in any other British territory
in Africa and which makes it more difficult than ever to earn tax money.
Driven by this pressure about ten thousand boys go annually, through
the good offices of the Robert Williams Company, to the Katanga mines;
nearly twenty thousand Northern Rhodesian boys find work in Southern
Rhodesia; some go as far as the plantations of Tanganyika. Still others
go to the mines at Broken Hill and Bwana M’kuba which, although they
are within Northern Rhodesia, are still many days away from the homes
of natives living in the northeast territory. At least thirty thousand natives
out of an adult male population of about two hundred thousand thus are
away from their homes. While this is only a little over a seventh of this
population, the effect upon native life in Northern Rhodesia is much
greater than in South Africa. In the latter country a native wishing to
work has merely to climb aboard a railway train; but in Northern Rhodesia
a native must in some cases walk three or four weeks. While the
Rhodesian Labor Bureau and Robert Williams Company furnish him with
facilities such as food and blankets for travelling, in many cases natives
have succumbed to disease and to exposure and hunger. Moreover, natives
inhabiting the sleeping sickness areas of Northern Rhodesia which cover
about thirty per cent of the country cannot go out to work, which means
that the thirty thousand men who seek such employment must come from
seventy per cent of the country.

Compared with the tax of one pound imposed upon natives in Southern
Rhodesia and of thirty shillings in the Union of South Africa, the tax
of ten shillings in Northern Rhodesia may appear light. But because of

NORTHERN RHODESIA

241

these difficulties in earning money, the Rhodesian missionary conference
believed 22 that the “tax is excessive and unjust.” In a resolution it
went on to say, “Very large numbers of Natives are forced to leave their
homes and walk hundreds of miles to Southern Rhodesia or the Belgian
Congo in order to earn their tax money on the mines or elsewhere. This
great annual exodus of tax-paying males strikes at the whole fabric of tribal
life and leaves the villages almost denuded of the adult males indispensable
to the food producing and other labors of the Native Community. Land
cannot be adequately cultivated, and any schemes for development of
industries, or the improvement of agricultural methods are rendered im¬
possible. Moreover, the men remain for increasingly long periods away
from their homes with results detrimental to the physical and moral welfare
of the women and children left behind—in fact of the whole community—
and to all educational and evangelistic effort. . . 23 The East Africa

Commission also remarked that the natives in some districts had con¬
siderable difficulty in earning enough money to pay their taxes.

While Rhodesian Administration is giving this matter sympathetic
attention, stern necessity compels it to utilize every source of revenue 24
because there is an annual deficit in the colony which is met by an Imperial
grant-in-aid usually amounting to about 140,000 pounds. The obligations
upon the administration are great, especially in regard to combating sleep¬
ing sickness.

5. Native IV elf are

Under the Chartered Company, it appears that while the natives were
well administered both in Southern and in Northern Rhodesia, very little
was done in a positive way to improve native life. But the British Ad¬
ministration is now attempting, despite the restrictions imposed upon it
by the Lords of the Treasury on account of its deficit, to map out a
program of grants-in-aid to mission schools. 25

An agricultural and veterinary department is attempting to eliminate

** Proceedings, cited, 1924, p. 16.

B “We venture earnestly to press for a general reduction of taxation or at least
for a reduction in the more outlying parts of the Territory. . . . We also strongly
urge that as a matter of justice and with a view to the uplift of the people and
the prevention of discontent a fair proportion of the proceeds of Native taxation,
direct and indirect, should be devoted to the immediate benefit of the Native
population, as for instance by providing improved education, medicines, and aid in
agricultural development.” (Ibid., 1924, p. 17).

** In 1925 it enacted a Native Tax (Amendment) Ordinance which provided
that if any native failed to pay the tax when due, it should thereupon be increased
by one shilling—a provision which appears to be unique among African territories.
Ordinances, Northern Rhodesia, 1925, p. 7.

“The average attendance in mission schools in 1924-2$ was 47,594. Report,
Northern Rhodesia, 1924-1925, p. 16.

242

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

disease from native stock and to improve the breed. There are, however,
no native agricultural demonstrators in the country and the natives do
not dip their stock. Despite a few native hospitals the native population
has scarcely been touched by medical aid which is greatly needed in con¬
nection with sleeping sickness.

The Expenditures on Native Welfare are as follows:

NORTHERN RHODESIA

Per cent

Ex- Native Amount
Expenditure Per Cent penditure Expenditure Spent
on All of Total in Behalf of of Total per 100

Races Expenditures Natives Expenditures Natives
£ % £ % £

Agriculture . * 0.353 2.24 3,450 1 0.74 .35

Veterinary . 19,512 4.23 6.520 1 1.41 .65

Medical . 38,357 8.30 35,300 s 7.64 3.53

Education . 23,620 5.12 8,048 1.74 .80

Totals . 91,842 19.89 53.3*8 **-53 5*33

Total Expenditure—£462,019.

Source: 1926-27 Draft Estimates.

1 These figures are estimated.

a This figure is estimated on the basis of the relative number of medical cases
treated, Europeans and natives.

These expenditures are only about half the per capita expenditures made
upon the natives in Tanganyika and in Uganda. Further expenditure on
the promotion of native welfare which, in view of the special conditions of
Northern Rhodesia are so urgently needed, depends upon increased revenue
which in turn depends upon increased trade.

6. The Watch Tower Movement

Oddly enough, the very absence of communication has made the
Northern Rhodesia native a migratory animal. It is not surprising, there¬
fore, that he becomes contaminated with the unsettling movement of the
western world. Native organizations, it is said, are rapidly spreading
throughout Northern Rhodesia and one fanatical religious movement, which
some people believe to be anti-European in character, has arisen. This is
the Watch Tower movement which first put in its appearance in Nyasaland
about 1906. Eight years later it was connected with the Chilembwe
revolt. It has since spread to parts of the Congo, Tanganyika 26 and
Northern Rhodesia. The movement appears to be animated by the
“Millennium Dawn” doctrine of Pastor Russell and his followers in

M Report on The Mandated Territory of Tanganyika, 1923-24 (Col. No. 2),
p. 22.

NORTHERN RHODESIA

243

America and Europe. It also believes in immersion. Some native
preachers connected with the movement, interpreting the Old Testament,
literally assert that the Europeans are the modern Nebuchadnezzar who
will eventually be overcome. In Rhodesia other Watch Tower preachers,
declaring that war was anti-Christian, advocated passive resistance to the
government requisition for porters during the World War. Forty of
them were placed in jail at Livingstone for preaching this doctrine. The
movement has also been puritanical in nature—it has demanded severe
moral standards and it requires a minute knowledge of the Bible. At
Livingstone a Watch Tower preacher recently baptized four hundred
natives in the local river which they call Jordan. In the fall of 1925,
another Watch Tower leader, proclaiming himself to be the Son of God,
preached the doctrine that in order to gain eternal life man must first die.
As a result of his exhortation about one hundred and seventy natives
deliberately drowned themselves in a river near the Congo-Rhodesia border.
This led both the Congo and the Rhodesia Governments to make efforts
to apprehend the leader who was the cause of these deaths. The Rho¬
desian officials finally arrested and sentenced the leader to death. The
general policy of the Rhodesian Government is to tolerate the movement
until its members definitely violate law and order.

CHAPTER 16

NYASALAND
I. The Protectorate

To the west of Northern Rhodesia lies the Protectorate of Nyasaland,
a territory which wraps itself around Lake Nyasa. Much of this part
of Africa is inhabited by a stalwart native race, called the Yao, who are
Mohammedans. In the nineteenth century, these Yao formed an alliance
with the Arabs from Zanzibar under which both carried on extensive slave
raids upon the Nyanja people, the aboriginal inhabitants of the country.
These unfortunate people were also the subject of raids from the Zulus
from the south—chiefly the Matabele. Following upon Livingstone’s path,
European missionaries, represented by the Universities Central Mission and
two Scotch missionary societies, occupied Nyasaland in 1875, twenty years
before it came under the administration of the British Government. 1
Finding it impossible to undertake the trade and transport necessary for
their work, the Scotch mission brought about the organization of the
African Lakes Company, which later came to occupy an important com¬
mercial and political position in the Protectorate. 2 These missionaries
were followed by a number of planters who undertook the cultivation
of coffee. Meanwhile the Europeans, led by the missionaries, were obliged
to combat the Arab slave raiders. In the absence of British authority,
they were compelled virtually to establish a government of their own.
In 1885, the African Lakes Company made treaties with a number of the
chiefs granting it certain administrative rights.

In order to clear up some of the conflicts which arose between these
groups, the British Government, after having rebuffed the Portuguese

1 Cf. Sir H. H. Johnston, British Central Africa, London, 1898, p. 66. A de¬
scription of the people of this area will be found in A. Werner, The Natives of
British Central Africa, London, 1906.

3 The Scotch mission at first had in its employ several lay members who dealt
harshly with the natives, as a result of which a Mr. Fenwick was killed. Despite
this unhappy beginning, the Scotch mission has had one of the most successful
records of all missionary enterprise in Africa^ The Church of Scotland schools,
under Dr. Laws, at Blantyre, are, according to the Phelps-Stokes commission, “one
of the notable educational institutions in Africa.” T. J. Jones, Education in East
Africa, Phelps-Stokes Fund, New York, p. 203. The United Free Church of
Scotland Mission under the capable leadership of Dr. Laws and Dr. Donald
Fraser, has also done remarkable work, especially at the Livingstonia Institution.

244

NYASALAND

245

efforts to establish a Central African Empire extending from Mozambique
to Angola, proclaimed a protectorate over the Shire region in 1889, which
in 1893 was named the Central African Protectorate. Between 1889
and 1891, Mr. (later Sir) H. H. Johnston, Her Majesty’s Commissioner,
negotiated a series of treaties with the chiefs in which they accepted British
protection. 3 In 1891, Sir H. H. Johnston was made Imperial High Com¬
missioner. In the following two years the British extirpated the Arab
slave trade, and established a stable administration over a territory which
in 1907 came to be known as Nyasaland.

2. Certificates of Claim

Perhaps the most difficult problem which the administration was called
upon to solve was that of the land. Before and after the establishment of
the protectorate, many settlers purchased land from chiefs, most of whom
had no right to sell under native law and who were ignorant of the nature
of the transactions. In many cases the claims of two settlers over-lapped
each other. To clear up this situation, the Commissioner in 1892 examined
the land claims of each settler. But, as he has written, “Even when land
had been purchased, and the sale on the part of the chief was not repu¬
diated, and the deed of sale was authentic, the concessionaire was required
to show what consideration had been paid, and if the grantor was not
considered to have received fair value for his land the grantee had either
to supplement his first payment by another, or the area” was reduced.
After such examination the government issued titles called certificates of
claim. 4

In making these cessions the chiefs in many cases had ignored the rights
of their subjects who nevertheless continued to live upon the alienated land.

8 The “Deed of Cession of Sovereign Rights” by Makwira, May 11, 1892, is a
good example.

“I, Makwira, Chief in the Makololo country, do hereby certify that I have this
day sold and made over absolutely to H. H. Johnston, Esq., C. B., Her Majesty’s
Commissioner for British Central Africa, all my right and title whatsoever to my
country. Always excepting the lands, rights, and titles already sold by me. And
I hereby bind myself not to sell any part or parcel thereof to any other person'or
persons without first obtaining the sanction in writing of Her Majesty’s Commis¬
sioner or chief Representative of Government in British Central Africa. (Signa¬
ture.)

“I, Henry Hamilton Johnston, Her Majesty’s Commissioner and Consul-General,
do hereby transfer the above rights and titles, as conferred on me by Chief
Makwira, to Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen. (Signature.)” State Papers,
Vol. 85, 1892-1893, pp. 353 - 354 -

4 Johnston, Hritish Central Africa, p. 113. Sir Harry goes on to say, “The fact
is, that at the time the chiefs sold land to the Europeans they were very heedless
of the results. All they desired was the immediate possession of the trade goods
or money given in payment. The tenure of the land in reality was tribal; that
is to say, theoretically the chief had no right to alienate the land, but he had
assumed such right and his assumption was tacitly accepted by the people.”

246

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

Wishing to protect their interests, the government inserted a clause in the
certificate of claim or land title which it issued to the effect that no native
villages or plantations existing at the time of the grant should be disturbed
without the consent of the government. To quote Sir Harry Johnston
again, “One of the results of the land settlement, therefore, was to com¬
pletely free the natives from any dependency on the white settler,
by restoring to them the alienable occupancy of their villages and
plantations.” 6

We shall now examine the extent to which this result was achieved.
At the present time, a quarter of the native population in the Zomba
District and half of the population in Blantyre—having about seventy-
three thousand huts—live upon European estates. Practically all of these
estates are held under certificates of claim which contain the clause re¬
serving to the natives the rights in the land which they originally occupied.
But this security proved only temporary. Under their methods of agri¬
culture, natives periodically changed the site of their gardens, so that it
soon became impossible to identify the original settlements, the occupancy
of which was guaranteed, from their subsequent holdings. Taking ad¬
vantage of this situation, land owners adopted the practice of making
agreements with natives under which in return for the right of staying
upon and using the land, they would pay a rent to the landowner. In a
decision in 1903, the High Court of Nyasaland declared that natives settled
on the land at the time of issue of the certificate were not bound to pay
rent and that the onus of proof that any particular native was not an
original settler lay on the landowner. Following the recommendations of
a Land Commission, the government in 1904 enacted a Native Locations
Ordinance which authorized the governor to direct the landowners to set
aside one-tenth of their undeveloped lands as native reserves which would
become vested in village communities and upon which natives would be
settled on the basis of eight acres per family. In return, each tenant
would pay to the landlord, an annual rent of four shillings per hut. 6
While this ordinance thus set aside the court decision, it attempted to give
the natives security of tenure.

The governor did not, however, utilize his powers under the ordinance,
apparently because of the opposition of the settlers to the expropriation
of this amount of land. Meanwhile, landowners continued to make agree¬
ments obliging natives either to pay rent of four shillings a hut or to work
for a period of one or two months during the planting season. While it
does not appear that the natives were unfairly treated, their rights were

5 Ordinances of Nyasaland, in force, 1913, p. 113.

* Ibid., p. 502.

NYASALAND

247

those of an ordinary tenant who was obliged to pay rent or perform service
and who could be ejected at will. With the increase of the settler popula¬
tion and of land values, rents increased to eight shillings. As competition
for labor increased, a tenant would be obliged to work long distances from
his home; while in other cases, he would be forbidden to work for outside
employers even after he had performed his service for the landlord. 7

3. The Chilembwe Rising

In 1915, a rising occurred in Nyasaland, led by a native named John
Chilembwe, who was educated in the United States in a negro Baptist
seminary. The religious tenets of certain European and American missions
such as the Church of Christ Mission, the Seventh Day Baptist Mission
and the Watch Tower movement—which taught that the end of the world
was at hand—apparently had some influence in provoking the arising. 8
Under the influence of their teaching, Chilembwe formed a mission of his
own, and hoped to link together a number of independent native sects.
He eventually planned to have the people on certain estates kill their
masters. Chilembwe himself cut off the head of one estate manager and
preached a sermon with it before him on the pulpit. The revolt was quickly
suppressed and twenty natives executed. 0

It appears that the economic grievances which we have just discussed lay
at the bottom of the revolt. Chilembwe’s headquarters were near the
A. L. Bruce Estates, whose holdings cover some three hundred miles,
and which had had a bad reputation for its treatment of natives. Ac¬
cording to a Commission of Inquiry, 10 Chilembwe worked upon a “certain
degree of discontent existing among a number of natives who were tenants
on the Bruce land, or had been employed there, and also among natives
living on a disputed area on the border of the estate, instilling into their

T Report of a Commission to inquire into the Occupation of Land in the Nyasa¬
land Protectorate —10582—Zomba, 1921.

8 According to a government report, “These are small Missions insufficiently
financed, conducted by unsuitable persons and under no proper control. As a rule,
they hold some doctrines which run counter to ordinary ideas and tend to unsettle
the native mind; such for instance, as the doctrines that Saturday is the divinely
appointed day of rest and that the end of the world is at hand.” Report of the
Commission to inquire into the Native Rising within the Nyasaland Protectorate
[6819] Zomba, 1916.

*N. Leys, Kenya, London, 1925, Ch. XIII.

10 “In accordance with the policy of the management of the estates not to allow
any Christian Churches on the land, applications by Chilembwe for leave to build
churches and schools were refused. One or two which were built by his followers
without permission were destroyed by Mr. Livingstone, the Manager. . . . This
was not the only occasion on which Chilembwe had come into conflict with Mr.
Livingstone, and it is evident that he conceived a special grudge against him and
other Europeans.” Ibid., p. 6.

248

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

minds the idea that they were being injured by European planters and
more especially by the A. L. Bruce Estates.”

The commission reported that “although the grievances of natives
on these estates were no doubt exaggerated by Chilembwe for his own
purposes,” in certain respects their treatment was not satisfactory.

“We are of the opinion that Mr. Livingstone’s treatment of natives was
often unduly harsh, and apart from this the general system of estate manage¬
ment was unsatisfactory. The tenant system was that natives living on the
land were compelled to work for the estates. No money rent was accepted.
Natives had to work one month in the wet season for rent and another month
also in the wet season for Hut Tax, that is, two months’ work. A month
was reckoned at twenty-eight days’ actual work, and it was stated before
the Commission that by various devices natives were compelled to work con¬
siderably longer periods, e.g., if a native did not complete his day’s task,
no credit was given to him for the time he had worked, and occasionally he
had to work several days extra to make up for the day lost. The labour
roll books of the estates were exhibited to the Commission and it clearly
appeared from them that the safeguards laid down in the ‘Employment of
Natives Ordinances’ for ensuring the proper payment of natives were not
complied with. . . . While the native evidence must be received with caution,
the Commissioners are of opinion that the treatment of labour and the system
of tenancy on the Bruce Estates (labourers and tenants being practically
interchangeable terms) were in several respects illegal and oppressive and
that the conditions on the estates more especially on the Magomero estate
directly conduced to the rising.”

Apparently in an effort to carry into effect the recommendations of
this commission, the Nyasaland Government enacted in 1917 the Native
Rents (Private Estates) Ordinance 11 which forbade the exaction of service
in lieu of rent but expressly recognized the right of landlords to charge
rent to native occupiers not having rights under certificates of claim, the
maximum of which was to be fixed by the government. 12 But as only those
natives who had remained for the last twenty years on the same piece of
land could establish such rights this act merely meant that while the
landlord could not oblige them to perform free service, he could oblige
them to pay rent. But in practice, the landlord refused to receive
rent. What he wanted was the labor, and if a tenant declined to
work, the landlord gave him notice to clear off the land. The Nyasaland
Land Commission reported: “No reason for the notice need be given
and unless the native can establish a right to free residence upon one of

n Ordinances, 1917, p. 32.

13 In 1917, rents were fixed at from four to six shillings per occupier. Nyasa¬
land Rules and Orders, 1917, C. 23.

NYASALAND

249

the grounds already mentioned he must go.” But in the Zomba and
Blantyre districts, there was virtually no place for the native to go. Con¬
sequently he was, and still is, obliged to furnish from one to six months
of free labor to a European landlord in return for occupying land which
in some cases at least is his, according to native law, and which was
presumably recognized as belonging to him in the certificates of claim.
Thus the settlers of Nyasaland have defeated the intention of the ordi¬
nances of 1907 and 1917 to secure to the natives the rights presumably
guaranteed to them in Sir Harry’ Johnston’s land settlement. This in¬
tention has also been defeated by the difficulty of distinguishing between
natives who occupied this land at the time the Europeans arrived and
those who, attracted by the opportunity of European employment, have
moved on to alienated land.

4. Land Commission of 1921

In 1921, the commission appointed to study this and other land ques¬
tions frankly declared that for the time being "labour is the only return
which the owners of agricultural estates will accept from native tenants.”
Crown land was so scarce in these two districts that the government could
not possibly provide for the native population. It was therefore desirable,
for the sake of the native, that private landlords should be induced to
make the necessary’ provision for them. It believed that the system of
labor tenancies should be recognized and that the period of work should
be fixed at a maximum of two months, only one of which must necessarily
be paid. 11 The East Africa Commission, which visited Nysaland in 1924,
reported: “there seems to be grave doubt whether the demands for rent
at present made by many of the estate owners on the resident natives are
sound in law. . . 14

It proposed the delimitation of native lands within estate boundaries
and the vesting of such lands in Trust Boards.

It is understood that ic 1926, the government convened a Round Table
Conference of the various parties concerned which discussed a draft bill
providing that the native tenant should pay an economic cash rent. At the
option of the native, this rent could be redeemed by labor at the ordinary
rate of pay for a certain period. Security of tenure was provided for a
number of years, and no more than a certain proportion of the squatters
could be given notice to quit the estate at the end of each quinquennial
period. This draft bill proposal thus apparently rejects the proposal of

“This labor should be performed at a distance not more than four miles from
the native’s hut.

14 Report of the East Africa Commission, Cmd. 2387 (1925), p. no.

250

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

the East Africa Commission that native lands be delimited, because of the
belief that it is more important to provide for the squatters who have
moved on to European lands since the certificates of claim were issued
than to attempt to unravel the rights of the existing inhabitants. The most
essential provision of any settlement should be the abolition of this labor
tax for private employers in favor of a cash rent, and security of tenure.

5. The Question of Native Reserves

It appears that the vast majority of land alienated to white settlers
took the form of certificates of claim issued between 1892 and 1894,
and represented, for the most part, land which settlers acquired from
the natives themselves. The total area alienated in Nyasaland amounts
to 3,705,255 acres, which includes 2,700,000 acres owned by the British
South Africa Company in the North Nyasa District. In addition, the
government has made grants, either in the form of freeholds or leases,
amounting to about 258,000 acres. Nyasaland has alienated a greater pro¬
portion of its territory to Europeans than any other territory in East
Africa. 15 Although the total area of the Protectorate is about twenty-
five million acres, it is estimated that six million acres of land suitable
for cultivation remained unalienated. The question as to whether or not,
in the face of these alienations, the native population possesses sufficient
land has recently been studied by the Land Commission already referred
to. Assuming that the native population doubles itself in thirty years,
the commission estimated that an area of eight acres per hut would provide
the food supply of twice the present native population. According to
this standard, the natives would require nearly 3,203,000 acres of land—
while an additional five acres would be required for each head of stock—
which would bring the total to about 3,574,000 acres or more than half
the remaining land in the territory.

The available land is not, however, evenly distributed. In five districts
of Nyasaland, natives do not possess the eight acres per hut which they
should have under this proposed system. Particularly in the Lower Shore
and Blantyre districts, a shortage exists. Elsewhere, the commission con¬
sidered the advisability of setting aside reserves. But unlike the other
governments of East Africa (excepting Tanganyika), 16 it is opposed to
this policy for the following reasons:

“We believe that the institution of Native Reserves, by which we mean
the collection of large numbers of natives in defined areas, would be an un¬
warrantable interference with the free occupation by the people of their native

18 Cf. Vol. I, p. 513. 19 Cf. Vol. I, p. 552.

NYASALAND

251

land and would in addition be totally unsuited to their manner of life. The
different tribes in this Protectorate are scattered widely about it and the
mixture of them which it would be impossible to avoid if large numbers were
collected in any one place would be a very great obstacle to successful ad¬
ministration. Their movements in large numbers from the sites on which
they have already settled would be a great hardship.

“The domestic requirements of the native population make it necessary
that villages should be scattered in places where water can be found. The
provision of land for the production of food for a large number of natives
collected in one place would entail on many the necessity of travelling long
distances to their gardens. The imperfect sanitation of native villages also
makes it very inadvisable that large numbers of them should be collected
in a restricted area. Such a restriction would also mean that many natives
working on European estates would be obliged to live at greater distances
from their work than is desirable both for their own sakes and for the sake
of the settler by whom they are employed.

“To avoid these disadvantages Reserves would have to be of such size
as practically to allow of the continuation of present conditions. We would
prefer to retain the advantage of present conditions without the defects of
the reserve system.’' 17

According to this commission, about seven hundred thousand acres
could be set aside for areas to which alienation should be confined. But
the governor of Nyasaland has recently declared, according to the East
Africa Commission, that there were already “feelings of uneasiness among
the natives regarding the future of their land,” a feeling which has found
expression at nearly every meeting of headmen since his arrival. He con¬
siders that the blocks of Crown land to be set aside for further European
occupation should not be large or numerous, and that the amount of land
which is suitable for that purpose, and which at the same time is not
required for the present or future use of the natives, is not great. It is
his considered opinion that the prosperity of the protectorate depends on
the development of its tropical agricultural resources, partly by a limited
number of European planters, but principally by the natives themselve:.
with European instructors. 18

6. Cotton Cultivation

At the present time, the government is pushing the cultivation of cotton
by the natives. In order to prevent the fluctuation in prices and the sudden

1T Report, cited, p. 5.

18 The East Africa Commission shared these opinions and considered “that all
Crown Lands not yet leased, with the exception of the small areas referred to hy
the Governor, should be vested in a Trust Board with similar safeguards and
powers to those which we have recommended in the case of Kenya. . . ." Report,
cited, p. 109.

252

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

acquisition of wealth, the government and the British Cotton Growers’ As¬
sociation entered into a Cotton Buying Agreement in 1923 which gives to
the association the right for five years to purchase the entire native crops at
prices arranged in advance by the Department of Agriculture and the asso¬
ciation. 19 One half of any ascertained profits go to the government, but all
losses are borne by the association. The purpose of this agreement was to
prevent the decline in the price of cotton after planting had taken place,
which discourages native production. Under the agreement, native produc¬
tion has increased from 797 tons in 1923 to 2,835 tons in 1925. 20 In the
first two years, a profit was returned.to the government. Many European
traders resented the negotiation of this, agreement which deprives them of
a market. But it appears that so far the plan has benefited the native
since he has received, in a period of falling prices, a better price for his
produce than would otherwise have been the case. Nevertheless, there
is the possibility that in some years, the association will profit from sud¬
den increases in prices which may be larger than decreases in other years.

At the present time, sixty-three per cent of the cotton produced in
Nyasaland is grown by natives, the remainder being grown by Euro¬
peans employing native labor. The British Cotton Growing Association
states that “the natives prefer to cultivate their own lands.” 21

Objection to the cultivation of cotton has been made on the ground
that it will interfere with the labor supply of the Nyasaland settler. But
the majority of the Land Commission was of the opinion it would be
“unfair to the native” to check this industry for this reason. 22

The most pressing need of Nysaland is cheaper transport. Because
of the absence of these facilities, the per capita trade and revenue of
Nyasaland is the smallest of any British colony in Africa, excepting North¬
ern Rhodesia. 23 In order to pay their taxes, the natives in the absence
of outlets for their products must seek work on the outside. It is esti¬
mated that thirty thousand Nyasaland natives thus work in other colonies
during the year.

7. The Settlers' Protest

Except for the land-labor situation, which seems to be acute in the
Zomba and Blantyre districts and which presumably will be cleared up
in the future, the Nyasaland Government now appears to be committed

“ Nineteenth Annual Report, 1923, British Cotton Growing Association, Man¬
chester, p. 29.

20 Twenty-first Annual Report, 1925, British Cotton Growing Association, p. 38.

21 Ibid., p. 38.

23 Report, cited, p. 7.

23 Cf. the comparative table, Vol. II, p. 889.

NYASALAND

253

to a policy of native development, even at the expense of white settlement. 24
It is a policy which, in the recent encouragement of the cultivation of
native tobacco, has brought forth the criticisms of European planters who
complain that native cultivation injures labor supply.

In October, 1926, The Nyasaland Planters’ Association unanimously
approved a report which declared that “The existing labour shortage is ap¬
parently felt most by tobacco growers, and is in our opinion chiefly due
to the rapid spread of the Native tobacco industry and the incessant
propaganda spread by buyers, planters and others to induce Natives to
leave their work on European estates (which is the actual effect) and to
take up village tobacco cultivation. . . . The obvious end [of native
cultivation] is that practically every Native in the Protectorate will take
up tobacco growing. . . . We consider the present conditions under which
European planters are endeavouring to work are obviously unfair and
almost entirely hopeless. . . . It is not too much to say that the whole
Protectorate is being turned by interested parties into a huge Reserve
for the production of rent-free, cheap, Native tobacco, to the detriment
of the European planter’s labour supply and the future of the European
agricultural industry.” 25

This statement is further evidence that the development of native
agriculture diminishes labor available for European farmers. 26

8. Conclusion

Such is the situation in the two Rhodesias and Nyasaland. White
settlement has proceeded furthest in Southern Rhodesia which is now a
self-governing colony, subject to imperial control over native affairs which
will probably not be of much importance. In all three of these territories,

24 Native administration in Nyasaland is based on the District Administration
(Native) Ordinance, 1924 ( Ordinances, 1924, p. 64) which authorizes the Resident
to divide a district into village areas each having a headman. The district Resi¬
dent may appoint not more than ten village- councillors to advise the headman, and
the headman may hold court.

Village areas may be_ grouped in sections each under a principal headman,
and the Provincial Commissioner may constitute a section council composed of the
headman and such other natives as he may think fit. These sections have
advisory power. A principal headman may hold court. The Governor may also
establish district councils.

Every adult male native is liable to perform imposed labor for not more than
twenty-four days a year “in the construction or maintenance of any work of a
public nature for the benefit of the village area or section to which he belongs.”

Natives are also liable to compulsory paid labor for government transport
and for the construction of public buildings, railways, telephone lines, sanitary
work, etc., and such other works of a public nature provided for out of public
monies as the Governor may with the prior approval of the Secretary of State
declare to be a work of public nature.

25 Text published in East African Standard. March 12, 1927, p. it.

M Cf. Vol. I, p. 391.

254

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

land was originally alienated to Europeans with little regard to the rights
of the original inhabitants, and a system of industry was introduced with
little regard to native welfare. A Belgian observer pointed out in 1913
that the policy in both Rhodesias was one of proletarisation. He declared:

. . The Company first of all confiscated the lands and the mines of the
country and left to the natives only the precarious possession of certain
lands. In our opinion, this was a grave injustice. The natural riches
were then progressively placed at the disposal of the capitalists of the white
race, great or small. Obliged to import labor, and desirous of utilizing
the natives living in the country as manual laborers, they hoped little
by little to generalize the wage earning regime. The policy which dom¬
inates the country is the preoccupation of the interests of the whites and
the absence of a veritable social policy inspired by the interests of the
blacks and tending notably to facilitate the formation of a numerous class
of native peasant proprietors.” 27 The importance of adopting this policy
is now coming to be realized in all of these three territories; but its ful¬
filment is difficult as long as land alienations increase the number of
Europeans who come to rely upon native labor.

As far as land is concerned, Southern Rhodesia has, however, made
a settlement which is more liberal to the natives than that made by either
the Union of South Africa or Kenya. It is now setting aside native pur¬
chase areas which will make the increase of these reserves probable. Ap¬
parently the Government of Nyasaland has decided to make few alienations
of land to Europeans in the future, because of the acute situation which
already exists in a number of districts. The land situation is most critical
in Northern Rhodesia, where the government, under the pressure of the
South Africa Company, which receives half of the profit from the land
sales, is contemplating the establishment of native reserves and a policy of
white settlement. Further land alienations to Europeans would in¬
crease the demand for labor. While this new opening for employment
would lead natives who now migrate to Southern Rhodesia and the Congo
to work nearer home, which would for the moment be socially beneficial,
extensive alienations of land could create the danger of prejudicing the
development of native agriculture, which is necessary to social develop¬
ment, to the increase of population, and to the extermination of sleeping
sickness. 28 To make native agriculture in Northern Rhodesia possible,
the restriction of land alienation is necessary as well as the establishment
of a system of communications. The latter project deserves the financial
support of the Imperial Government. 29

27 H. Rolin, Les Lois et l’Administration de la Rhodesia, p. xlv.

28 Cf. Vo!. II, p. 580.

29 The East African Guaranteed Loan Committee recommended that one
hundred and eighty-five thousand pounds out of the proposed ten million pound
loan to East Africa should be expended on road construction in Northern Rhodesia.
Report. Cmd. 2701 (1926), p. 27.

APPENDIX—THE RHODESIAS AND
NYAS ALAND

IV. Native Welfare Expenditures—Nyasaland

Native Welfare Expenditures—Nyasaland
1926

Per Cent of Total

Amount

Per hundred Expenditures

Agriculture

(£320,857)

Administrative & Field ....

. 5,808

.48

1.8

Research .

2.793

.23

■9

Forestry .

4 , 7 'S

•39

*•5

II.

Total .

Medical

* 3 , 3*9

1.10

4.2

Medical .

26,866

2.23

8.4

Sanitary .

3,307

0.27

1.0

III.

Total .

Education

30,*73

2.50

9-4

IV.

Total .

Veterinary

4,000

0.33

1.2

Total .

4,626

0.38

1.4

Total Expenditure .

. 52,118

4.31

16.2

SECTION IV
KENYA

British East Africa

CHAPTER 17

THE EUROPEAN OCCUPATION OF EAST AFRICA
I. The Arab Invaders

The meeting place of two civilizations, East Africa received the
imprint of Asia long before it came in touch with the West. 1 As early
as the eighth century A.D., Oman Arabs, borne southward in their open
dhows by gentle monsoons, founded the towns of Kilvva, Mombasa and
Zanzibar. In the tenth century, the Zenj Empire—a federation of Arab
states which controlled the coast of what is now Kenya and Tanganyika—
was founded. Far from being savage kingdoms, these principalities were
Moslem states in which silken-clad Arabs prayed in stone mosques and
discussed the art of the Moors. The Zenj Empire lasted until its de¬
struction by that great Portuguese interloper, Vasco de Gama, who dis¬
covered the coast of East Africa in 1498. Soon after this date, the
Portuguese obliged the Arab rulers of Kilwa and Zanzibar to pay them
tribute; while in 1505 Francisco d’Almeida laid siege to the Arab strong¬
hold at Mombasa. For the next fifty years the Portuguese ruled over
the East Coast largely for the purpose of maintaining an entrepot for
their possessions in the Orient. But in 1585 and in 1589 Turkish cor¬
sairs, having formed an alliance with Zulu invaders called the Zimbas,
drove the Portuguese out of a number of towns. 2 Despite this setback,
the Portuguese continued to control the East Coast until 1627 when the
native population revolted. While the Portuguese suppressed the revolt
with much severity, their position was greatly shaken. Meanwhile, Alfonso
de Albuquerque, who had succeeded in fastening Portuguese rule upon the
Arabs of Muscat, was driven out of Muscat by Sultan Seif who, adding
insult to injury, now made up his mind to expel the Portuguese from
East Africa as well. After a long period of fighting, Seif took Mombasa

1 Hindus are said to have come as early as the seventh century B.C. to the East
Coast where they have ever since maintained a predominant influence. The first
foreigners actually to settle on the East African coast are said to have been Jews
sent out by King Solomon about 1000 B.C., who settled in the islands of Grand
Comorro and Madagascar. Cf. W. H. Ingrams and L. W. Hollingsworth, History
of Zanzibar, New York, 1925.

a Cf. J. Strandes, Die Portugiesenzeit von Deutsch und Englisch-Ostafrika,
Berlin, 1899, pp. 81 ff.

259

260

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

in 1698 and soon made himself master of the entire coast as far as the
Rovuma River. Although the Portuguese, in a desperate effort, recaptured
Mombasa in 1727, they were once more expelled—this time for good—
and the chief reminder at the present time of their romantic occupation
of East Africa is picturesque Fort Jesus at Mombasa, which the British
use as a jail.

Henceforth Muscat kings ruled over both Oman and the East Coast
of Africa. Seyyid Said, who succeeded to the throne of Oman in 1807,
became so enchanted with the island of Zanzibar, lying a few miles off the
African coast, that in 1840 he decided to move his permanent residence
there, leaving Muscat to be ruled over by a son. At this time the King¬
dom of Muscat was recognized as an independent state by European pow¬
ers and the United States whose sailors came into contact with Zanzibar en
route via the Cape of Good Hope and the East Coast for the Orient.
It appears that the United States was the first government to make a
commercial treaty with the Sultan. In an agreement of 1833, the Sultan
granted American citizens the right to trade in his kingdom and he agreed
that American vessels should not pay more than five per cent duties on
cargo landed. American citizens could reside in the Sultan’s ports with¬
out paying any taxes other than the import duty. The agreement also
authorized the President of the United States to appoint consuls to reside
in the ports of the Sultan who should be the exclusive judges of all dis¬
putes to which Americans were parties. 3

In 1840 the United States dominated Zanzibar’s trade because of
American whalers bound for the Orient who stopped at this midway point
for supplies and who did a trade in ivory, copak, hides and apparently in
contraband slaves.

In a series of treaties, the Sultan granted extra-territorial privi¬
leges to seven other governments. 4 The consuls of these governments tried
cases in which their respective citizens were involved.

Upon the death of Seyyid Said in 1856, his two sons quarreled vio¬
lently over the succession. To maintain order, the British Government
intervened and induced the two brothers to submit their dispute to the
arbitration of the Governor-General of India—the representative of a
country having great commercial interests on the East Coast. In this
award, the Governor-General gave one brother the Kingdom of Muscat

3 Treaty of September 21, 1833, with Muscat, Malloy, Treaties of the United
States, Vol. I, p. 1228. In a treaty of July 3, 1886 the United States agreed that
the Sultan of Zanzibar should levy a duty not exceeding 25 per cent on liquor
imports containing more than 20 per cent alcohol. The treaty gave to American
consuls all the rights enjoyed by consuls of the most favored nation. Malloy, cited,
Vol. II, p. 1899.

4 Cf. Hertslet, Map of Africa by Treaty, Vol. II, pp. 925 ff.

THE EUROPEAN OCCUPATION OF EAST AFRICA 261

and the other the Kingdom of Zanzibar. But he declared that the ruler
of Zanzibar should pay annually to the ruler of Muscat a subsidy of forty
thousand crowns, which was to be held to be a “final and permanent ar¬
rangement, compensating the ruler of Muscat for the abandonment of
all claims upon Zanzibar and adjusting the inequality between the two
inheritances. ...” 6 Needless to say, Zanzibar does not pay this subsidy
at the present time.

2 . The Slave Trade

Throughout the most of the nineteenth century this kingdom of Arabs
not only ruled over Zanzibar but over a number of towns along the
African mainland through Arab officials called Akidas and Jumbes. 0 From
Zanzibar as a base, Arab traders organized caravans which journeyed
into the interior of Africa carrying wares which they sold to natives in
return for ivory and slaves. They easily procured the latter from native
peoples victorious in inter-tribal wars. Thousands of these slaves came
from what is now the Belgian Congo, Nyasaland, and Northern Rhodesia.
The most familiar route along which slaves were obliged to carry ivory
in their dismal march to the sea followed the towns of Ujiji, Tabora, and
Bagamoyo which the Arabs built as centers for their marauding activities
and which remain until the present day. Arriving at the sea-coast, the
Arabs sold the ivory to Indian traders, while they usually sold the slaves
at the Zanzibar slave market, the largest market in the world. Purchasers
came from Arabia, Persia, Egypt and other eastern countries; and in the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries they also came from Christian coun¬
tries in the west. Local Arab plantation owners likewise purchased slaves
to cultivate vast areas of cloves and cocoanut.

These slaving operations gradually depopulated the areas near the
coast and led the caravans further and further into the interior of Africa.
Livingstone and others were of the opinion that for every slave that came
to the coast ten lives were lost in the interior.

In 1871 the Committee on the East African slave trade described the
traffic as follows:

B Ibid., Vol. II, p. 962.

"Sir Arthur Hardinge reported in 1896 that “In what is now German East
Africa his authority [that of the Sultan] was very real. Pangani, Sadani, Baga¬
moyo, Dar-es-Salaam and Kiiwa were all governed by Walis, who were as com¬
pletely his nominees and dependents as those who ruled for him at Mombasa and
Lamu, and the whole coast opposite the two islands was effectively administered
by them, as well as the great trade routes from Bagamoyo to Tabora, Ujiji,
and Lake Nyanza, at all the centers along which he had his officers; but the
northern or, as it now is, British portion of his dominions was at once poorer
and more barbarous than the Southern, and was, therefore, comparatively
neglected and left to the local chieftains.” Recent Rebellion in British East
Africa, C. 8274 (1896), p. 88.

262

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

“The persons by whom this traffic is carried on are for the most part
Arabs, subjects of the Sultan of Zanzibar. These slave dealers start for the
interior, well armed, and provided with articles for the barter of slaves, such
as beads and cotton cloth. On arriving at the scene of their operations they
incite and sometimes help the natives of one tribe to make war upon another.
Their assistance almost invariably secures victory to the side which they
support, and the captives become their property, either by right or by purchase,
the price in the latter case being only a few yards of cotton cloth. In the
course of these operations, thousands are killed, or die subsequently of their
wounds or of starvation, villages are burnt, and the women and children
carried away as slaves. The complete depopulation of the country between
the coast and the present field of the slave dealers’ operations attests the
fearful character of these raids.

“Having by these and other means obtained a sufficient number of slaves
to allow for the heavy losses on the road, the slave dealers start with them
for the coast. The horrors attending this long journey have been fully
described by Dr. Livingstone and others. The slaves are marched in gangs,
the males with their necks yoked in heavy forked sticks, which at night are
fastened to the ground, or lashed together so as to make escape impossible.
The women and children are bound with thongs. Any attempt at escape or to
untie them, or any wavering or lagging on the journey, has but one punish¬
ment—immediate death. The sick are left behind, and the route of a slave
caravan can be tracked by the dying and the dead. The Arabs only value
these poor creatures at the price which they will fetch in the market, and if
they are not likely to pay the cost of their conveyance they are got rid of.
The result is, that a large number of the slaves die or are murdered on the
journey, and the survivors arrive at their destination in a state of the greatest
misery and emaciation.” 7

A dhow in which the slaves were transported to Zanzibar, which
averaged about eighty tons burden, usually carried two hundred slaves.
When chased by a British cruiser, the dhow owner would sometimes
throw the slaves overboard. Occasionally cargoes in the southwest moon-
soon would go direct to Muscat from Kilwa, a voyage of forty days.
The Times of India in 1872 described one of these dhows as follows:

“The number of slaves it was impossible at the time to estimate; so
crowded on deck and in the hold below was the dhow, that it seemed, but
for the aspect of misery, a very nest of ants. The hold, from which an
intolerable stench proceeded, was several inches deep in the foulest bilge-water
and refuse. Down below, there were numbers of children and wretched beings
in the most loathsome stages of smallpox and scrofula of every description.
A more disgusting and degrading spectacle of humanity could hardly be seen,

7 Report from the Select Committee on Slave Trade (East Coast of Africa),
Vol. XII, 420 (1871), p. iv.

THE EUROPEAN OCCUPATION OF EAST AFRICA 263

whilst the foulness of the dhow was such that the sailors could hardly endure
it. When the slaves were transferred to the Vulture (a British cruiser who
captured the dhow in the Persian Gulf), the poor wretched creatures were so
dreadfully emaciated and weak, that many had to be carried on board, and
lifted for every movement. How was it that so many survived such hardships
was a source of wonder to all that belonged to the I'ulture. On examination
by the surgeon, it was found that there were no less than thirty-five cases of
smallpox in various stages; and from the time of the first taking the dhow
to their landing at Butcher’s Island, Bombay, fifteen died out of the whole
number of one hundred and sixty-nine, and since then there have been more
deaths among them. But perhaps the most atrocious piece of cruelty of rhe
Arabs was heard afterward from the slaves themselves; viz., that at the first
discovery of smallpox amongst them by the Arabs, all the infected slaves were
at once thrown overboard, and this was continued day by day, until, they
said, forty had perished in this manner. . . . Many of the children were of
the tenderest years, scarcely more than three years old, and most of them
bearing marks of the brutality of the Arabs in half-healed scars, and bruises
inflicted from the lash and stick.”*

This instance may have been exceptional; in other cases slaves arrived
in Zanzibar content with the treatment which they had received from their
Arab masters, who, it appears, were more lenient than European slavers.

Far from attempting to suppress the slave trade, the Sultan of Zanzibar
originally encouraged it as it provided him with a lucrative source of reve¬
nue. His only interest in the hinterland of the East African coast was in
the ivory-slave traffic. Slavers were required to pay an export tax of two
dollars a head on slaves shipped from Kilwa to Zanzibar and four dollars
a head on slaves shipped to Lamu. An export tax of two dollars a head
was also imposed on slaves shipped out of Zanzibar. The proceeds of
these taxes brought to the Sultan about seventy-five thousand dollars a
year. 9 He did not attempt to organize an administration over the tribes
in the interior. Consequently, when the Berlin Conference of 1885 laid
down the doctrine of ‘‘effective occupation,” as a requisite of sovereignty,
the Sultan vigorously protested.

3. The British Fight Against the Slave Trade

It is impossible to understand the reasons for the European occupation
of East Africa without taking into consideration the slave trade which the
Arabs carried on in this part of the world. While this trade originally
worked to the profit of Europeans as well as Orientals, the leading powers
soon declared the traffic illegal—England in 1807, and France in 1848.

'Quoted in R. N. Lyne, Zanzibar in Contemporary Times, London, 1905, p. 63.

* Ibid., p. 65.

264

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

Despite these laws a European market still existed which made it worth
while for the Arabs to continue the traffic. As early as 1822, an English
naval captain induced Seyyid Said to sign an engagement providing for
the prohibition of the sale of slaves to Christians throughout his dominions
and the transport of slaves to Christian countries. He later agreed
that H.M. cruisers could seize all Arab ships with slaves on board found
to the eastward of a line drawn from Cape Delgado and the Gulf of
Cambay. In 1839, this line by agreement was moved westward so as to
exclude the trade from the whole of the Indian coast. 10 It is stated that
this treaty diminished the Sultan’s revenue to the extent of one hundred
thousand crowns.

Meanwhile the slave trade continued full blast in the Portuguese
possessions of East Africa. According to one authority, twelve thousand
slaves were exported from Quilimane and Mozambique to Brazil and
Cuba in 1836. 11 The Portuguese Government collected a duty of seven
dollars per slave exported. So vigilant was the British squadron stationed
off the East Coast in apprehending Portuguese slaves that the price of
slaves increased from ten dollars to forty dollars in 1843.

Meanwhile the British Government was urging Seyyid Said to sup¬
press the slave trade altogether. But this proposal alarmed him—the
greater part of his revenue came from duties on these slaves—and he
bore the distinction of being the greatest slave-trader in the world. A
compromise was finally reached in the Agreement of October 2, 1845,
which provided for the suppression of the export of slaves from the Sultan’s
African dominions and the prohibition of the import of slaves from any
part of Africa into his possessions in Asia. 12 This agreement thus allowed
the trade between African ports and with Zanzibar to continue. It also
granted to British ships the right to seize any of the Sultan’s vessels engaged
in the illicit slave trade. In 1848 and 1849 the Persian Government and
several Arab chiefs in the Persian Gulf promised to prohibit the importation
of slaves by sea. Apparently to enforce these engagements, the British Gov¬
ernment instructed the Cape of Good Hope and East Coast of Africa squad¬
rons to cruise as far north as Mombasa, while a squadron of the Indian
Navy cruised north of this line. These were the days before condensers
and propellers, 13 and the officers and men suffered many hardships in their
efforts to suppress a traffic which the people of England had come to
believe was inhuman. These squadrons had almost exterminated the

10 Lyne, cited, p. 37. 11 Lt. Bosanquet, Ibid., p. 37.

“Agreement of October 2, 1845, British and Foreign State Papers, Vol. 35, p.
632. ,

Lyne, cited, p. 43.

THE EUROPEAN OCCUPATION OF EAST AFRICA 265

ocean-born slave traffic to the west coast when the Crimean War broke out
in 1854. Its attentions now concentrated in Europe, the British Govern¬
ment relaxed its energies and the export of slaves from the East Coast
underwent a temporary revival. “An American merchant actually pub¬
lished his opinion in a United States journal that the slave traffic on the
East Coast of Africa might be carried on with safety.” 14 A number of
French ships carried slaves to Reunion; while Spanish ships carried them
to Havana. The traffic from the East Coast to the Western World was
finally brought to an end by captures of British cruisers in i860.

Henceforth the Arab caravans diverted their traffic to the northern
ports of Kilwa and Bagamoyo where slaves continued to be exported to
ports in Arabia and Persia. Northern Arabs came down to the coast for
these slaves where they frequently defied the authority of the Sultan of
Zanzibar. “Kidnapping went on up and down the coast; in the season
the people of Zanzibar were afraid to stir out of their houses after dark,
and all who could do so sent their children and young slaves into the
interior of the island for safety. Armed bands paraded the town. . . 15

The trade was still legal between Kilwa and Lamu, and during the
five years 1862-1867, ninety-seven thousand slaves were exported from
Kilwa. It was believed that at least seventeen thousand of these, slaves
were destined for foreign ports in defiance of the treaty of 1845. Mean¬
while the East India squadron, which in 1867 consisted of seven ships,
attempted to catch the dhows engaged in this bootlegging traffic. But
their efforts proved of little avail. As long as it was legal to ship slaves
out of Kilwa it was impossible to prevent them from being exported to
illegal destinations. If the slave traffic in Persia and Arabia were to be
abolished, its source must be stamped out. In July, 1871, a Select Com¬
mittee of the House of Commons inquired into the whole question of the
slave trade in East Africa; two years later Sir Bartle Frere was sent out
to negotiate a treaty suppressing the traffic. This treaty, signed on June
5, 1873, 16 prohibited the export of all slaves from the mainland regardless
of destination, and provided for the closing of all public slave markets in
the Sultan’s Dominions, the protection of all liberated slaves, and the
prohibition by Her Britannic Majesty of all natives of Indian states under
British protection from possessing slaves. Seyyid Barghash, the Sultan of
Zanzibar, really enforced this treaty, as a result of which the price of
slaves in Zanzibar doubled.

Despite the efforts of the Sultan, the smuggling of slaves from the
mainland to Zanzibar and Pemba continued and Arabs and half-castes

14 Lyne, cited, p. 44. 16 Ibid., p. 64.

“Treaty of June 5, 1873, British and Foreign State Papers, Vol. 63, p. 173.

266

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

continued to bring caravans of slaves, estimated to number twelve thousand
annually, out of the interior to the coast.

It appears that the British first became interested in the East Coast
of Africa through India. In 1862 fear of French designs upon East Africa
led the British Government to induce the French Government to enter into
a declaration in which the two powers bound themselves to respect the inde¬
pendence of both Muscat and Zanzibar. 17 In 1866 the British Govern¬
ment appointed Dr. (afterwards Sir) John Kirk as Vice-Consul of Zanzi¬
bar, an extraordinary individual who soon gained a great personal influence
over the Sultan.

In 1872 Sir William Mackinnon, chairman of the British Indian Steam
Navigation Company, established a line of steamers connecting Zanzibar
with India and Europe—a line which still operates to-day. In 1877 the
Sultan offered Sir William a concession of the customs and administration
of his dominions for seventy years, which he reluctantly declined because
he could not obtain the consent of the British Foreign Office. 18 Had this
offer been accepted the British Government would have become master
of the whole East Coast of Africa north of the Rovuma much sooner than
it did. Despite the refusal to take over this territory, the British con¬
tinued their efforts to combat the slave traffic.

In 1876 Dr. John Kirk induced the Sultan to prohibit the arrival of
the slave caravans from the interior. 19 Slaves arriving at the court were
to be confiscated. The Sultan’s troops attempted to suppress the activities
of slavers at Kilwa; and in 1877 the Sultan removed from office the Arab
Governor who had been participating in the trade. Since the regular
army proved unable to cope with the slave raiders, the Sultan, at the
suggestion of Dr. Kirk, organized a new force armed with European
weapons and drilled in European style under an English officer. In 1880

"Declaration of March 10, 1862, Hertslet, cited, Vol. I, p. 547.

U P. J. McDermott, British East Africa, A History of the Imperial East Africa
Company, London, 1895, p. 3. A more recent writer declares that the Sultan did
not “voluntarily” offer thus to cede his dominions. L. Woolf, Empire and Com¬
merce in Africa, London, p. 235.

“Proclamation of April 18, 1873, British and Foreign State Papers, cited,
Vol. LXVII, p. 456.

Illuminating accounts of the details of the traffic and the efforts to suppress it
are given in diplomatic and consular correspondence published in British and
Foreign State Papers of this period.

That Europeans were not themselves guiltless is shown by a communication
to the Earl of Derby from the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines Protection Society,
protesting against the shooting with explosive bullets of a large number of natives
by Mr. Stanley. It declared: “Mr. Stanley’s narrative contains no evidence to
justify the belief that the natives intended to massacre his party; but even if his
surmise were proved to be correct, we venture to submit that the murderous acts
of retaliation he committed were unworthy of a man who went to Africa pro¬
fessedly as a pioneer of civilization." State Papers, cited, Vol. LXVII, p. 469.

THE EUROPEAN OCCUPATION OF EAST AFRICA 267

this force, under British command, went inland in an effort to suppress
plunderers. In 1880 Captain Brownrigg of H.M.S. London was killed
by Arabs in a dhow illegally flying the French flag. The British in
command of the Sultan’s force now took decisive measures to punish
the murderers and to bring about the downfall of the semi-independent
chiefs who had been defying the wishes of the Sultan. While as a result,
the power of the Sultan was increased, the influence of General Mathews,
in command of the Sultan’s army, in addition to that of Dr. Kirk, became
greater than ever. In 1883 the British Government appointed vice-consuls
at Mombasa, Kilwa and Lamu—country then within the Sultan of
Zanzibar’s domain. The slave trade nevertheless continued—caravans
kept pouring out of the interior—and it is doubtful whether the Sultan
of Zanzibar, unaided, could have suppressed this traffic.

4. The Chartered Companies

Meanwhile European travellers were pushing into the interior of a
continent so far unknown and unpenetrated by the white man. In 1882-
1884 Mr. Joseph Thomson, an English explorer, travelled from Mombasa
to Busoga. In 1884 Mr. H. H. Johnston carried on explorations at Mt.
Kilimanjaro; at the same time he negotiated a number of treaties with
native chiefs. In the following year the Emperor of Germany granted a
charter to the Society for German Colonization. Its leading agent, Dr.
Carl Peters, signed a number of treaties with native chiefs, purporting
to establish a German protectorate, which covered an area of sixty thou¬
sand miles in what is now northern Tanganyika. The next year Dr.
Peters founded the German East Africa Company to which he transferred
these treaty rights. The German Emperor thereupon announced the
establishment of a German protectorate over the area concerned. The
Sultan of Zanzibar protested: “These territories are ours, and we hold
military stations there, and those chiefs who proffer to cede sovereign
rights to the agents of the Society have no authority to do so; these places
have been ours from the time of our fathers.” The German Government
declared that while it would respect the rights of the kingdom of Zanzi¬
bar, these rights did not extend into this interior region over which its
protection had been established. The British, who had guaranteed the
independence of the Sultan’s domain along with France in 1862, were
naturally concerned. To determine the extent of thjs guarantee, the
British induced the French and German Governments to agree to a De¬
limitation Commission which should define the territory of the Sultan
to be respected by the powers. In a proces-verbal, June 9, 1886, dele-

268

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

gates of the three governments recognized the sovereign rights of the
Sultan of Zanzibar over the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba, and over
the coast running inland to the extent of ten miles. This declaration
thus removed the Sultan’s claim over the interior which was shortly after¬
wards divided up into spheres of influence between England and Ger¬
many. 20 In return Germany acceded to the declaration of 1862 in which
France and England had promised to respect the independence of
Zanzibar. 21

But the interior could not be administered without some control over
the coast which had been recognized as part of the Sultan’s dominions.
To gain the necessary authority over the mainland, the British East
Africa Association, which later became the East Africa Company, obtained
in 1887 from the Sultan a concession extending from Wanga to Kipini
which authorized the Company to collect taxes, appoint commissioners
to administer the districts, collect customs, and regulate trade and com¬
merce for a term of fifty years. 22 The Association agreed to pay to the
Sultan the whole amount of the customs duties which he had hitherto
received, estimated at £11,000, plus 50 per cent of the additional
net revenue. Having obtained this concession, the Company proceeded
to negotiate treaties with tribes in the interior to obtain a legal basis for
controlling the country. In 1888, the Association secured a charter from
the Queen, which authorized it to retain the full benefit of these grants. 23

In requesting a charter, the petitioners stated that as a result of its
administration of this territory, “the condition of the natives inhabiting
the aforesaid territories and regions would be materially improved, and
their civilisation advanced, and an organisation established which would
tend to the suppression of the slave trade in such territories, and the said
territories and regions would be opened to the lawful trade and commerce
of our subjects and of other nations.”

In 1888 the Sultan of Zanzibar also leased his territories from the
Rovuma River to the Umba to the German East Africa Association, 24
following which a large number of Germans entered to take over the

30 Agreement of October 29, 1886, Hertslet, cited, p. 615. This division, which
gave to Germany what became German East Africa and to England British East
Africa and Uganda, was made definitive in the Agreement of July 1, 1890.
Hertslet, cited, p. 642.

This is not the place to go into the difficulties over the Witu concession, the
Rovuma boundary and other diplomatic questions not directly related to the
native problem. A full discussion of these questions may be found in P. L. Mc¬
Dermott, British East Africa, Ch. Ill, IV, XIV.

21 Hertslet, cited, pp. 547, 621.

” For the text, see McDermott, cited, p. 457.

23 For the text, see McDermott, cited, p. 457.

34 For the text, see Hertslet, cited, p. 933.

THE EUROPEAN OCCUPATION OF EAST AFRICA 269

administration. In 1898 a revolt against this foreign authority on the
part of the Arabs occurred.

By 1890 the situation in regard to the Zanzibar empire was that
the Sultan had leased the coast to these two Companies, while the hinter¬
land had been divided between the German and British Governments.
Only the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba remained “free.”

The final step in the European occupation was in 1890 when the
Sultan “freely and unreservedly” accepted the protection of the British
Government. He also agreed to abide by any equitable arrangement made
by the British Government regarding the retention by Germany of the
ten-mile strip. In return the British Government guaranteed the main¬
tenance of the throne of the Sultan of Zanzibar. 25 Germany recognized
the British protectorate over Zanzibar in return for the cession of Heligo¬
land, 26 while the French recognized it in return for the British recog¬
nition of the French protectorate over Madagascar. 21

In the same year European governments signed the Act of Brussels
in which they agreed to take a number of specific measures to put down
the slave traffic within their respective territories. 28

In October, 1890, the Sultan of Zanzibar agreed to the cession of the
ten-mile coastal strip under German occupation and the Island of Mafia
to Germany in return for a payment of two hundred thousand pounds.

5. The Ten-Mile Strip

The disposition of the ten-mile strip in the British sphere was not so
simple. To understand the difficulties which now arose, one must recall
the Act of Berlin which prevented the governments from levying any
import duties in their African territories. So great were the financial needs
of Zanzibar that the Sultan acceded to this Act subject to the reservation
that he would not be obliged to accept the principle of free trade. It was
under these conditions that the British East Africa Company received a
concession from the Sultan to the mainland which included the right to
collect customs. But following the establishment of its protectorate, the
British Government placed thq dominions of the Sultan under the free
trade system. 29 This action wiped out the revenue which the British

M Hertslet, cited, Vol. II, p. 763. 30 Ibid., p. 651.

* Ibid., p. 570.

28 The preamble of this act stated that the governments were “animated by the
firm intention of putting an end to the crimes and devastations engendered by the
traffic in African slaves, of effectively protecting the aboriginal populations of
Africa, and of assuring to that vast continent the benefits of peace and civiliza¬
tion. . . .” Hertslet, cited, p. 48.

"Cf. the Notification to the Treaty Powers, June 23, 1892. Hertslet, cited,
P- 99 J-

270

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

East Africa Company had obtained from customs duties and led it to make
a vigorous protest that a contract could not be altered without the consent
of both parties. In reply, the British Government claimed that the rela¬
tions between the Company and the Sultan were not based upon a contract
but were derived from a “delegation.” 80

The position of the Company was made worse by the fact that it
could not impose taxation upon foreign traders because of the extra¬
territorial treaties. Notwithstanding the loss in revenue, the Company
was obliged, however, to continue the payment to the Sultan of the sum
of 11,000 pounds which represented the value of the customs at the time
the concession was granted. In other words, the Company found itself
burdened with the tax of administration not only on the mainland but
also in part of Uganda 31 without adequate revenue and without juris¬
diction over Europeans in the interior. In 1896 it was also obliged
to contend with a native rebellion, provoked apparently by the zeal of
Christian missionaries and by the efforts of the Company to suppress
slavery—which antagonized the Moslem Arabs. 32 Under these circum¬
stances the Company decided to withdraw, and after a long period of
uncertainty 83 the British Government finally decided to take over its
territories. Months of negotiation followed in regard to the terms of
settlement between the Company and the Government. The Company
declared that it had expended 450,000 pounds in taking over and holding
the territory which it had acquired without any of the bloodshed which
had marred the occupation of other parts of the continent. But the
British Government refused pointblank to pay the Company more than
250,000 pounds. 34

It appears that the British Government treated the East Africa Com¬
pany less generously than it treated the Royal Niger or the British South
Africa Companies. 35

Following this agreement the British Government established a pro-

80 McDermott, cited, p. 345. " Cf. Vol. I, p. 279-

83 Recent Rebellion in British East Africa, C. 8274 (1896).

88 Cf. Vol. I, p. 281.

M Correspondence respecting the Retirement of the Imperial British East
Africa Company, C. 7646 (1895).

3S The shareholders declared: “That whereas the acquirement of the neigh¬
bouring German and Italian possessions in East and North-east Africa has in
each case entailed an expenditure of over 1,000,000 pounds on their respective
governments, and no little bloodshed, and whereas France is preparing to spend
millions in Madagascar, our Company can point with pride and satisfaction to
the fact that, its affairs having been directed by men of the highest administrative
experience, the grave mistakes of our neighbours have been avoided, and the
Company’s vast territory, as large as any of the three-named, has been peaceably
secured for the nation with the good-will of the natives, together with a develop¬
ment of its revenues and general interests entirely at the Company’s expense.”
C. 7646 (1895), p. 24, para. 6.

THE EUROPEAN OCCUPATION OF EAST AFRICA 271

tectorate over East Africa and Uganda and took over the administration
not only of the coastal strip but also of the interior. The government of
East Africa continued to pay the rent to the Sultan stipulated in the orig¬
inal concession amounting to 11,000 pounds a year. In addition, it pays
annually to the Sultan the sum of 6000 pounds which is interest on the sum
originally paid by the German Government in trust to the British Gov¬
ernment for the German East Africa mainland. In ceding Jubaland to
Italy in 1925, the British Government was again confronted with the
fact that the coastal strip to Jubaland was nominally a part of Zanzibar.
The British Government got over the difficulty by ceding this part of the
territory in the name of the Sultan of Zanzibar, in return for which the
Italian Government agreed to pay an annual indemnity, “which shall in
no wise represent a tribute implying any survival of sovereignty”, of
1000 pounds, representing the proportionate share of the annuity hitherto
paid by the Kenya Government. The treaty also provided that the
Italian Government might discharge this obligation by a payment of a
lump sum of 25,000 pounds to Zanzibar. Following this agreement,
the Kenya Government reduced its annual rent from 11,000 pounds to
10,000 pounds.

Down to the present day the British Government recognizes the
ten-mile strip along the Kenya coast as belonging to the Sultan of Zan¬
zibar. 36 The Sultan’s flag is flown and he is represented by a Liwali
who is paid nine hundred shillings per month by the British Government.
There are two other Arab or Swahili Walis and seven Mudirs who help
in the administration of the territory. The legislative power of the
Sultan of Zanzibar does not, however, apply as it does in Zanzibar proper.
Mohammedan law is followed including the law of freehold, under which
Arabs may sell or mortgage their property without administrative control.
Arab plantations, originally maintained by slave labor, have been in a
languishing state, and a number of them have fallen into the hands of
Europeans and Indians. Many difficulties over titles have arisen, which
the government has attempted to solve through establishing a Land Court
and introducing the Torrens system.

** The Kenya Colony Annexation Order, 1920, did not include this strip which
is called the protectorate of Kenya. Administrative officials have never agreed
as to the extent of the ten-mile strip. The Treaty of 1886 says that the ten-mile
strip is measured from the coast direct into the interior from high-water mark.
But if the high-water mark of the bay back of Mombasa is followed it would put
the ten-mile strip about a hundred miles inland! In 1911 it was decided to
follow the headland-to-headland principle laid down in the North Atlantic Fish¬
eries Arbitration; but this was soon given up, and in practice the line was drawn
so as roughly to follow a range of hills running about ten miles from the coast,
which separates the coastal plain from the interior both as regards climate and
soil.

272 THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

The conditions on the coast have been recently described as follows:
“The characteristics of the purely coastal people are well-known. They
cannot be described as anything but a decaying race, and the great majority
of them maintain a precarious existence and live practically from hand to
mouth. Sustained effort is beyond them and such property as they have left
exists only to be realized at the first opportunity.

“The conditions which prevail in the coastal area would seem to be the
inevitable fate of a community which in the past has made domestic slavery
a part of its social system. The abolition of slavery leaves both master and
man equally helpless. . . .” 37

The Kenya settlers repeatedly request the termination of the pro¬
tectorate, and its incorporation into Kenya Colony.

6. Zanzibar

After establishing a protectorate over the Sultanate of Zanzibar, the
British Foreign Office proceeded to organize an administration. In 1891,
Sir Gerald Portal became His Majesty’s Agent and Consul-General. In
the same year, General Mathews became First Minister to the Sultan.
The first efforts of these British officials were to organize various govern¬
ment departments under the control of British officials who were irremov¬
able except by consent of the Consul-General, and to keep all revenue and
expenditure in proper accounts. Before 1890, most of the revenues had
been appropriated by the Sultan; and the alienation of the mainland terri¬
tories to German and British Companies reduced this revenue to a
third of its former sum. Economies became necessary, if the kingdom
were to be saved from insolvency

Despite this critical position, Sir Gerald Portal boldly abolished the
five per cent import duty which had been authorized in the Act of Brus¬
sels, and established Zanzibar as a free port in order to increase trade
and make it the shipping center of the East Coast. This action was
justified by a noticeable increase in trade. 38

Upon the death of the Sultan Seyyid Ali in 1896, three contenders for

37 Native Affairs Department, Annual Report, 1925, Kenya, p. 9.

The same report says (p. 34) “The situation which is developing among the
younger Arabs and Swahili gives rise to some anxiety. The curse of drinking is
rapidly spreading among them and has now overtaken women of all classes. . . .
We find ourselves today with a generation of drunken, dangerous wasters, loafing
through the days, contaminating every tribe in the country. . . .” Despite the fact
that a policy of the prohibition of alcohol is followed, except for Europeans, it does
not appear that the law is enforced.

“The duty was, however, reestablished in 1899. Cf. Lyne, Zanzibar in Con -
temporary Times, Ch. XVI.

THE EUROPEAN OCCUPATION OF EAST AFRICA 273

the throne arose. One of them, Seyyid Khaled, took the law into his
own hands and attacked the palace and demanded recognition as Sultan.
The British sent an ultimatum to Seyyid to leave the palace. This he
declined to accept. As a result, three British ships bombarded the palace,
killing five hundred Arabs. This was the only time in the history of its
relations with Zanzibar that the British Government felt obliged to fire
a shot. Seyyid Khaled escaped to Dar-es-Salaam where the Germans gave
him protection. When the War broke out in 1914, the Germans promised
him the Sultanate of Zanzibar if he would use his influence to induce the
Arabs and the natives to support the German cause. In 1916, the British
finally captured and deported him to the Seychelles. Here he remained
until 1922 when he was allowed to return and reside at Mombasa. He
is still at Mombasa under the supervision of the Liwali of the
town. 39

For a number of years the administration of the protectorate was handi¬
capped by the extra-territoriality treaties, the termination of which the
British Government attempted to bring about. At present the American
and French treaties are the only ones which have not been terminated.
The consuls of foreign governments no longer raise objections as they did
in the past to “nearly every legislative act of the Government.” 40 The
British Government has apparently interpreted the Convention of Saint
Germain of September 10, 1919, removing all limitations in customs
duties, as over-riding the articles limiting customs duties in the treaties
previously made between the Sultan of Zanzibar and foreign powers.

In 1906, stricter control over the island was established by the addition
of a legal and financial member to the Sultan’s Council. This system of
dual control—through the British Consul-General representing British
interests and a British First Minister representing supposedly the Sultan’s
interests, under the supervision of the British Foreign Office—remained in
force until 1913. It was found, however, that this division of control
was cumbersome. Consequently, in that year the administration was trans¬
ferred from the Foreign to the Colonial Office, and the powers of the
Consul-General and the First Minister were vested in a single British Resi¬
dent Commissioner, who was made responsible to a High Commissioner of
Zanzibar, a position held by the Governor of what is now Kenya. 41 At
the same time a Protectorate Council was established.

This system of administration did not, however, prove satisfactory.
Every important decision had to be referred to the High Commissioner at

83 Sinclair, Report on the Zanzibar Protectorate, 1911-1923, p. 1.

40 Ibid., p. 2.

41 Apparently this plan was based on that of High Commissioner for South
Africa. Cf. Vol. I, p. 206.

274

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

Nairobi, which meant delay. The office of High Commissioner cost two
thousand pounds a year, and its incumbent, the Governor of Kenya,
was too absorbed with local affairs carefully to follow the events in Zan¬
zibar. The Protectorate Council, which was presided over by the Sultan,
had only advisory powers; its meetings were held in deep secrecy and
no reports of its deliberations were published. Even the annual estimates
of revenue and expenditure were kept secret from the public. The East
Africa Commission, which visited the island in 1924, recommended that
the position of High Commissioner and the Protectorate Council be
abolished and that the duties of the former official be vested in the British
Resident, while a Legislative Council, containing nominated members,
should be established, which would control the power of the Sultan to
enact decrees. 42 On September 5, 1925, the post of H*igh Commissioner
was abolished 43 and in 1926 the Sultan enacted a Zanzibar Councils
Decree which established a Legislative Council. 44

Nominally, at least, Zanzibar stands upon a higher plane than any
other protectorate in Africa. The British representative is called a
Resident in contrast to the High Commissioner or Governor found in
other protectorates. All laws take the form of decrees enacted in the
Sultan’s name. They are preceded with the caption “In the name of the
most Merciful God.” The Legislative Council was established not by
the British Government but by the Sultan. The Sultan’s flag flies over
the island to-day. All of the Sultan’s decrees are, however, countersigned
by the British Resident; 45 while the British district commissioners supervise
the administration of the districts into which Zanzibar and Pemba, its
dependency, are divided. Although the British have supported the person
and the authority of the Sultan, they have believed it wise to cut down the
personal emoluments which he formally enjoyed at the expense of his
subjects. Before 1911, the civil list of the Sultan Seyyid Sir Khalifa bin
Harub amounted to• one hundred and seventy-five thousand pounds; but
believing that this sum was excessive, the British authorities have brought
about its reduction to the eight thousand pounds which the Sultan now re¬
ceives. Despite this reduction, the Sultan is paid four times the salary
of the British Resident, and two thousand pounds more than the Emir
of Sokoto or of Kano. 48

43 Report of the East Africa Commission, Gmd. 2387 (1925), p. 132.

41 Cf. British Residents’ (Assignments of Powers and Duties) Decree, which
transfers the duties of the High Commissioner to the Resident. Zanzibar Decrees,

1925. P- 133 -

44 Cf. also the Zanzibar Order in Council, 1926, Statutory Rules and Orders,

1926, p. 587.

“Under Article 59 of the Zanzibar Order in Council, 1914, printed in Zanzibar
Law Reports, p. 748. 44 Cf. Vol. I, p. 702.

THE EUROPEAN OCCUPATION OF EAST AFRICA 275

During the last few years, the British authority has attempted to
revive native political institutions through organizing district courts,
with Arab Akidas as presidents, sitting with native headmen or Masheha
and prominent local Arabs and Indians. These courts have a limited
criminal jurisdiction over native and foreign subjects.

At the present time, Zanzibar has a population of about 186,000
Africans, 16,500 Arabs, and 14,000 Indians, not to mention 270 Euro¬
peans, all of whom live peacefully side by side. Inhabiting one of the
beautiful spots of the earth, these people live in an atmosphere of narrow
streets, shining mosques, and turbaned Arabs and Indians—a scene more
Oriental than African. Zanzibar is a veritable Paris to the native from
the mainland, who periodically crosses in the open dhow to work in the
clove harvest. Cloves and copra are the two leading industries of Zanzi¬
bar; and they have made the territory the richest in Africa. 47

Zanzibar produces 90 per cent of the cloves of the world—a monopoly
which is now, however, coming to be threatened by French Madagascar.
About seventy-five hundred tons of cloves are produced annually, having
a value of about four hundred and eighty thousand pounds. About the
same quantity of copra is also produced, but its value is much less, being
only one hundred and fifty thousand pounds. Per capita exports amount
to about three pounds. About forty thousand acres, having four million
trees, are under clove plantations.

Despite this great production, the clove industry of Zanzibar has not
been in a healthy condition. The Arab plantations on which cloves have
been produced were originally manned entirely by native slave labor.
But in 1897, domestic slavery was abolished at a loss in direct revenue
to the Sultan’s government of 26,500 pounds a year. 48 Ever since, the
Arab plantation owner has been unable to adapt himself to the regime
of free labor, and there has been a chronic labor shortage. The intro¬
duction of Indian labor to man the plantations has been at various times
proposed; but the natives from the mainland of Tanganyika have become
the chief harvesters of the crop. So serious did the situation become, that-
it appears that for a number of years the British authorities used a measure
of compulsion to oblige local natives to w’ork on the clove plantations. 49
In 1917, the Sultan enacted the Native Labor Control Decree and the
Regulation of Adult Male Persons Decree. 50 Under the latter decree all
adult males were obliged to register with the government. The first
decree gave the Labor Control Board power to call upon any registered

47 Cf. the table, Vol. II, p. 889. 48 Slavery in Zanzibar, C. 7707 (1895).

49 Sinclair, cited, p. 15.

*°Nos. 24 and 25, 1917, Zanzibar Decrees, 1917, pp. 10, 12.

276 THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

native not in regular employment and not physically unfit “to do
any work within the Protectorate as the Board thought necessary” at
such place and time as the Board determined. A native refusing to work
was liable to three months’ imprisonment and a fine of twenty rupees.
This decree thus legalized compulsory labor, whether for private or public
purposes. Following the declaration of the British Government in regard
to forced labor in 1921, which applied to Zanzibar as well as to Uganda
and to Kenya, the Zanzibar Government repealed the 1917 decree in favor
of the Employment of Native Labor Decree, 51 which authorizes com¬
pulsory labor only for stated public purposes, subject to restrictions similar
to those contained in the Kenya and Uganda ordinances. 62

Despite the past labor shortage, the production of cloves in Zanzibar
has steadily increased; and with the subdivision of the Arab plantations
into small native holdings, the labor problem is gradually solving itself,
since each native owner provides his own labor.

Clove producers have had difficulties of another nature. From early
times, Arab plantation owners relied upon Indians as their bankers who
advanced them money upon the security of their plantations. As a result
of these transactions, many plantations became mortgaged to Indians.
At present, the clove producer is also at the mercy of the Indian middle¬
man. The Commission of Agriculture reported in 1923, “The lot of
the clove planter is indeed a hard one. He is mulcted in a quarter of
his crop. Apart from a limited scheme of advances for harvesting he is
left to obtain from money-lenders the credit facilities which are essential
to all agriculturists. The necessities of life are in many cases procurable
only on the conditions of eventual payment in kind. The planter is no
accountant. The money-lender strikes the balance. Bank, shop and market
thus constitute a ring fence from which there is no escape.” 53 In an
effort to free the planter from the middleman, the government has made
loans for harvesting amounting to more than twenty-five thousand pounds.
The Commission on Agriculture in 1923 recommended that a study be
made of the desirability of introducing the principle of cooperative societies
in order to relieve the situation.

For many years, the Zanzibar Government has relied upon an export
duty on cloves as a principal form of revenue. In 1925, this duty yielded
34,019,688 rupees in comparison with 16,095,011 rupees from customs
duty. The three largest importers of cloves are India, the United States,
and the United Kingdom. This duty is not paid in cash but by taking
duty-in-kind as soon as the produce is picked on the plantation. Many

81 No. 4 of 1923, Ibid., 1923, p. 9. 82 Cf. Vol. I, p. 371.

83 Report of the Commission of Agriculture, Zanzibar, 1923, p. 50.

THE EUROPEAN OCCUPATION OF EAST AFRICA 277

officials and commissions have argued as to the incidence of this tax, paid
in kind on a product which has nearly a world monopoly. The Commis¬
sion on Agriculture believed that in view of the manner in which the
duty was collected it had the character of a direct tax on production which
tended to fall “with undue hardship upon the grower.” Despite the
monopoly, the Zanzibar grower was unable to shift these taxes to the con¬
sumer “owing to the entire absence of any form of co-operation and also
on account of the general improvident habits of his class.” 54 It would
appear that the Zanzibar clove grower is in need of capital which will
enable him not only to get’ rid of his present dependence upon Indian
money-lenders, but also make it possible for him to pay his clove duty in
cash, which seems to be a desirable step if he is to receive the fullest profit
from his crop.

Despite these difficulties, Zanzibar is one of the few examples which
can be found in this world of a successful inter-racial community.

7. Uganda

To the west of Lake Victoria Nyanza lies a territory called Uganda
inhabited by a large number of native states, the leading one of which is
the Kingdom of Buganda. 55 Explorers came to this country in 1862, to be
followed by Stanley in 1874. Much impressed by the local king, Mutesa,
who had become a Mohammedan at the persuasion of the Arabs, Stanley
wrote a letter in 1875 asking the Church Missionary Society to send a
mission to this kingdom. At this time, the only access to the country was
by walking over land five hundred miles from the coast. After some
hesitation the Society accepted the challenge; and under the leadership
of a remarkable Scotchman, Alexander Mackay, a mission set out for
Uganda in 1876.°°

In 1879, two French Catholic priests, following the Protestants, ar¬
rived in the country. They belonged to the Order of the White Fathers,
originally organized under the inspiration of Cardinal Lavigerie who ap¬
parently envisaged the creation of a “Christian kingdom in the center of
Equatorial Africa,” which would restore the glories of the Temporal
Kingdom of the Papacy in the Middle Ages. 57 According to British

61 Ibid., p. 4. A defense of the Indian position in Zanzibar i9 made by Y. E.
Jivanjee in a Memorandum on the Report of the Commission on Agriculture,
1923, Poona, 1924.

85 Cf. Vol. I, p. 571.

M Cf. Eugene Stock, The History of the Church Missionary Society, London,
1899, Vol. Ill, p. 97.

.’Mgr. Baunard states his ambition as follows: “Le monde africain de 1 ’in-
terieur est precisement dans l’etat politique et social ou notre Europe etait au
moyen age. Pourquoi l’Eglise n’y realiserait-elle pas les memes transformations
par les memes bienfaits?” Le Cardinal Lavigerie, Paris, 1912, Vol. II, p. 74.

278

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

writers, the priests set about to undermine the influence of British mis¬
sionaries with King Mutesa whom they supplied with guns and
ammunition.

On the other hand, the French accused the British missionaries of
duplicity. One Father, according to the clerical biographer of Cardinal
Lavigerie, asked Rev. Mackay to act as his interpreter in a conversation
with King Mutesa. “The Protestant Minister, profiting from his igno¬
rance of the language, represented to the prince that the French Catholics
were men who did not know God, worshipped statues, execrated Kings
and had even killed one, a few years ago: Happily Father Lourdel,
perceiving this betrayal, interrupted him and explained as best he could.” 58

King Mutesa, Uganda’s great king, 59 died in 1884. While he had
never accepted Christianity, he was a man of character with whom the
missionaries dealt upon a basis of goodwill. His son, Mwanga, was of a
different stripe. Shortly after his succession to the throne, he ordered
three native Christians to be put to death by fire. According to Mackay’s
diary, they were “tortured by having their arms cut off, and were then
bound alive to a scaffold, under which a fire was made, and they were
slowly burnt to death. Mujasi and his men mocked them and bade them
pray now if Isa Masiya (Jesus Christ) would rescue them from their
hands.” 60

Disturbed at the entrance of a missionary expedition into the country
via the “back door” at Busoga, King Mwanga now instigated the murder
of Bishop Hannington, its leader. When a native Christian who later
became a high official in the native government refused to commit sodomy
with the king, Mwanga launched a wholesale persecution of Christians
in which thirty-two natives were burned on one pyre. Under the influ¬
ence of the Mohammedan Arabs, Mwanga now resolved to expel all
Protestant and Catholic missionaries from the country, which led to a
revolt and to the deposition of the king, who fled across the lake. The
Moslems soon got control of the Buganda Government. Meanwhile
Mwanga became a Catholic, and Protestant and Catholic natives, aided
by the missionaries, united to restore him to his throne. The missionaries
thereupon reentered Uganda after an absence of one year. Thus the
country, still independent of all European control, was torn between
the rivalries of three religious parties, the Mohammedans, the Protestants,
and the Catholics. Since the Protestant missionaries were British and
since the Catholic priests were mostly French, the struggle soon came
to be a struggle between British and French interests.

“Baunard, cited, p. 83. “ Cf. Vol. I, p. 572.

80 Stock, cited, p. 412. Cf. also Mgr. Baunard, cited, p. 346.

THE EUROPEAN OCCUPATION OF EAST AFRICA 279

In 1890, Dr. Karl Peters, who had entered Uganda coming inland
via the Tana River in search of Emin Pasha, who had been imprisoned
in the Sudan since the Mahdi uprising against General Gorden, signed
a treaty with Mwanga by which he hoped to establish a German pro¬
tectorate; but without avail, since Germany recognized the British position
in Uganda in the Heligoland Treaty of 1890. A few weeks later, a rep¬
resentative of the Imperial British East Africa Company, Mr. Jackson,
hastened to Mengo to offset Peters’ activities. But apparently because
of the influence of the French missionaries, Mwanga declined to sign a
treaty recognizing a British protectorate. In another effort, the British
East Africa Company despatched Captain Lugard to Uganda, who ob¬
tained a concession at Kampala. In 1890, he induced Mwanga, apparently
against his wishes, 61 to sign a treaty recognizing the “suzerainty” of the
Company and placing his kingdom and vassal states “under the sphere of
influence and protection” of the British Company. He engaged not to
use the flag of any other nation, nor to conclude treaties except with the
consent of the Resident of the Company who would be stationed in his
kingdom, nor to allow foreigners to acquire concessions or lands without
his consent. The Resident was given jurisdiction over Europeans and
he could preside over a Committee of Finance and Receipts composed, in
addition to himself, of three members elected by the native Council of
State. The King was obliged to consult the Resident before declaring
war and in regard to all serious questions. The slave trade was prohibited ;
commerce was declared free; missionary freedom was guaranteed. The
native government would reimburse the Company for its expenditures
made solely in the interests of the country. The treaty was to last only
two years, when it could be revised or renewed. 62

Captain Lugard also negotiated a large number of treaties with native
states and tribes in the Bunyoro, Buddu, Kavalli, and Ankoli districts.
In order to police the country and maintain order, he brought to Uganda
eight thousand Sudanese troops which Emin Pasha had left in the Sudan.

The presence of the British continued, however, to concern the White-
Fathers, who originally, it appears, were more desirous that the coming
administration of the country should be Catholic than that it should be
French.

In 1891, Cardinal Lavigerie wrote to Cardinal Manning that the
81 Cf. Lugard, The Rise of Our East African Empire, Edinburgh, 1893, Vol. II,

P '

The treaty contained a curious addition to the effect that “these words should
be wiped out” in case “another White Man, greater than this one” should come
to Uganda. Cf. Papers respecting Proposed Railway from Mombasa to Lake
Victoria Nyanza," C. 6560 (1892), p. 16. This document contains the texts of a
large number of other treaties made by Company representatives with other tribes.

280

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

Catholics would not object to a British protectorate in Uganda provided
that an English Catholic be placed at the head of the protectorate. Mgr.
Livinhac made the same demand and threatened: “If this means of paci¬
fication were neglected, war would break out and it would perhaps be the
German colony from the west of Nyanza which would profit from the
victory.” 03

When the East Africa Company declined to make any such promises,
the animosity of the Catholics was revived. In 1892, new priests arriving
in the country spread the story that the Company was going to withdraw.
While accounts differ vitally, it seems that the French priests supplied
Catholic natives with firearms with which they attacked the Protestants.
A veritable civil war took place in which Captain Lugard, who came to the
aid of the Protestants, triumphed.

Mgr. Hirth now sent a letter to France asserting that the Catholics
had been attacked cruelly by the Protestants. This letter caused a furore
which led the French Foreign Minister to state that the British Govern¬
ment should absolve itself of deeds which were a “shame to civilization.”
But meanwhile British reports of the controversy arrived in England.
Captain Lugard stated that “it was the Catholic party who entirely and
of purpose provoked the war. . . . The trouble in every instance arose
from the aggressions on the part of the Catholics. . . .” 64

Following this war, Captain Lugard made a new treaty in 1892 ex¬
tending the treaty of 1890. This treaty was not, however, ratified. 65

At the same time he brought about religious peace by establishing
religious spheres of influence, assigning nine counties and chiefs to the
Catholics, nine to the Protestants, and three to the Mohammedans. At
the present time, the relations between Catholic and Protestant missionaries
in Uganda are remarkably cordial. 66

Meanwhile, the British East Africa Company found that the task
of administering the East Africa Protectorate was altogether too heavy
for its resources, and it informed the government, which declined to sub¬
sidize it, of its intention to withdraw. Sir William MacKinnon proposed,
however, to the Church Missionary Society—the missionary organization
in Uganda—that he would advance ten thousand pounds personally, if the
Church Missionary Society could raise fifteen thousand pounds to keep the

63 Mgr. Baunard, cited, Vol. II, p. 612.

04 Quoted in Stock, cited, p. 443. Cf. for the same opinion Lugard, cited, p. 333.
Mgr. Baunard in his life of Cardinal Lavigerie repeats the charges of Mgr. Hirth
but does not mention Lugard’s reply.

05 Text, Lugard, cited, Vol. II, p. 435.

00 Cf. Vol. I, p. 609.

THE EUROPEAN OCCUPATION OF EAST AFRICA 281

Company there. The Church Missionary Society replied that it could
not use its funds in that way, but that it might be possible for its friends
to raise sums independently. 07

* While the question of withdrawal was pending, the Times published
a leader declaring: “The probable and almost inevitable results of such a
step as this [i.e. the withdrawal] would be an immediate massacre of the
Native converts and European missionaries in that country; a state of
anarchy, followed by the re-establishment of the Mohammedans and
possibly of the Mahdist power; the resurrection of the slave trade in its
worst form; the ruin of the prospects of the Imperial British East Africa
Company in East Africa; and the entire collapse of the policy which,
whether as regards the slave trade or the development of the African
continent, the Government has so courageously and hitherto so successfully
followed. . .

At the Gleaners’ Union Anniversary, a meeting was held addressed by
Bishop Tucker of Uganda, at the close of which an appeal was made for
funds. Within a half hour eight thousand pounds had been raised—which
was increased within the next ten days to a total of sixteen thousand pounds.

As a result of this encouragement, which was more moral than mate¬
rial, the Company decided to retain its hold until the British Government
could decide what action it wished to take. On December 20, 1890, the
Foreign Office had written to the Treasury that Great Britain as a party
to the Brussels Act had engaged to cooperate actively in the suppression
on land as well as on sea of the slave trade. While the task was simple
in West Africa and south of the Zambesi, it was more difficult in East
Africa. “The coast is the outlet of the sea-borne Slave Traffic; the interior
is the source from which it springs.” The only certain remedy was the
establishment of interior stations and the construction of railways which
would provide cheap transport. The necessity was increased by the energies
of the German Government in East Africa which were having the effect
of ejecting slave-traders into the British sphere. “It is believed that there
is only one mode of action which would have a practical effect—the con¬
struction of a railway from Mombasa to Lake Victoria Nyanza. . . .
As the railway will pass through a sterile region . . . the hope of its be¬
coming eventually remunerative can only rest on the prospect of the gradual
civilization of the dense population surrounding the lake district. . .
Such an undertaking deserved an annual subsidy which “would represent
the contribution of this country to the execution of its obligations under
the Brussels Act.” Moreover, the construction of the railway would

” Stock, cited, p. 439.

282

THE HATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

eventually do away with the necessity of maintaining a squadron off the
coast to apprehend slavers. 68

In March, 1892, the House of Commons, at the request of the gov¬
ernment, voted in favor of spending twenty thousand pounds for a survey
of the proposed Uganda Railway by two hundred and eleven to one
hundred and thirteen.

Following this vote, the British Government despatched Sir Gerald
Portal to Uganda to determine what its future should be. In 1893, he
negotiated a provisional treaty with King Mwanga in which the King
agreed to a British protectorate should the British Government decide
to accept it. 6B

In his report, Sir Gerald expressed the belief that the chiefs in signing
treaties with the British East Africa Company believed that they were
placing themselves under the protection of the British Government. A
number of chiefs stated that they and their followers would leave Uganda,
should the British withdraw. The Commissioner discussed the possibility
of the Moslems of East Africa uniting with the Moslems at Wadelai and
the White Nile, in case British influence should be removed. He believed
that in this event, civil war would result and that some other European
government would take over the country. In view of these circumstances,
he recommended that the British Government consider the possibility of
establishing a protectorate over Uganda.

Accepting this advice, the British Government negotiated a new treaty
with Mwanga definitely establishing a protectorate. 70 In 1895, the gov¬
ernment finally decided to proceed with the construction of the Uganda
Railway, the survey of which it had authorized three years before. The
railway was completed in 1901. British troops now were engaged in sup¬
pressing revolts of the Sudanese troops which took place in 1897, and a
rebellion in which King Kabarega and King Mwanga both took part.
Mwanga was finally obliged to flee across the German frontier and was
eventually banished to the Seychelles islands. His infant son, Daudi Chaw,
was now put upon the throne, while the actual administration was entrusted
to a regency of three members. 71

In order to bring about order following these internal difficulties, the
British Government sent Mr. (now Sir) Harry Johnston as a Special
Commissioner to Uganda in 1899. In his report he declared: “The

* Cd. 6560, cited, p. 1. The railway now makes a large profit, cf. Vol. I, p. 5 “-

“Cf. Cd. 7303 (1894); British and Foreign Stale Papers, Vol. 85, p. 845; Sir
Gerald Portal, The British Mission in Uganda, London, 1893; and Hertslet, cited,

P ^Treaty of August 27, r894, British and Foreign State Papers, Vol. 86, p. 289.

” Cf. Chap. 32-

THE EUROPEAN OCCUPATION OF EAST AFRICA 283

natives, especially those speaking Bantu languages . . . should be assisted
and encouraged to govern themselves, as far as possible without,too much
interference on the part of European officials. The presence of this Euro¬
pean element in the Administration should be restricted as far as possible
to the administration of justice to foreigners, the collection of revenue,
the regulation of finance, the management of railways and steamers, the
supervision of public works, and the direction of scientific enterprise.

. . .” 72 Animated by these principles, Johnston negotiated the Uganda
Agreement of 1900, the terms of which are discussed in a subsequent
section.

Such is the history of the European occupation of the former empire
of the Sultan of Zanzibar—Germany and Great Britain now ruled from
the Rovuma to the Juba River and over the interior as far as the borders
of the Congo Free State. Some writers 73 have indignantly protested
that Germany and Great Britain “robbed” the Sultan of his kingdom,
and that they violated the independence of Uganda. As far as the Sultan
of Zanzibar is concerned, it is difficult to become aroused over the action
of these European governments in view of the fact that the Sultan was
as much an alien to the country as the Europeans, and that his chief
interest had been in taking out slaves and ivory from the interior, which
he did not, except for the slave routes, effectively administer. For at
least fifty years the British Government had attempted to secure the aboli¬
tion of the slave trade. But despite the profuse promises of the Sultan, he
seemed unwilling or at least unable to carry his promises into effect. With
the establishment of European control, the slave trade came to an end.

In his report on Uganda, Sir Harry Johnston asks the question: “Were
the natives happier before the British Protectorate?” He goes on to say,
“I know that it is the opinion of a certain class of thinkers and writers
in the United Kingdom that we have brought unhappiness on the black
and brown races by establishing over them our rule and our civilisation.”
But he does not believe that this was true, in Uganda at least, where
“prior to the assumption of British control the natives in many districts led'
a life of misery and woe.” Upon the death of a chief, it was the custom
in some tribes for warriors to slay all persons within a radius of two miles.
In many parts of the country, cannibalism and witchcraft made victims
of large numbers of people. The King of Uganda, Mutesa, “beheaded
his wives for forgetting to shut the door. Pages were horribly mutilated

” Report by His Majesty’s Special Commissioner on the Protectorate of
Uganda, Cd. 671 (1001), p. 13. Cf. also Sir Harry Johnston, The Uganda Pro¬
tectorate, London, 190:, Ch. 8.

” Notably Leonard Woolf, in Empire and Commerce in Africa, p. 247.

284

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

for treading on the tail of a pet dog.” The Uasin Gisjiu Plateau had
been completely depopulated by inter-tribal war. He concludes by saying:
“I believe I am stating the absolute truth when I sum up my impressions
by declaring that the natives are far happier and much better off materially
and morally by the establishment of British control over their
destinies. . . 74

The conditions which he describes prevailed not only in Uganda but
to a greater or less extent throughout the whole of central and west
Africa, before the European occupation. 75 These conditions have been
largely brought to an end by European control. Other conditions have,
however, been substituted: conditions imposed by the World War in
which thousands upon thousands of natives lost their lives—conditions
imposed in times of peace by European industry. Whether or not the
native is “better” or “worse” off now than in the old days is a question
which it is probably impossible to answer. It depends upon the point of
view. In any event, it is a question which can be answered only after
an examination of conditions which now prevail.

74 Cd. 671, cited, p. 17. It is in this report that Sir Harry Johnston calls the
Baganda “The Japanese of the Dark Continent, the most naturally civilised,
charming, kindly, tactful, and courteous of black peoples ” Ibid., p. 16.

75 Many accounts of these conditions have, however, been exaggerated. Cf.
Vol. I, p. 676.

CHAPTER 18

POPULATION—THE INDIAN QUESTION

Having traced the occupation of East Africa.by the European powers
and the fate of the Sultanate of Zanzibar, we shall now discuss in the
three following sections, the presert situation in Kenya, Tanganyika, and
Uganda. 1

I. Constitution

Before 1920, the territory now known as Kenya was called the East
Africa Protectorate. Established in 1896, its frontiers originally stopped at
Naivasha; but under the authority of the Order in Council of 1902,
the British Government transferred to East Africa the two provinces of
Naivasha and Kisumu from Uganda, the first of which included large
areas of plateau suitable for white settlement, and the second of which
brought the boundary of the protectorate to the shores of Lake Victoria
Nyanza. 2 Had these areas remained with Uganda, the history of that
native state and of the East Africa Protectorate might both have been
different.

Governed at first under a Commissioner responsible to the British
Foreign Office, 3 the protectorate was transferred to the Colonial Office in
1905. 4 In the following year, an Order in Council established an Execu¬
tive and Legislative Council, presided over by a Governor. Between 1906
and 1919 the Constitution provided that the Legislative Council should
contain an official majority together with three nominated unofficial mem¬
bers. Following a long period of agitation on the part of European
settlers, the principle of elective representation was finally recognized in
1919. 6 But the application of the principle was delayed several years on
account of the demands of the Indians and of the formalities connected
with the annexation of the territory. Some doubt had been expressed as

1 Uganda is placed last in order to group it with the native states rather than
with the white settlement colonies. Tanganyika, as we shall see, occupies a
middle position.

1 East Africa Protectorate, Ordinances and Regulations, 1876-1902, p. 150.

3 Cf. the East Africa Protectorate Order in Council, 1902, ibid., p. 5.

* East Africa Protectorate, Ordinances, 1905, p. 36.

“Legislative Council Ordinance, 1919, Ordinances, 1919, p. 26. A voter must
he a British subject of European descent. This Ordinance was validated by the
Letters Patent of September 11, 1920, ibid., 1920, p. 114, Part II.

285

286

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

to the legality of a legislative council having elected members and of the
land alienations of the British Administration, under a protectorate regime.
Moreover, a protectorate could not register its bonds under the Colonial
Stocks Act, thus making them available for investment by Trustees—a
fact which made it difficult to borrow money.. These different considera¬
tions led the local population to request the annexation of the territory.
In 1920, the Kenya (Annexation) Order in Council annexed the pro¬
tectorate except for the ten-mile coastal strip, 0 on the ground that “British
subjects have settled in large numbers in the said territories,” and changed
the name of the territory from the East Africa Protectorate to Kenya
Colony. 7 The final step in the constitutional development of the territory
came in the enactment of Letters Patent and Royal Instructions in 1922,
as amended in 1922 and 1923, which provide for a Legislative Council
with an official majority of twenty, together with eleven elected Europeans,
five elected Indians, one elected Arab, one nominated Arab, and one nomi¬
nated Christian missionary appointed temporarily to represent the interests
of the African community. 8 Both men and women vote for the European
members who are elected in eleven different constituencies.

Following a similar provision in the Southern Rhodesia constitution,
the Kenya constitution says that the Governor shall not assent, among other
types of legislation, to “any bill whereby persons not of European birth
or descent may be subjected or made liable to any disabilities or restrictions
to which persons of European birth or descent are not also subjected or
made liable.”

2. Population

In the population of this territory there have been three main elements
whose interests have frequently conflicted. The first has been the African
people, the number of whom was estimated in 1897 to he 2,500,082 by
Sir Arthur Hardinge—an estimate which applied, however, to only half of
the British East Africa protectorate. At that time the Commissioner
wrote, “It seems probable that the population of this part, at any rate of
the Protectorate, being composed of vigorous races, will especially, if they
continue to be protected by Government against the deteriorating and
destructive effects of alcohol, show in future a tendency to increase, now
that the inter-tribal wars, the slave hunts, and the Masai and Somali raids

• Cf. Vol. I, p. 269.

’Kenya (Annexation) Order in Council, 1920. East Africa Protectorate
Gazette, 1920, p. 1079. As a result of this annexation, the territory was there¬
after administered by the Crown by virtue of the British Settlement Act, 1887,
instead of the Foreign Jurisdiction Act of 1890.

8 Royal Instructions, ibid., Kenya, 1923, p. 983; also Legislative Council (amend¬
ment) Ordinance, 1924.

POPULATION—THE INDIAN QUESTION

287

which within a very recent period desolated the country almost up to the
sea-board, are suppressed by the establishment of a civilized Administration.
These in former days, combined with a foe even more difficult to conquer,
but whom improved communications and the advance of the railway will
make it easier for us to contend with, namely, famines* long kept the
population down; and I have heard it said, though I know not with what
truth, that the great famine of 13 years ago, reduced the inhabitants of the
present province of Sevyyidieh to about half their previous numbers.
Whether this be so or not, it is certain that the memory of that famine
is more deeply graven than any other occurrence in their recent history in
the minds of the native population. ...” 0

Some estimates placed the population of the East Africa Protectorate
in 1910 at 4,000,000. While these statistics are notoriously untrustworthy,
there is no evidence that Sir A. Hardinge’s optimistic prophecy about future
increases has proved true; on the contrary some students believe that since
the European occupation, the native population has declined by two-
thirds. 10 This estimate probably overshoots the mark. Nevertheless, prob¬
ably fifty thousand natives died during the World War, while one hundred
and fifty thousand died from famine and influenza in 1918-19. The
Chief Native Commissioner of Kenya is inclined to believe that the popu¬
lation “has lately shown a tendency to decline.” 11

A degree of support to this opinion is given in the following significant
statement of the Kenya Medical Department:

“Between 1904 and 1924 internal peace was given to the tribes of
Kenya; but at the same time economic changes were taking place and
development along new lines was in progress. Both peace and develop¬
ment were, in relation to the conditions which had previously existed,
more of the nature of shocks than of stimulants; the advent of external
war in 1914 postponed for at least a decade the devising or application of
methods whereby the results of these shocks could be controlled. Increase
of population between the years 1904 and 1924 could under the circum¬
stances hardly have been expected.” 12

* Report by Sir A. Hardinge on the Condition and Progress of the East Africa
Protectorate from its Establishment to the 20th July, i 8 q 7 , C. 8683 (1897), p. 25.

“Norman Leys, Kenya, London, 1925, p. 282.

n Report of the East Africa Commission, Cmd. 2387 (1925), p. 185.

“ Annual Medical Report, 1925, p. 15. The same Report also says, “On the
other hand it must not be forgotten that the period 1914 to 1924 was one during
which a number of severe strains were being experienced by the native popula¬
tion. A sleeping sickness epidemic had during the previous decade swept through
parts of the Nyanza Province, and its effects were probably still in evidence; in
1913 a severe epidemic of cerebro-spinal meningitis had taken a large toll of lives
in the Kikuyu Province; between 1914 and 1918 many thousands of natives died
on active service, while many others were more or less incapacitated; in 1918
influenza was responsible for a great increase in the death rate; while in 1919-1920

288

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

The Europeans constitute the second element in the population. They
increased from 3,175 in 1911 to 9,651 in 1921—a gain of 204 per cent. 13
By 1926, the European population had grown to 12,529—an increase
of 30 per cent which, in comparison with 1921, was regarded as “dis¬
appointingly small.” 14 All but six hundred and twenty-six of the
European population are of British extraction. 15

While the European population of Kenya is larger than that of any
British West Africa or East Africa territory, excepting Southern Rho¬
desia, it is smaller than the European population of former German South¬
west Africa, and of the Belgian Congo, and about equals that of French
West Africa and Portuguese Angola.

Out of the five thousand eight hundred European men in the colony,
about nine hundred are in the government service, and about 1,805 are
farmers; the remainder are in business and in other occupations.

Taking the territory as a whole, Kenya has a population density of
about eleven people per square mile. But this figure does not mean a
great deal, as about half of the territory, particularly in the northeast,
is worthless from the agricultural standpoint. A majority of the native
population lives in the two congested provinces of Nyanza and Kikuyu. 10

3. The Indian Population

The Indians, about thirty thousand in number, constitute the third
element of the population. For centuries India and the East Coast of
Africa have been connected commercially; in fact, the British first became
interested in this part of Africa because of their interests in India. Sikh
soldiers aided in the British conquest of East Africa, while at least
thirteen thousand coolies furnished the labor for the construction of the

there was a serious famine in many parts of the country. Plague also was spread¬
ing during this period, and the long epidemic of yaws was probably at its
maximum.

“Other factors which were probably not without effect were tolls exacted by
the necessity for Railway Construction, at a time when neither the experience nor
the machinery essential for the proper care of large bodies of inexperienced
labourers was available, and by the employment of bachelor labour in the
development of farms and estates. Nor can the heavy toll which is always
exacted as the result of the first urbanization of rural folk be left out of
account.”

13 Report on the Census of Non-natives, April 24, 1921, p. 2.

14 Editorial, East African Standard, August 28, 1926, p. 13.

“The European birth rate was 26.42 per thousand in 1921, and the death
rate was 9.32. While the birth rate about corresponds to that in England,
the death rate is a little lower. Comparisons are, however, misleading because of
the fact that the Kenya population is composed of a larger proportion of adults
and smaller proportion of women than that of England. East African Red Book,
1925-1926, p. 91.

18 Cf. Vol. I, p. 345.

POPULATION—THE INDIAN QUESTION

289

Uganda Railway. 17 The imprint of India has been felt also in the employ¬
ment of the Indian rupee which was the currency for East Africa until after
the World War, when because of the constant fluctuations in the value of
Indian silver, the shilling was substituted, and remains the currency to-day.
The imprint of India is also seen in the Indian Penal Code, besides other
codes which were early adopted by and which remain the law of East
Africa.

It appears, moreover, that more Indians enter the colony than Euro¬
peans. 18 Nevertheless, the Indian population grew less than the European
between 1911 and 1921—the increases being one hundred and eighteen per
cent and two hundred and four per cent respectively. 10 It increased eigh¬
teen per cent between 1921 and 1926, in comparison with a European in¬
crease of thirty per cent. About six thousand of the Indians in the terri¬
tory to-day were born in Kenya. At the present time, these Indians fall
into three classes: (1) clerks who work for the government, the railway,
and commercial firms, (2) artisans, and (3) traders. Although a few
Africans have opened shops, virtually all the trade in the native reserves is
in Indian hands. 20

4. Discrimination Against Indians

Disputes have arisen between the Indian population and the Europeans
upon four matters: (1) the reservation of the Highlands on the plateau
of Kenya to Europeans, 21 (2) restriction of immigration, (3) the com¬
mercial and residential segregation of Indians in towns, and (4) the
franchise.

As early as 1908, the Governor, Sir J. Hayes Sadler, proposed that the
uplands should be reserved for the whites, but that small allotments of
land should be made to Indian farmers in the lowlands—that is, in
the territory where whites could not live. 22 Lord Elgin, Secretary of
State for the Colonies at this time, confirmed this policy, saying, however,

”Report on the Uganda Railway, C. 9331 (1899), p. 20.

“The immigration figures for Kenya are as follows:

1924 1925

European . 3 . 4*2 4,212

Indians . 5.775 7,161

Colony and Protectorate of Kenya, Report for 1925 (Col. No. 1321), p. 8. The
government keeps no emigration figures but from shipping returns, etc., it appears
that a larger proportion of Europeans leave the port of Mombasa annually than
Indians.

“In addition to the Indians there are nearly 10,102 Arabs. Cf. Census, cited,
1921, p. 2.

“According to the census, 1301 are government servants; 2022 work for the
railway; 478 are farmers; 9373 are in commerce and industry. Ibid., p. 31.

“ Cf. Vol. I, p. 302.

28 Tenure of Land in the East Africa Protectorate, Cd. 4117 (1908), pp. 25, 33.

290 THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

that grants to Indians in the upland areas should not be barred by legal
restriction but merely by administrative convenience.

Carrying out these provisions, the Crown Lands Act of 1915 did not
forbid Indians from acquiring land anywhere in the territory, but it did
subject transfers of land between members of different races to government
approval, which is seldom given. 23 Moreover, in auctioning Crown land
in the Highlands, the Land Office makes it one of the conditions of sale that
the bidders must be of European extraction. 24 By this means it is made
impossible for Indians to acquire land in the Highlands. While in theory
they may acquire land in the Lowlands, they have acquired only twenty-
two square miles in comparison with the twelve thousand square miles
reserved for European farms. Whether this is due to the fact that the

land is unattractive or that the Kenya Indian is more of a trader than an

agriculturalist, it is impossible to say. 25

Because of an inferior standard of living the Indian inhabitants of
East Africa, many of whom are the descendants of the coolie class and are
therefore the less admirable representatives of the Indian people, live under
conditions which are frequently unsanitary. This fact was pointed out by
Professor Sir William Simpson in an investigation of sanitation in East

Africa, made in 1913 at the request of the Secretary of State for the

Colonies, who criticized the health conditions of the towns and trade
centers of East Africa and recommended that separate quarters be es¬
tablished for Europeans, Indians, and Africans. The Indian population
objected, however, to segregation based upon race, and to any restriction
of immigration which was then being considered.

As early as 1914, the Government of India impressed upon the
Colonial Office the principle that there was no justification for assigning

23 For two such vetoes imposed upon transactions between Europeans and
Indians, see Gazette, cited, 1919, p. 4; ibid., 1925, p. 1227. In 1919, a special
procedure was laid down for mortgages between two different races, which
required that the mortgagee promise not to foreclose without the written consent
of the land officer and not to sell property foreclosed except to persons of the
same race as the mortgagor. Ibid., 1919, p. 258.

The Land Tenure Commission in 1922 declared that this veto should be re¬
placed by a straightforward definition of racial boundaries, prohibiting transfers
between different races within such boundaries. Report' of the Land Tenure
Commission, Nairobi, 1922, p. 6.

There is an implied covenant in every lease to a European that he shall not
without consent of the Governor appoint or allow a non-European to be manager
of or otherwise occupy leased land. See para. 39, Crown Land Ordinance, 1915.

34 Gazette, cited, 1919, p. 636. In this particular case, the bidder had to be of
British extraction.

35 In Tanganyika Indians have entered agriculture in large numbers, cf. Vol. I,
p. 438.

It is understood that there is some good land on the Tana river where Indians
could grow large quantities of rice, and the settlement of which would not inter¬
fere with either natives or white.

POPULATION—THE INDIAN QUESTION

291

to the Indian population a status inferior to that of any other class of
British subjects in a Crown colony and protectorate in the administration
of which the local population had no control, especially in view of the
restrictions which the self-governing parts of the Empire had put upon
Indians. The interests of the Indians in Kenya should be, it believed,
especially considered in view of the historic relation between India and the
East Coast. 20

A rude shock to Indian susceptibilities came in 1919, when the Kenya
Economic Commission reported: “Physically the Indian is not a whole¬
some influence because of his incurable repugnance to sanitation and
hygiene. In this respect the African is more civilized than the Indian,
being naturally cleanly in his ways. . . . The moral depravity of the
Indian is equally damaging to the African. . . . The presence of the
Indian in this country is quite obviously inimical to the moral and physical
welfare and the economic advancement of the native.” 27

Despite Lord Milner’s disavowal of this statement, Indian feelings
were not soothed. A statement of the Governor in the same year that
while Indian interests would not be lost sight of, European interests must
be paramount in the Protectorate, did not pour oil upon the troubled waters.

5. The Franchise Question

Friction was increased by the passage of the Legislative Council
Ordinance 28 in 1919, which provided for a Legislative Council having
eleven European members. The original draft of the bill provided for
two nominated Indian members, but by the time the bill had gone through
the Council, all reference to Indian representation had been omitted.
In a despatch of May 21, 1920, Lord Milner issued instructions that the
Council should contain in addition to eleven elected Europeans 29 two
Indian members—elected by the Indian population as a group— i.e. upon
a communal franchise. He also declared that the policy of segregation for
sanitary reasons and social convenience would be continued and that the
Highlands would be reserved for the whites since unlike the Indians they
could not inhabit the Lowlands. 30 But he accepted the principle of limited
ownership by Indians of town lots.

28 Cf. the tribute of Winston Churchill, in My African Journey, London, 1908,
p. 49. Sir Frederick Lugard believes, however, that the Indians were confined to
the coast. The Dual Mandate in British Tropical Africa, Edinburgh, 1922, p. 318.

27 Economic Commission, Final Report, Part I, 1919, p. 21.

” Ordinances, 1919, p. 26.

28 Royal Instructions, XV. Ibid., 1920, p. 131.

30 Lord Milner’s declaration is printed in Government Notice, No. 281, Gazette,
cited, August 18, 1920. It appears that to obtain the consent of the Indians to
this arrangement, Lord Milner proposed to set aside Tanganyika for Indian
colonization, cf. Vol. I, p. 439.

292

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

These measures did not satisfy the Indian Government, pressed by
the Swaraj movement. Following the visit of Sir Benjamin Robertson to
East Africa, the Indian Government asked that Indians be allowed to
vote upon the same basis as Europeans upon a common electoral roll
subject to a non-discriminating education test. It also protested against
the segregation proposal. 31 It contended that Lord Elgin’s pledge in
regard to the Highlands did not prevent Indians from buying private land
held by Europeans.

As far as the European population of Kenya was concerned, the Milner
proposals were too liberal. The Europeans demanded the ultimate pro¬
hibition of Indian immigration into Kenya, and segregation both in regard
to residence and the acquisition of land; they were willing to grant to
the Indian population only two nominated members in the legislative
council . 32

In the meantime, the Joint Standing Committee on Indian Affairs
of the British Parliament accepted the principle that the Indians should
not be required to accept a status inferior to that of other British subjects
in Kenya, and that a Royal Commission should be sent to the colony to
investigate the question . 33

As a result of this discussion, the Colonial Office amended the con¬
stitution of Kenya in 1922 by providing for four nominated in place of
two elected Indian members. 34 But this did not relieve local Indian feeling
which, backed by India, demanded greater concessions. In the meantime,
the Imperial Conference in 1921 adopted a resolution in favor of the
removal of Indian disabilities within the Dominions. In 1922, a Kenya
deputation went to England. Finally the Wood-Winterton Committee,
appointed by the government in England to study the question, made a
report which provided for a common electoral roll and a non-discriminating
property and educational test, which would result in a ten per cent Indian
electorate and would give for the time being four seats to the Indians
in comparison with seven to the Europeans. But the official majority
would be maintained. While the report proposed to continue the policy
of excluding Indians from the Highlands, it opposed an embargo upon
Indian immigration and segregation. The authorities should, however,
enforce sanitary and building regulations. 35

31 Cf. despatch In Position of Indians in East Africa, Cmd. 1311 (1921).

33 Cf. the Memorandum by Lord Delamere and Mr. Archer, The Indian Prob¬
lem in Kenya, p. 10. The European point of view is also expressed in a pamphlet
by E. Powys Cobb, The Thermopylae of Africa, Kenya Colony, Nairobi, 1923.

33 Third Report, House of Commons, 177, 1921, Parliamentary Papers, Vol. VI.

34 Additional Royal Instructions, February x 1, 1922, Gazette, cited, 1922, p. 173.

36 Apparently this report has never been published; but its terms are summar¬
ized in the despatch, Indians in Kenya, Cmd. 1922 (1923), p. 7.

POPULATION—THE INDIAN QUESTION

293

When these proposals became known in Kenya, the Kenya European
population raised an outcry. They declared that the acceptance of a
common franchise, no matter what educational or property restrictions
were imposed, would eventually lead to an Indian majority in the unofficial
members of the council. It would thus make responsible government out
of the question. They did not demand the subordination of the Indians
out of consideration of European interests but because of the native who
should not become contaminated with the vices of Oriental civilization. 30
They declared that Indians had been disloyal to the Empire during the
World War, and that they were engaged in stirring up the natives against
the whites. One election manifesto declared that the great issue was
“whether Western Civilization, of which the religion and liberty and
ideals of the British Commonwealth are guiding influences, or the Civili¬
zation of the East is to be the inspiration of Eastern Africa.” 37 Most
of the European missionaries supported the opposition to the Indians out
of a belief that the native would be benefited more by the presence of
Europeans than of Indians. In the Legislative Council, Lord Delamere de¬
nounced the Colonial Office for instructing the Governor to postpone the
election of the European members, which he termed a “wanton and provo¬
cative action on the part of the Secretary of State.” He considered this
act to be illegal. If that was so, it was nothing but direct action on the
part of the Secretary of State, and there was no doubt that direct action
invariably bred direct action. The British people had always reserved
for themselves “the sacred right of resistance” if their rights were over¬
ridden by arbitrary acts. 38 Another member reminded the Governor of
George Washington, and hinted of the possibility of a Kenya-South Africa
republic.

At a mass meeting of settlers held in February, 1923, a resolution was
passed that the acceptance of the Woods-Winterton proposals would lead
to action “prejudicial to His Majesty’s Peace”; and a Vigilance Com¬
mittee made plans for a military government with a view to driving the
Governor out of power and establishing a republic, linked up possibly with
a republic of South Africa. A delegation of Kenya representatives actually
proceeded to South Africa. 39

Whether or not because of this opposition, the Governor of Kenya
protested against the Wood-Winterton proposals, although they had been

36 Cf. Vol. I, p. 331.

37 The Indian Problem in Kenya, cited, p. 57.

M Minutes of the Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Colony of Kenya,
1922 session, pp. 112-113.

“For their South Africa Manifesto, cf. The Indian Problem in Kenya, cited,
p. 118.

294

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

accepted by the Government of India. The H.M.S. Colombo dropped
anchor in Kilindini harbor at about this time.

6. The 1921 Settlement

Following the rejection of this report the Colonial Office proposed
that the Governor should come to England accompanied by a delegation
representing the European and 'Indian points of view. The delegation
was accompanied by Rev. Dr. Arthur, a missionary, selected to
represent native interests. A delegation of three Indian leaders also came
from India. These delegates discussed the question with London officials,
as a result of which the British Government arrived at a decision which
was set forth in a memorandum published in July, 1923.

In this memorandum, the government enunciated the doctrine that
the interests neither of the Europeans nor of the Indians but of the
Africans “must be paramount.” 40

Responsible government was out of the question for this reason. The
government did not believe that the Indians should be allowed to vote on
a common electoral franchise with the Europeans because this might lead
to elections being fought on racial lines. Therefore it decided that the
Indian representatives should be elected on a communal franchise— i.e.
the Indians should register as such and elect five Indian members to the
Council—a system which would permit a much wider franchise than would
be allowed if a strict educational test as a qualification for a common
electoral roll, should be introduced. No property or educational qualifica¬
tion for voters is now required. Members of the Council must, however,
have a knowledge of English so that they can take part in the proceedings
of the Council. This decision thus increased the number of elected Indians
from two to five, while it provided for one elected Arab in addition to
one nominated Arab, together with eleven elected Europeans, and an
official majority. Although ultimately the Africans might be given com¬
munal representation, for the time being the Governor was to nominate
a European missionary to advise upon native interests until natives became
fitted for direct representation. Indians continued to be represented on
the Executive Council, and they were also to be represented on municipal
councils. It had already been agreed that commercial segregation should
be discontinued. While residential segregation was regarded as absolutely
essential as a sanitation measure, it was to be secured by the rigid enforce¬
ment of sanitary police and building regulations, without any racial dis¬
crimination. In view of past pledges and policies, the government was to
maintain the existing restrictions upon the alienation of land to Indians
40 Cf. Vol. I, p. 381.

POPULATION—THE INDIAN QUESTION 295

in the Highlands, including transfers, but it was to reserve temporarily
an area of land in the Lowlands for Indian agriculture, provided it
could be set aside without infringing on native reserves.

While no legislation restricting immigration upon racial grounds would
be countenanced, further control over immigration in the economic in¬
terests of the native might become necessary in the future. 41

Legislation was subsequently drafted, it is understood, to restrict the
entrance of Indian immigrants; but so far no such legislation has been
enacted, and Indians may enter Kenya and Uganda to-day upon virtually
the same basis as Europeans. 42

While the European population of Kenya grudgingly accepted this
decision, it met intense opposition from the Indian population in Kenya
and in India. In retaliation, the Indian Legislative Assembly introduced,
debated, and passed a bill—all in one day—designed to regulate the entry
into India of persons domiciled in other British possessions. In proroguing
the Indian Assembly, Lord Reading, the Governor-General, declared that
the decision was a “great and a severe disappointment.” A large number
of Indians wished to boycott the Imperial Conference of 1923. 43

In Kenya, the Indian population showed its attitude toward the measure
by abstaining from putting forward candidates at the election of 1924.
Meanwhile, discussions were held between the Colonial Office and a com¬
mittee appointed by the Government of India. While the Colonial Office
informed the committee that there was no prospect of a common electoral
roll at any definite time, it was willing to adopt the expedient of having
the Indians represented by five nominated members. The Indian com¬
munity in Kenya accepted this arrangement. For some time the practice
was for the Indian Congress to hold informal elections at Nairobi, Mom¬
basa, and Kisumu, and the five Indians chosen in this manner were nomi¬
nated by the Governor. In 1927, it appears that the Indians finally agreed
to participate in the elections. 44 An Indian was also appointed a member
of the Executive Council. 45

Although the Indian question was not acute during 1925, it came to
the fore in the fall of 1926 when the Legislative Council accepted the
principle that each community should bear the expense of the education

a Indians in Kenya, Cmd. 1922, cited.

"Each immigrant may be required to deposit a sum which originally equalled
passage money home. This sum is naturally much less for the Indian than for
the European.

43 L. F. R. Williams, India in 1923-1924. Calcutta, 1924, p. 13.

** President’s Address. Kenya Legislative Council, East African Standard,
Supplement, March 12, 1927.

“Address of the Acting Governor to the Legislative Council. Ibid., August 15,
1925, p. 14.

296

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

of its children. Consequently, it enacted an additional Asiatic poll tax of
twenty shillings for the purpose of defraying the expense of Indian educa¬
tion. Instead of imposing a direct.educational tax upon Europeans to meet
the expense of European education, the Council adopted indirect taxes
on liquors and a domestic servant tax amounting to thirty-six shillings a
head, the weight of which, it believed, would fall largely upon Europeans.

A minority report of the Indian members of the Council declared that
direct taxation should not be applied to one section of the community and
indirect taxation to another for the same purpose . 46 The Indian Citizens'
Association at Mombasa also passed a resolution expressing its “great
resentment against the principle of discrimination in taxation between
different communities.” It further Submitted that “expenses incidental
to the education of children in this Colony should be borne by the State.” 47

Although the question of acquiring land in the Highlands is not of
practical importance since most of the land is already alienated, the Indians
do regard the question of franchise as a test of the sincerity of professions
made by the British Empire in regard to the status of equality which India
shall eventually enjoy. Consequently they intend, it is understood, despite
the present modus vivendi, to raise the issue of the franchise again in the
future.

* * *

It is difficult to estimate the actual influence which the Indian in East
Africa has upon native life and development. The Indian has lower
social and moral standards than the European, and he associates more on
a basis of equality with the native than the Europeans. The Indian
trader—who does not represent the best classes of India—frequently cheats
the native through shoddy goods or by short weight, but it is doubtful
whether he is worse in these respects than the European trader in other
parts of Africa. Already resenting these practises, the Kenya natives
are pushing a campaign to get the Indian trader turned out of the reserve.
Native traders are favored by the government inasmuch as it does not
require them to pay the ordinary license required of other traders. Indian
traders and artisans now perform work which natives in other parts
of Africa are learning to perform, and the presence of Indian competition
in East Africa may operate to retard native artisanship . 48 On the other
hand, Indian artisans have in some cases, unconsciously at least, instructed

*° Legislative Council Minutes, Ibid., November 13, 1926, p. 4. It was estimated
that thirty-two thousand pounds would be required for nine hundred and sixty
European children and twenty thousand pounds for 2318 Indian children.

47 The African Comrade, December 1, 1926, p. 14.

48 Nevertheless the railway workshops are now manned entirely by native
artisans, under European supervision.

POPULATION—THE INDIAN QUESTION

297

natives in the use of tools. The basis of native existence is not, however,
craftsmanship but agriculture, and the Indians have not taken lands
wanted by the natives nor have they converted natives into wage earners.
This has been due, however to the presence of the European government,
and not because of Indian wishes . 49 It is not improbable that the greatest
influence of the Indians in East Africa over the natives will be political.
As the Thuku instance shows, Indians may furnish leaders and funds
for native movements in the future . 50

49 Cf. the Indian requests in Uganda, Vol. I, p. 560.

60 Cf. Vol. I, p. 374.

CHAPTER 19
LAND HUNGER
I. The Highlands

One of the most important problems arising between Europeans and
natives has been in regard to land—a problem which has been accentuated
by the exceptional climate and geography of Kenya. The country falls
into two sections: The Lowlands and the Highlands. The Lowlands
extend along the coast and into the interior as far as Sultan Hamud
Station, 1 and into the northern part of the territory. Few white men have
wished to settle in the Lowlands because of the hot, muggy climate,
while they cannot profitably or pleasantly pursue agriculture in the semi-
arid stretches of the north, which have a rainfall of less than twenty-five
inches a year. 2 This territory covers an area of nearly two hundred
thousand square miles. The Highlands constitute a central plateau, with
an elevation of between four thousand and ten thousand feet. This part
of the country, broken by the great Rift Valley and a number of mountain
peaks, covers about fifty thousand square miles. Despite the fact that
these Highlands lie athwart the equator, they have such a high elevation
that a semi-temperate climate is produced. Snow can be seen on Mount
Kenya the year around.

When the white man first passed through this part of East Africa,
he saw vast areas of land parts of which were apparently uninhabited by
any native tribe. A Foreign Office Report in 1902 spoke of the protec¬
torate as having a “climate that is excelled by probably no other in the
world ... a rich virgin soil ... a good supply of cheap labor. ...” 3

Writing in 1893, Captain (now Sir Frederick) Lugard said that it
would fall to the special province of the local executive to “develop in
the highlands of Central Africa those European settlements which,” he
thought, would “rapidly arise around headquarters.” 4 Mr. (now Sir)

*At present, however, it is understood that white settlement is being actively
considered not only at Sultan Hamud but also on the Serengati plains, while there
are already a number of white residents on the plantations at Voi and Kilwezi.

2 Cf. Economic Commission, Final Report, Part I, p. 12.

3 Report on the Agricultural Prospects of the Plateaux of the Uganda Rail¬
way, Cd. 787 (1902), p. 6.

4 F. Lugard, The Rise of our East African Empire, London, 1893, Vol. II, p. 656.

208

LAND HUNGER

299

Harry Johnston, a special commissioner of the British Government to
Uganda, wrote that the Nandi Plateau was adapted by nature to be a
“White Man’s Colony” and “should be divided into estates of moderate
size and thrown open to settlement at the hands of natives of the United
Kingdom. . . He believed that this tract of land, “if it lay within
the limits of Australia, or a South African colony, would maintain a
prosperous European population of five hundred thousand souls.” 6 Sir
Charles Eliot, High Commissioner in 1901, called attention to the same
possibilities. 6

2. The Crou'ti Lands Ordinance, 1902

Settlers entered this country in the early nineties, and acquired land
either from the natives or from the East Africa Company, under Land
Regulations issued in 1897. Apparently the first official encouragement
of white settlement 7 came in 1902 when the British Government offered
part of East Africa to the Zionist Organization as a national home for
the Jews—an offer which was finally declined after protests from the
European settlers already in the territory. 8

The East Africa Order in Council of 1902 empowered the Commis¬
sioner to alienate Crown lands, and was followed by the enactment of
the Crown Lands Ordinance of 1902, which authorized the Commissioner
to sell land not in excess of one thousand acres, and to lease land for
ninety-nine years. The ordinance provided that upon termination of the
lease, buildings would pass to the government without compensation. In
every lease there was an implied covenant by the lessee not to assign
the land leased without the consent of the Commissioner. The admin¬
istration could impose development conditions. 9

White settlement definitely began in May, 1903. 10

As a result of advertisements in South Africa, a number of South
Africans bringing with them preconceived ideas in regard to native policy

8 H. Johnston, The Uganda Proteciorate, London, 1902, Vol. I, p. 299. At the
time this book was written, Uganda included the provinces of Naivasha and
Kisumu.

8 Report on the East Africa Protectorate, Cd. 1626 (1903), pp. 18, 30.

7 In 1893, a Freeland Association, having its headquarters in Vienna, unsuc¬
cessfully approached the East Africa Company in regard to a settlement in the
territory which it wished to establish along socialistic lines. Cf. P. L. McDermott,
British East Africa or Ibea, London, 1895, p. 363.

8 In the Gazette, cited, 1905, p. 272, this notice was published: “The Zionist or¬
ganization having refused the offer of land made to them by His Majesty’s Govern¬
ment in the Protectorate, the area which was reserved for them, commonly called
the Uasin-Gishu plateau, is now thrown open for colonization.” This notice was
temporarily cancelled a month later (p. 309) because of intended operations against
the Nandi.

8 Ordinances, 1876-1902, cited, p. 153.

10 Government Lands in British East Africa and Uganda, Return, 312, 1907.

300

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

soon took up their abode in East Africa . 11 To encourage settlement, a
number of free grants of six hundred and forty acres were made . 12

Despite official sanction for the policy of white settlement, the local
administration failed to prepare the way for settlers. Many who arrived
could find no hotel accommodation; no roads were in existence; and
“colonists went wandering about asking to be shown land which they
could take up and were unable to find it, in spite of the thousands of
square miles all around needing nothing but owners .” 13 Because of
the absence of a competent Government Land and Survey Department,
the government issued conflicting titles and otherwise produced confusion.

In 1904, Sir Charles Eliot resigned as High Commissioner because of
concessions made by the Foreign Office to a large syndicate having its
headquarters in London, which he had opposed.

In order to clear up the land muddle, the new Commissioner, Sir
Donald Stewart, appointed a Land Board 14 which came to be presided
over by Lord Delamere, a settler who has ever since been the leader in the
movement for the European occupation of East Africa.

After some study of the land situation, the Board, while it supported
the principle of beneficial occupation, recommended that the Crown Lands
Ordinance of 1902 be amended so as to remove the restrictions upon the
acquisition and transfer of property which had been imposed to prevent
speculation and monopolies. But the Board was of the opinion that these
restrictions impeded business which required the “greatest possible se¬
curity” to title and “the greatest possible freedom” of transfer. The
Board did not object to speculation, which, it said, “is, after all, only
a sign of activity,” and it considered that it was of greater benefit to
the country to “secure active life and freedom in business affairs than to
shrink from taking the necessary steps to that end for fear that over¬
speculation will be indulged in.” The Board believed that “the first object
of the Government must be to push speedy settlement.” 15

But the Colonial Office declared that any land legislation should
contain restrictions to prevent speculation, and to insure development.
In a despatch of March 19, 1908, Lord Elgin wrote: “The most im¬
portant point of difference was the question of the duration of the leases
and the conditions on which the lessees should be able to transfer their

11 Cf. a Report on the Pastoral and Agricultural Possibilities of the East Africa
Protectorate, by three South Africans, written at Krugersdorp, Transvaal, for
distribution among South Africans. In 1905, the Agricultural Department of the
East Africa Government also published a pamphlet on “Settlers’ Prospects.”

“Notice, Ordinances, 1903, p. 22.

13 Eliot, The East Africa Protectorate, London, 1905, p. 175.

14 Gazette, cited, 1904, p. 375.

“Its report is published in House of Lords Papers, 158, 1907.

LAND HUNGER

301

property. On the one hand, the settlers are naturally anxious that the
land on which they spend their labor should be a marketable and mortgage¬
able security. On the other hand, it is clear, looking to the experience
of other Colonies, that steps must be taken to prevent the accumulation of
enormous quantities of land in the hands of individuals through the opera¬
tion of free transfer, and also that the conditions of tenure must be such
that the Government may be able from time to time to obtain its share
of the unearned increment in the value of the land—that is, the portion
of its value which is due to the growth around it of an organized economic
and political system.” 10 He elsewhere pointed to the example of New
South Wales where, after pressure from colonists, the government removed
restrictions on transfer and acquisition, with the result that half of the
forty-two million acres which had been alienated by 1891 had fallen into
the hands of six hundred and seventy-seven owners, and only two per
cent of the land was under cultivation. This land policy obliged immi¬
grants to move into the cities.

While the Colonial Office rejected the Land Board’s proposal that
land should be granted on perpetual lease without reassessment of rent, it
gave up its demand for twenty-one year leases in favor of ninety-nine
year leases, at rents revisable on a basis of five per cent of the unim¬
proved value of the land. It asked that a land surtax be imposed to
check excessive accumulations in the hands of individuals. The Colonial
Office decided that the government should have the power to prohibit
absolutely holdings of more than one hundred thousand acres and that
provisions against “dummying” 17 and plural applications should be made.

Following out these instructions, the local government introduced into
the Legislative Council in 1908 a Crown Lands Bill embodying these
suggestions to take the place of the Ordinance of 1902. 18 But local
influence was so strong that amendments were inserted cutting away the

18 Tenure of Land in the East Africa Protectorate, Cd. 4117, p. 30. Inasmuch
as the government was partially barred from increasing customs duties because of
the Act of Berlin, it was all the more necessary to secure a revenue from the land.

"Dummying was a practice of obtaining grants through straw men. In exoner- '
ating Lord Delamere of the charge, the government defined the practice as “putting
in the names of female and other relatives in England who were not likely to
visit this country for land grants and obtaining from such relations, when the
grants were made, powers equivalent to complete possession, as means to exceeding
the acreage which Government was willing to grant to individuals.” Cf. Corre¬
spondence with the Government of Kenya relating to Lord Delamere’s acquisition
of land in Kenya, Cmd. 2629 (1926), p. 5. Kenya officials assert that only a few
cases of actual dummying took place.

18 Its text is published in the Gazette, cited, 1908, p. 544. By 1907, the adminis¬
tration had alienated in the form of leases 987,761 acres of land, from which it
received annual rents of 44,048 rupees, and it had sold 96,479 acres for 180,855
pounds. Government Lands in British East Africa and Uganda, H. C. Return
312 (1907).

302

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

provisions in regard to the revision of rents, dummying, and a land tax,
with the result that the law failed to receive the assent of the home
government.

In 1913, the Colonial Office gave way on the land tax question, but
insisted that leases should be limited to a term of ninety-nine years and
that the Governor should have power to veto transfers. A bill to this
effect, which also provided for auction in place of the former system of
individual grants, was introduced into the Legislative Council in 1913. 19

But the unofficial members of the Council again induced the govern¬
ment to accept amendments increasing the period of leases from ninety-
nine to nine hundred and ninety-nine years, and restricting the power of
the Governor over transfers to those between members of different races
—a measure designed to prevent the sale of land in the Highlands by
natives to Indians or Europeans. 20 Worn out by a struggle which had
lasted since 1905, the Colonial Office yielded, and the bill, as amended,
became the Crown Lands Ordinance of 1915. 21

3. Crown Lands Ordinance , 1915

Under this ordinance, leaseholds not exceeding five thousand acres 22
may, therefore, be granted for nine hundred and ninety-nine years, and
leases acquired under the 1902 ordinance may be converted into leases
held under the 1915 ordinance. The grant is thus virtually a freehold
except that the government charges an annual rent which is subject to
revision once every thirty years, and that the subdivision and sub-letting
of farms without the consent of the Governor-in-Council is prohibited. 23
The rent is twenty cents 24 per acre per year until 1945. Between 1945
and 1975, rent may be revised at the rate of one per cent of the unim¬
proved value of the land; between 1975 and 2005, at two per cent, and
for later periods, at three per cent of the unimproved value of the land.

Development conditions are imposed as on the next page.

“Additional improvements to the extent of fifty per cent of the above
figures under each heading are to be effected within a further period of
two years and the total development must be maintained for the remainder
of the term of the lease.” 25

10 Gazette, cited, Supplement, December 1, 1913.

20 Cf. Vol. I, p. 290. a Ordinances, 1915, p. xxii.

23 Holdings up to seventy-five hundred acres may be granted with the consent
of the Secretary of State.

23 Cf. Section 42.

24 The East African shilling being divided into one hundred cents. The 1915
Ordinance fixed the rate at ten cents but the pamphlet of the Kenya Land Depart¬
ment, “Land” places it at twenty cents.

* Land and Land Conditions in the Colony and Protectorate of Kenya, Land
Department, Nairobi, 1922, p. 8.

LAND HUNGER

303

Development conditions upon land in Kenya

Area of Farm

Minimum value of improvements to be
effected within the first three years
of the lease

Nature of
improvements

300 acres or

Shs. 20 per acre, subject to a minimum of

Permanent

under

Shs. 600

Over 300 acres

Shs. 6000 and in addition

Permanent

Shs. 4 per acre in respect of every acre

Permanent

over 300 acres

and

Non-permanent

At the present time, land rents bring into the local government about
fifty thousand pounds a year; in 1925, about three thousand pounds’ rent
from farmers was in arrears.

Despite the development conditions of the Crown Lands Ordinance
of 1915, only a small proportion of the land alienated to settlers is under
cultivation, as the following table shows.

Ratio of acreage under cultivation to total acreage occupied M

Year

Total

occupied

area

Total

cultivated

area

Percentage
cultivated to
occupied land

1925

4,420,573

392,628

8.88

1924

4 »* 92,73 *

346,988

8.28

1923

3 , 9 * 5 , 37 '

274 , 3*9

6.88

1922

3,804,158

234,055

6.15

On a basis of six acres per head for cattle and three acres per head
for sheep and goats, the land used for grazing purposes per occupier is
seven hundred and fifty-seven acres for cattle and three hundred and
twenty-six acres for sheep and goats. The average area under cultivation
is two hundred and thirty-two acres, making the total area developed
per occupier 1315 acres. 27 - At the present time, about 7,590,000 acres
have been surveyed into farms and are either alienated or available for
alienation. Of the surveyed land, only 5.235 per cent is being cultivated.
Inasmuch as all available Crown land will soon be taken up, new im¬
migrants will be obliged to buy land from present holders who, since
they are cultivating only a small percentage of their property, will be

38 Agricultural Census, Sixth Annual Report of the Department of Agriculture,
Nairobi, 1925, p. 7.

” Ibid., Table 1, p. 9. For the South Africa figures cf. Vol. I, p. 85.

304

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

glad to sell. Consequently, the present white population of Kenya is in
favor of immigration partly because it will increase the price of its land.
Under existing conditions, present owners will make profits not so much
out of productive farming as out of more or less speculative real estate.

Although during the World War land alienations were suspended,
the Kenya Government under the influence of a military Governor, Sir
Edward Northey, adopted a scheme of Soldier Settlement, by which some
two million acres of land in a thousand farms were allotted to ex-soldiers
in 1919. 28 A portion of the land was devoted to free grants, while the
major portion was surveyed into farms of between three hundred and five
thousand acres, which were sold at from three shillings to fifty shillings
an acre. 29 About seven hundred and seventy out of the 1,031 farms have
remained with the original allottees. Much of the land originally alienated
lay in the Nandi reserve.

Thus the settler population, after the manner of many pioneer popu¬
lations, has been interested in the acquisition of land as much for specu¬
lative as for productive purposes. The Kenya population, as this chapter
points out, has proved strong enough to defeat many of the proposals of
the Colonial Office aimed at insuring real development.

“The Discharged Soldiers Settlement Ordinance, 1919; Ordinances, 1919, p. 18.
Crown Lands (Discharged Soldiers Settlement) Ordinance, 1921; ibid., 1921, p. 1.

“According to a pamphlet of the Kenya Land Department, at the end of three
years, the allottee was allowed to apply for complete remission of the purchase
price. Land and Land Conditions in the Colony and Protectorate of Kenya,
1922, p. 9.

CHAPTER 20

NATIVE RESERVES

The land history of Kenya is important not only from the point of
view of the Europeans but also from that of the native inhabitants. The
total native population of Kenya, as has been stated, is about two and a
half million. More than 1,600,000 of these natives are found in the
provinces of Nyanza, Kikuyu and Ukamba. Part of this area lies in the
Highlands.

At the end of the nineteenth century, epidemics ravaged the country
which greatly reduced the population of the Kikuyu and the Masai—the
first a Bantu and the second a Hamitic people. Wars of the Akamba and
the Kikuyu against the Masai also devastated large areas which became
No Man’s Land patrolled by native sentries stationed to watch the
movement of the enemy.

Because of disease, warfare, and simple accident much of the High¬
land area of East Africa was uninhabited at the time of the entrance of
the Europeans. In 1902, Mr. Harry Johnston wrote, “Over tne greater
part of this extent there is not a single settled native inhabitant, no one
in the shape of a black man but a few wandering hunters. Consequently
we are committing no act of injustice toward an indigenous population
in offering this land to the British settlers.” 1

I. Native Land Rights

It appears that white settlers who entered the country in the early
’90’s purchased land from the native chiefs, who, according to some authori¬
ties, sold it, in many cases, in violation of native law and without realizing
the nature of the transaction. 2

In an effort to safeguard natives against improvident alienations, the '
South Africa Company in 1897 issued Land Regulations which stipu¬
lated that no such sale would be valid unless registered with the gov¬
ernment. The Company also recognized native rights by providing that

1 The Uganda Protectorate, cited. Vol. I, p. 299.

a In its petition to the East Africa Commission in 1924, the Kikuyu Association
said, “We wish to state most emphatically that no chief, headman or other person
has any right or has ever had any right, according to our customs, to arrange or
agree on his own authority to the transference of any land; that is a matter for
the owning families or individuals concerned.”

305

306 THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

no land cultivated or regularly used by any native should be alienated
to a European. 3

In 1902, the British Government issued an Order in Council which
authorized the Commissioner to alienate Crown lands, which included
“all public lands” subject to the control of or acquired by the British
Government. Although this definition did not state whether native lands
were regarded as belonging to the Crown, other provisions in the Order
declared that minerals in land occupied by “any native tribe” should vest
in the Commissioner “in like manner” as the minerals in “any Crown
Land”—a provision which made a distinction between native and public
land. 4 The Order granted the Crown power to alienate only the latter.

The Crown Lands Ordinance of 1902 (Section 30) provided that “In
all dealings with Crown land regard shall be had to the rights and re¬
quirements of the natives and in particular the Commissioner shall not
sell or lease any land in the actual occupation of the natives.”

The Commissioner could, however, grant leases of areas of land con¬
taining native villages or settlements without specifically excluding such
villages or settlements, “but land in the actual occupation of natives at
the date of the lease shall, so long as it is actually occupied by them, be
deemed to be excluded from the lease.”

The Commissioner could allot for the purpose of native settlements or
villages portions of the land so leased and when and so long as these
portions were so occupied, they were to be deemed excluded from the lease.

Any land within an area leased which had been in the occupation of
natives would, on ceasing to be occupied, pass to the leasor—a provision
which gave settlers an incentive to have their African neighbors moved. 5

These provisions seemed to ignore the former distinction between native
and public land. Nevertheless, the ordinance did contain certain provisions
purporting to safeguard native rights.

The next step came in the Crown Lands Ordinance of 1915 which de¬
clared that all Crown land, which included “all land occupied by the
native tribes of the Protectorate and all land reserved for the use of the
members of any native tribe” could be alienated by the Governor, subject
to certain restrictions. Similar provisions were inserted in the Kenya

8 In regulations of April 26, 1897, the Company provided: “Whereas certain evil-
disposed persons have been in the habit of acquiring land from women at inade¬
quate prices owing to the ignorance of the owners as to its true value, all such
transactions must be certified as fair and reasonable by a government official before
they are valid.” Ordinances, cited, 1876-1902, p. 35.

4 Sec. 7, East Africa Order in Council, 1902, Gazette, cited, 1902, pp. 249, 305.

0 As we shall see, the present tendency is to have them stay as squatters. Cf.
Vol. I, p. 325.

NATIVE RESERVES

307

Order in Council of 1920. By this series of enactments, the British
Government gradually dropped out the distinction between native and
public land, and the provisions originally inserted to give the natives some
protection against the encroachment of the European upon their holdings.

The administration did not, however, deliberately alienate all land
occupied by natives to Europeans. Perhaps the majority of land suitable
for European occupation was land which was not for the moment occu¬
pied. Definite conflicts arose, however, in the case of the Kikuyu and
of the Masai, who occupied attractive farming land. The policy of the
government toward lands in regard to which there was a definite conflict
of European and native interest has been described by the Kenya Missionary
Council as follows:

“Five or six years after the establishment of the Protectorate numbers
of European settlers began to arrive, and then the Africans were faced with
the surprising spectacle of extensive portions of their tribal land being handed
over into the newcomers' possession by the Government whose proclaimed
function was to ‘protect’ the Native peoples. Areas in the tribal lands of the
Kikuyu, Kamba, Nandi, and the Wanyika of the Coast were alienated in this
way. (We leave aside the controversial case of the pastoral Masai who
occupied their territories under conditions so different from the Bantu and
other cultivations beside). A show of obtaining the Natives’ consent was
made in some instances, but in reality no option was given them. Where
consent was obtained, it was given either under pressure or in want of
comprehension on the part of the people concerned as to what would be the
permanent effect of such consent as they gave. The Government went ap¬
parently on the mistaken supposition that the only land the people had any
real right in was the land actually under cultivation at that particular junc¬
ture, and, in Kikuyu, for example, such compensation as was given was given
upon that basis only: it was at the rate two rupees an acre. Those who with¬
held their consent or who demurred at remaining on the land as ‘squatters^
of the new owner had to take the alternatives of finding new homes and new
gardens where they could, in spite of the provisions of the Crown Lands
Ordinance 1902. Probably the above distinction between cultivated and
fallow land made by the Government helped to obscure in the Native’s
mind the fact that they were being deprived, not only of their cultivated
areas but of their fallow land as well. However that may be, and whether
or no a form of consent was given at the time, the fact remains that such
consent is repudiated by the Africans to-day, and they persist in describing
the act of alienation of the land as robbery on the part of Government and
settlers. They were not yet confident enough (the recollection of the peremp¬
tory enforcement of Government’s wishes in earlier days was still fresh) nor
sophisticated enough to make effectual protest against these transactions.’’

308

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

2. The Case of the Kikuyu

The situation in regard to the Kikuyu people requires more detailed
discussion. It appears that this interesting people, who include about half
a million souls, moved southward from the slopes of Mt. Kenya not more
than a hundred years ago. 6 The territory where they took up their new
residence—in the very center of the Highlands area—was at that time
covered with heavy forests which were occupied by a race of hunters,
called the Wandorobo, who were interested only in hunting and were
glad to sell vast areas of forest to the Kikuyu in return for agricultural
produce from the soil. Consequently, the Kikuyu are said to have actually
paid over thousands of cattle and goats to the Wandorobo for this forest
land which by the dint of hard labor they cleared for gardens. The
Wandorobo intermarried with the Kikuyu and for a time paid dowry
for Kikuyu wives in the form of forest land.

The land which the Kikuyu thus acquired by purchase was not held
communally but by a type of individual holding called Gethaka. The
original Kikuyu who acquired the land had too much to clear by them¬
selves. Consequently they allowed a number of other Kikuyu to settle
as occupiers. As a result of the combined efforts of these holders and
occupiers, the Kikuyu country has been stripped of its forests, and the
land is now covered with a patch-work of garden plots, owned by Gethaka
holders. In the course of time, some Gethaka occupiers arranged to pay
to the original holder a number of goats or some other compensation for
a portion of the land, whereupon they too became Gethaka holders. The
process of subdivision has continued until to-day it is claimed that there
are more holders than occupiers. Under Kikuyu law, no Gethaka holder
may dispose of any land to a non-Kikuyu. The holder is in practice the
“father'’ of the people living on the Gethaka, either as members of the
family or as occupiers.

When the Europeans came to the Kikuyu country, they found some
of the choicest land in the territory thus cleared by Kikuyu efforts. Partly
because of an inadequately organized Land Office, the government made
no inquiry into the system of tenure which prevailed nor of the circum¬
stances under which the Kikuyu had acquired the land. It merely in¬
structed administrative officers not to alienate land under actual cultivation.
They could, however, even alienate land under cultivation subject to a
payment of from four to six shillings to the cultivator driven off his

e Cf. M. H. Beech, “Kikuyu System of Land Tenure,” Journal of the African
Society, Vol. XVII (1917), pp. 46, 136. Also W. S. and K. Routledge, tVith a
Prehistoric People, The Akikuyu of British East Africa, London, 1910, pp. 3 ff.

NATIVE RESERVES

309

holding. According to one writer, “many hundreds of square miles of
land that had been purchased by the Kikuyu at a high rate, by themselves
or their fathers in some cases quite recently, became the property of white
settlers, who eventually got their title-deeds, without the rightful owners
even being aware, until much too late to be of use to them, that the prop¬
erty was changing hands. A glaring case in point is that of Headman
Koinange wa Mbiyu of Kyambu District. Although certain people who
were cultivating portions of his estate by the courtesy of members of his
family or himself did receive a few rupees compensation, neither he nor
any of his family even got one cent, and it was only when he was sent
for by the new owner and told that he must supply labor or leave the
property that he discovered that he himself was no longer its owner.” 7
Later, the government proceeded to establish forest reserves on land which
the Kikuyu had not cleared, without gaining their consent, as is done in
West Africa. The government now requires the natives wishing to gather
fire wood in these territories to pay a fee.

There is no doubt but that in the case of the Kikuyu, unlike the Masai,
the British Government was confronted by a highly developed system of
individual tenure, land held by Gethaka which had been actually pur¬
chased from its former owners—the Wandorobo—and which had been
cleared of forests by its occupiers. Kikuyu property rights appear there¬
fore to fall within the category of rights approximating European con¬
ceptions, which the Privy Council in the Southern Rhodesia case declared
should be enforced against the government. The courts of Kenya did, in
fact, enforce the claims of Gethaka owners against native trespassers. 8 But
in 1921, the Kenya High Court ruled that in view of the provisions of the
Crown Lands Ordinance, 1915, which declared native reserves to be Crown
Lands, and the Kenya Colony Order in Council of 1921, all land reserved
for the use of a tribe was vested in the Crown. Consequently, “All native
rights in such reserved lands whatever they were under the Gethaka sys¬
tem, disappeared and the Natives in occupation of such Crown land
became tenants at will of the Crown.” 9 The court would not therefore
assume jurisdiction in a dispute between two natives over the ownership
of land. Such disputes must be decided by the political branch of the gov¬
ernment, unhampered by judicial control. It followed from this decision
that as a result of the legislation cited by the court, the Kikuyu could
not sue the government for confiscating their property.

Nevertheless, the administration in 1908 seemed to recognize that an

7 Canon H. Leakey, Memorandum re. Kikuyu Land Tenure.

"Kabato v. Nago, East Africa Law Reports, 1920, Vol. 8, p. 129.

“Gathomo v. Indangara, Ibid., 1921, Vol. 9, p. 102.

310

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

injustice had been done to the Kikuyu when it ordered administrative offi¬
cers to make a list of all land belonging to the Kikuyu which had been alien¬
ated to Europeans together with the amounts originally paid by the Kikuyu
owners to the Wandorobo for this land. No further steps, however, were
taken. In a statement to the East Africa Commission, the Kenya Mis¬
sionary Council declared in 1924 that some compensation should be paid.
If the Kenya Government sees its way clear to investigate the facts and,
if true, to compensate the Kikuyu it will have gone a long way in clearing
itself of the charge that it has “robbed” natives of their lands for the
benefit of Europeans.

3. Gethaka Titles

Difficulties have also arisen over the nature of the Gethaka rights
as between the holder of the Gethaka and the occupier. It appeals that
originally the Gethaka owner received rent from the holder in the form
of fees, but he could not dispossess the holder. With the growing popula¬
tion of the reserves the Gethaka holders have in some instances lost sight
of their former obligations, while on the other hand the demand for land
has increased, and trespassing has occurred. The Gethaka owners have
attempted to have their rights enforced by the courts; but the courts have
ruled that inasmuch as the native reserves are Crown land, disputes over
the occupation of the land must be settled by the administration. The
Gethaka holders therefore believe that their position vis-a-vis native occu¬
piers is uncertain. Consequently they have repeatedly demanded that the
government issue them Gethaka titles. At one time the government agreed
to register Gethaka holders, but it appears that little has been done so far
to satisfy their demands. The administration has a delicate problem on its
hands because it must avoid the danger of placing the control of prac¬
tically all the land in the Kikuyu reserve in the hands of a special class
of landlords who, once in possession of a title, would feel exempt from
the obligations which the old native custom imposed—and would thereby
create a landless class. 10

4. The Akamba and the Nandi

The Akamba people also suffered from the European settlers’ invasion.
According to a petition submitted to the East Africa Commission, they
were deprived of about half the land which they claimed as their own.
The Nandi, a tribe numbering about thirty-one thousand people who are
related to the Masai, have received similar treatment. In 1905, the Nandi
10 Cf. the Butaka Controversy in Uganda, Vol. I, p. 594.

NATIVE RESERVES

311

rebelled against the Europeans, which was apparently caused in part by
European occupation of their lands. 11

Following this revolt, a Nandi reserve was provisionally laid out which
materially reduced the holdings of the tribe. Until the close of the World
War, the Nandi remained undisturbed. At that time, in order to carry out
the plans for Soldier Settlement, the Kenya Government alienated about
a hundred square miles of the reserve, apparently without the knowledge of
the Colonial Office at home. 12 But upon the protest of a newly appointed
Chief Native Commissioner, about half of the Nandi land was returned.
The remainder is now in European hands.

5. The Masai Move

The case of the Masai stands on a different footing from that of the
Kikuyu. While the Kikuyu had a highly developed system of tenure, and
were agriculturists, the Masai—a proud nation of warriors—have led a
wandering existence 13 and have therefore not developed any individual
or even family rights in the land. The Masai, a cross between the Africans
and the Galla people of the north, are headed by a Laibon or priest,
having powers similar to those of a paramount chief. While the men are
tall and slender, the women cultivate obesity, and wear immense coils
of iron around their necks, arms and legs. The people, not being agri¬
culturists, live almost wholly on sour milk, blood, and the meat of their
cattle. The natives are divided into clans, each headed by a chief. At a
very early age, children leave their parents and go to live in large huts
of their own. Following the circumcision ceremony, which takes place
at about the age of fifteen, the boys enter warrior villages where be¬
coming Murans they learn the arts of war and live together promiscuously
with the young unmarried girls. It is contrary to Masai custom for a
girl to remain chaste above the age of fourteen. The men remain as
warriors for a period of from seven to fourteen years and then go through
the septennial ceremony, after which the men may marry. 14 Before the

11 A semi-official writer, A. C. Hollis, in The Nandi, London, 1909, p. 1, says, *
“The Nandi tribe inhabited, until 1905, the whole of the highlands known as the
Nandi plateau. This country was roughly bounded by the Uasin Gishu plateau,
extending to Mount Elgon on the north, by the Nyando valley on the south, by the
Elgeyo escarpment on the east, and by Kavirondo on the west. Recently, as a
result of a punitive expedition, rendered necessary by the continued attacks of the
warriors of certain sections of the Nandi on the Uganda Railway and on inoflren-
'sive tribes, the whole tribe has been placed in a reserve somewhat to the north of
the escarpment which bears their name, and away from the immediate neighbor¬
hood of the railway.”

u Report of East Africa Commission, Cmd. 2387, p. 29.

13 Cf. Vol. I, p. 445.

“Sir C. Eliot’s introduction to A. C. Hollis, The Masai, Their Language and
Folklore, Oxford, 1905; also Merker, Dir Masai, Berlin, 1904.

312

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

coming of the Europeans, the Masai spent their time in plundering other
tribes.

When settlers first came to East Africa, the Masai roamed through
the territory now traversed by the Uganda Railway from Molo to Naivasha
and from Nairobi to Kiu. About 1890, they suffered from a double epi¬
demic of rinderpest and smallpox which greatly reduced their numbers.
The traditional enemies of the Masai—the Kikuyu and the Kamba—
took advantage of their weakened condition to kill off a few more. To-day
the Masai population is about forty-three thousand.

Upon being informed that the Rift Valley—the happy hunting ground
of this warrior race—was comparatively “unoccupied,” the British Foreign
Office granted a large concession there to the East African Syndicate—an
action which led to the resignation of Sir Charles Eliot, the High
Commissioner. 15

Inasmuch as the Rift Valley was the choicest land in Kenya, in order
to give a free hand to European settlers, the Foreign Office decided to
remove the Masai, placing them in two reserves, one to the north—on the
Laikipia plateau—and one to the south. In an attempt to forestall the
warnings of local administrators, 16 the diplomats of the British Foreign
Office, then in charge of the protectorate, ordered local officials to nego¬
tiate a “treaty” with the Masai gaining their consent to the move. This
agreement stated that the Masai would vacate the whole of the Rift
Valley which would be used by the government for the purpose of Euro¬
pean settlement. The Masai asked that the settlement in the two reserves
should endure “so long as the Masai as a race shall exist” and that
Europeans should not be allowed to take up land in the reserves. The
government agreed that a road half a mile wide connecting the northern
and southern reserves should be constructed. 17

As a result of this treaty, the Masai gave up more than half of the
land they had previously occupied with their herds. The separation of
the Masai people into these two reserves, aggravated by the failure of the
government to carry out its promise to construct the connecting road,

16 Cf. Vol. I, p. 300.

w Sir F. Jackson had declared, “The Masai will never give us serious trouble so
long as we treat them fairly and do not deprive them of their best and favourite
grazing grounds.” Quoted by G. R. Sandford, An Administrative and Political
History of the Masai Reserve, A semi-official history published by the govern¬
ment, 1919, p. 22.

Sir Charles Eliot had opposed the creation of reserves for the Masai on the'
ground that it would lead to stagnation.

17 The semi-official history of the Masai says that in approving the treaty the
Secretary of State “emphasized the fact that the definite acceptance of the policy of
native reserves implied an absolute guarantee that the natives would, so long as
they desired it, remain in undisputed and exclusive possession of the areas set aside
for their use.” Ibid., p. 25.

NATIVE RESERVES

313

led to discontent which was increased by the fact that the water supply in
the northern reserve located on the Laikipia plateau proved inadequate
for the Masai herds. This difficulty the government attempted to over¬
come by periodically enlarging the reserve to the south. Moreover, when
settlers became aware that the Laikipia plateau contained excellent farm
land, they demanded the revision of the treaty of 1904. After negotia¬
tions, the government finally gained the “consent” of the leaders of both
the northern and southern Masai for the transfer of the northern Masai
to the southern reserve. It appears that these leaders were more con¬
cerned about reuniting the tribe than about the question of land, which
the government agreed to extend. 18 But the Colonial Office telegraphed
that the Masai must remain in the northern reserve until a new treaty
had been made. 19 At this, the northern Masai frankly said that they
did not wish to leave the Laikipia plateau. These objections were later
withdrawn, and in April, 1911, a new treaty was made 20 in which the
Masai stated that they were satisfied that it was to the best interest of
their tribe “that the Masai people should inhabit one area.” For its part,
the government undertook “to endeavour to remove all European settlers”
from the areas which would be added to the southern reserve. As a result
of negotiations, the administration exchanged about six thousand five
hundred square miles of stock land in the southern reserve in return for
four thousand five hundred square miles of agricultural land, presumably
of much greater value, upon the Laikipia plateau.

In the meantime, a number of Masai who opposed the 1911 agreement
sued the state for injuries arising out of the move. They contested the
validity of the treaty on the ground that its signers had no authority to
enter into such an agreement, which was therefore void, and that the
1904 agreement consequently remained in force. They asserted that the
government became trustees of the Masai by virtue of the agreement of
1904, that the agreement of 1911, which was contrary to the 1904 agree¬
ment, was derogatory to the interests of the “cestuique trust,” that it was
obtained by duress, and that it had not received the approval of the tribe.

This argument was rejected by the Court of Appeals of East Africa
which heard it upon appeal. The court declared that inasmuch as the
territory had not been annexed but was merely a protectorate, the Masai
were not British subjects; that the heads of the Masai tribe were capable
of making agreements with the British Government; that the courts could

M House of Commons Debates, July 20, 1911, Cols. 1325 ff. Mr. Ramsay
MacDonald had vigorously opposed the move in parliament.

18 Correspondence Relating to Masai, Cd. 5584 (1911), p. 3.

*’The text of both the 1904 and 1911 treaties is printed in Sandford, cited,
Appendices 1 and 2. The 1904 agreement may be found in Cd. 5584, cited, p. n.

314

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

not inquire into the question as to whether these agreements had been
made under duress or under proper authority; and that acts of officers
taken to give effect to such treaties ratified by the home government were
acts of State over which the court had no jurisdiction. 21

Had the British authorities made a contract in 1904 with a European
settler granting him certain land, the contract would have been enforce¬
able in the British courts. But according to this decision, an agreement
made between the British authorities and the representatives of some
forty thousand natives was not enforceable by the courts. If the Masai
nation really had an international status as a state, no objection to this
decision might legally be taken. But in the case of East Africa, the British
had extended a judicial system throughout the country and it had erected
a Legislative Council, the acts of which the Masai were obliged to obey.
Their consent to these acts was as tacit and as fictitious as the consent
which Rousseau’s happy savage gives upon entering the social compact.
A few years later, the Privy Council decided that despite the fact that
Southern Rhodesia had never been actually annexed, it was in effect an¬
nexed to the Crown, because of the permanent occupation which had been
established throughout the country. 22 If the same argument had been
followed in the Masai case, the court would have held that in view of
the permanent European settlement in East Africa, it had become in effect
part of the Crown’s dominion, and that the Masai were therefore entitled
to the guarantees of British subjects. If the rights of the Crown were as
limited as this judgment implied, it would appear that both the Crown
Land Ordinance of 1902 and that of 1915 authorizing the alienation of
land were ultra vires. In the protectorate of Sierra Leone, it has even
been held that for the purpose of taking an oath of allegiance to the
Legislative Council and of joining the army, a resident of the protectorate
is a British subject. 23 Thus the Masai judgment appears to be incon¬
sistent with the opinion of the Privy Council in the Rhodesian case. 24 It
is a curious fact that both decisions conform to the interests of the
European instead of the native population. 24

Following this defeat, the Masai appealed to the Privy Council, but
the action lapsed owing to failure “to give security for costs.”

Having overcome these legal difficulties, the government now proceeded
to complete the Masai move. By April, 1913—two years after the treaty—
the Masai had been cleared out of the Highlands and sent below the
railway line. The government historian naively remarks, “The Masai did

21 01 Le Njogo v. the Attorney General, East Africa La<w Reports, 1913, Vol. V,
P- 70 .

Cf. Vol. I, p. 210. **Cf. Vol. I, p. 881.

14 For the same doctrine in the French colonies, see Vol. I, p. 1023.

NATIVE RESERVES

315

not, on the whole, settle down contentedly in their new surroundings and
they showed a disposition to make the worst of everything. Complaints
were incessant that the country was unsuitable for them and for their
stock, and every device short of active resistance was employed to obstruct
the Administration and to defeat the ends of justice . . . This

discontented feeling began to disappear some six months after the com¬
pletion of the move, and raids, murders, and stock thefts decreased in
number. Two years after their arrival the Masai could be described as
contented and happy in spite of their dissatisfied disposition.” 25 Two
revolts since then throw some doubt upon this optimistic afterthought.

As a result of these moves, the Masai were obliged to vacate the Rift
Valley, which is the most attractive part of the Highlands, and accept a
large reserve south of the Uganda Railway, one-third of which is unin¬
habitable. To quote the Masai history again,

“The wealth of- the Masai is entirely invested in stock, and is said to
amount to the colossal figure of 715,000 head of cattle, more than 2,000,000
sheep and goats, and 10,000 donkeys. This stock is concentrated in a reserve
of some 14,600 square miles in extent, of which part is waterless and unfit
for stock, and of which part is regarded by the Masai as unsuitable for cattle
owing to a suspicion of disease. These two actual and problematical dis¬
abilities combine to make the stock-carrying capacity of the reserve but little
in excess of what it carries at present, and it is maintained that, without the
provision of veterinary facilities, and without the undertaking of public works
toward the better distribution of the water, the reserve is now so full that
the annual death rate cannot be less than the annual increase, or in other
words, that the amount of stock owned by the Masai is now stationary.”*

Recently the Kenya government has acquired boring plants and, with
the advice of a water engineer from South Africa, it hopes to improve the
stock-carrying capacity of the reserve. While Governor, General Northey
promised the Masai a large strip of territory in the country of the Mau,
on the belief, which was apparently mistaken, that this territory had been
included in the Masai agreement. But despite the fact that this country
is remarkably fine wheat country, the government, over the protests of
various settlers, included it in the Masai reserve last year. The actual
capacity of the reserve will not be known until the boring experiments
have been completed, and this new land developed.

In passing judgment upon the Masai history, one must remember that
the Masai people had no fixed conception of property, and that they were
not agriculturists, but rather aimless and wandering pastoralists, owning
economically worthless but continually increasing cattle. Their military

* Sandford, cited, p. 36. * Ibid., p. no.

316

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

organization was a constant menace to other natives, while their warrior
villages were a corrupting influence inside of the tribe. Their case is there¬
fore altogether difficult from that of the Kikuyu who were settled
farmers, who had property conceptions approaching those of Europeans,
and who, in fact, had actually purchased their land from the Wandorobo.
It is only by becoming accustomed to a settled existence that the Masai
will be able to learn to improve the quality of their cattle.

The Kenya Government has made strenuous efforts to improve the life
of the Masai community. It has adopted the policy of gradually breaking
up the warrior villages which have proved to be centers of sloth and im¬
morality, and of transfering the power of the tribe to councils of elders.
These attempts have resulted in frequent outbreaks which have led to a
recent investigation by a committee of the Legislative Council. The Masai
are frequently offenders in cattle stealing and raids which the government
has occasionally punished by the imposition of collective fines. The adminis¬
tration has established a Masai school at Ngong and Narok which is at¬
tempting to give Masai youths a technical and veterinary education. At
Narok the Masai have been taught with great success how to prepare
ghee. The administration is also attempting to improve sources of water
supply. It appears that so far the Kenya Government has done more for
the Masai under its jurisdiction than has the Tanganyika Administration.

6. The Reserve Policy

Strangely enough, the government did not attempt to gain the consent
of the other tribes in alienating their lands as it did in the case of the
Masai. Nevertheless, the early administration did realize the necessity
of making provision for the natives; and after some discussion, it was
finally decided to follow the policy of native reserves. This idea, which
was apparently first considered in connection with the Masai move of
1904, was discussed by the Delamere Land Board of 1905. This board
declared itself in favor of a policy of having a few reserves, large in
extent, and far removed from centers of European population, instead
of more numerous and smaller reserves, as some people advocated, scat¬
tered up and down the country. The Board shrewdly pointed out what
has now begun to happen; namely, that “Should the main body of the tribe
living within the reserve increase and overflow its boundaries, such over¬
flow would be available to meet the demands of the general labour market
of the country.” 27

The Board believed that as far as possible reserves should be marked
37 Cf. Vol. I, p. 300.

'NATIVE RESERVES

317

out before the country was opened to white settlement. It declared:
“Ever} one is of one opinion in agreeing that once the Government has
given its word to the native in fixing a reserve that the reserve so fixed
should be absolutely inviolable. It therefore becomes of all the more im¬
portance that the greatest care and forethought should be taken to prevent
any subsequent interference with an area which has once been fixed by
the Government as a reserve.”

It did not believe that the government should recognize any native
rights in the land inasmuch as the agricultural natives lay “claim to no
more than a right of occupation.” The government was the owner of all
land not held under title, whether occupied or not, and the only restriction
upon the exercise of its rights over the land was that should the govern¬
ment “for any cause remove or consent to the removal of natives from any
particular area or district it would remain an obligation of the first im¬
portance” on it “to see that the natives so removed obtained an equivalent
area for their maintenance elsewhere.” 28

Acting upon this theory, the government proceeded to alienate land,
particularly in the Kikuyu area, which the natives claimed as their own,
and paid compensation only to the actual occupiers for land at the moment
under cultivation. In the meanwhile, it proceeded to delimit reserves, the
first two of which were the Masai reserves, and the third of which was
the Nandi reserve. 20 In 1907, 1910, and 1912 the government Gazette
published descriptions of boundaries of certain reserves. 30 The proposed
Crown Lands Bill of 1908 (article 85) authorized the Governor to reserve
land which in his opinion was required for the use or support of the
members of the aboriginal native tribes. But he could cancel such reserva¬
tions if he thought the land was not thus required. He was also author¬
ized to appoint trustees to watch over land “dedicated” to native tribes.
Despite the fact that this bill did not become law, the government pro¬
ceeded to carry out the reserve principle, until the passage of the Crown
Lands Ordinance of 1915. While the ordinance empowers the Governor
to alienate Crown land, including land occupied by natives, it lays upon
him the duty of reserving from alienation any “Crown Land which in his
opinion is required for the use or support of the members of the native tribes
of the Protectorate.” 31 Such reserves shall be published in the Gazette.

n Report, cited.

“The Gazette, cited, 1907, p. 287, says, “The following boundaries of the Nandi
Reserve as accepted by the chiefs of the tribe at the close of the punitive operations
in 1906 are published.”

s “ Ibid., 1907, p. 348; ibid., 1910, p. 298; ibid., 1912, p. 1010.

Such reservation shall not confer upon any tribe or member of any tribe any
right to alienate such land.

318

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

But the Governor if satisfied that the whole or any part of such land “is
not required for the use and support” of the natives may cancel the
reserve, whereupon it may be sold. But he can take no action cancelling
a reserve “unless the approval of the Secretary of State shall have been
first obtained.” The ordinance omits the provision for the establishment
of trust boards contemplated in the Land Bill of 1908.

7. The European Opposition to Reserves

It has been the attitude of many Europeans that the land reserved for
the natives is much too large for their use, that the land is not being
cultivated, and that it should therefore be taken away.

In 1913, a Native Labor Commission, appointed to discover new
sources of labor, declared that while it did not have sufficient information
to decide “whether the demarcated Reserves are too large, there seems to
be a general opinion in the country that this is the case.” The com¬
mission therefore recommended that (a) “the undemarcated Reserves be
demarcated with a view to reserving sufficient land for the present popula¬
tion only . . . [my italics]; (b) if the Reserves already demarcated are
found to contain land in excess of that required for the present population,
these boundaries be revised in accordance with this principle.” 32 In
1919, another Commission, composed of settlers, reported that the reserves
should be thrown open for European settlement. “Interpenetration” should
be permitted. What especially aroused the ire of this body was a state¬
ment of the Chief Native Commissioner that he did not see “why a native
should turn out to work for Europeans if he wanted to develop his own
land.” The Commission declared that the reserves should no longer be
considered as sacrosanct, since the “natives can only stagnate under a
regime of universal peasant proprietorship.” 33

In 1919, a Land Settlement Commission, appointed to consider plans
for the allocation of lands to ex-soldiers, recommended that land in the
Kikuyu reserve, extending for ten miles on each side of the Uganda Rail¬
way, together with other lands, should be opened for alienation. 34

In his address to the Legislative Council in 1919, Governor Northey
declared, “No one wants to take away any land that natives occupy or
are using productively, but we can say, in these days of productivity and

The Governor may exclude from lands reserved land which may be required
for roads, railways, public buildings, trading centers, etc., or for any other public
purpose, without paying compensation except for buildings and crops destroyed or
damaged.

33 Report of the Native Labour Commission, 1912-1913, Nairobi, p. 326.

83 Economic Commission, Final Report, Part I, 1919, p. 19 .

34 Report of the Land Settlement Commission, 1919, Nairobi, p. 5.

NATIVE RESERVES

319

development, and world-wide shortage of food and raw materials, that
Crown lands not made productive, may, by law, be made so as required.”
While he was opposed to alienating a ten-mile strip along the railway to
settlers he said, “You can in future probably quite rightly, after survey
and regulations and careful enquiry, say, here and there is a portion of
the country above and beyond all that the Kikuyu have right to, or are
using, making full allowance for commonage and grazing which at present
is lying waste and unproductive; the government can take it for whatever
development they like with a clear conscience before the whole world,
and to the entire satisfaction of the natives who will know once and for all
how they stand.” 35

In 1920, the Land Tenure Commission, composed of ten unofficial and
four official members, was appointed to look into the operation of the
Ordinance of 1915 and other land matters. Under the heading of “The
principles to govern the delimitation of Native Reserves,” it declared:

“It is not apparent what has been the principle in the past in determining
the actual alignment of the boundaries of Native Reserves. Possibly it has
been a mixture of administrative convenience at a time when white settlement
was embryonic, and of actual native occupation, whether nomadic or permanent.

“It is clear, however, that the boundaries of native reserves should be
clearly defined and adhered to on a just principle; and by our terms of
reference, we are concerned with this principle of delimitation and the method
of settlement. Briefly, we state this principle to be one which should be
based on beneficial occupation and the needs of each tribe as they at present
exist together with a sufficiency for the estimated increase in the next
generation. . . .

“In considering the present needs of each tribe, we are faced with the
problems of the increase of population, the waste of land owing to primitive
methods of cultivation, large tracts of agricultural land being used for pastoral
purposes, and the existence of large waterless areas. In view of the fact
that the Reserves are limited, we consider that Government is committed to
a policy of ensuring a better use of the land within the boundaries, and this
policy we think should take the form of educating the natives to improved
methods of intensive cultivation, by which means expansion can be provided
for within the Reserves for many generations, once the boundaries have been
established on the principle already referred to.

“With regard to agricultural land being used for grazing, we think that
it would be impossible to convert the tribe from pastoral habits to agricultural
habits in a short space of time, so that it becomes necessary to allow them
to continue in occupation of the land. . . .

“To consider the most effective use of land, to improve the capabilities of

** Proceedings of the Legislative Council, first session, 1919, p. 2.

320

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

land by providing or increasing a water supply, and to define the present
needs of the native, would properly be functions of a Native Trust.

“We consider, therefore, that a Native Land Trust should be established.
This Trust should have considerable powers, and should administer the trust
funds derived from the Reserves. . . . The Trust should have power to grant
leases for land in Reserves to non-natives, without reference to the Secretary
of State, the governing principle of such alienation being direct benefit to
the native and the treatment of native produce, being designed to cover such
purposes as posho mills and sugar factories. . . . 39

. . In our opinion the time has now come when every scrap of land to
which the agricultural development of the country could be extended should
be earmarked and made available for future alienation.” 37

This proposal thus advocated the theory of beneficial occupation and
the delimiting of land sufficient for the present and the next generation
of natives. In the 1924 session of the Legislative Council, Lord Delamere
declared, “All the land in the world had to be put to the best use and in
the Kikuyu country they had one of the richest areas in the world, only
one-third of which was being used owing to the system of cropping and
fallowing which the natives followed. That was a matter that had to be
gone into. By land taxation or by other means people in the world were
being expected to use their land and the native had that responsibility as
much as anyone else.” 38 At the same meeting, Dr. Arthur, the missionary
appointed to represent native interests, declared, as quoted in the Minutes,
that “he was convinced there was nothing in the country that gave rise
to unrest among the natives more than the insecurity of their land It
was extraordinary that the country had existed all these years without
trouble from the native peoples to any great extent. He knew it to be
a fact that in the minds of the Kikuyu there was a constant uncertainty
regarding their land. ... So far as the Kikuyu country was concerned there
was a great deal of hardship owing to the fact that the cattle had to be
grazed in areas some distance from where the people resided, and in times
of sickness and so far as their children were concerned they suffered from
their inability to get milk.” 39

The encroachment of the government upon the lands of the Masai,

36 The Secretary of State authorized short leases for such purposes, Despatch
1315, 1921.

37 Report of the Land Tenure Commission, 1922, p. 2.

38 The relation between cutting down the reserves and the labor supply is
shown in Vol. I, p. 323.

“This discussion arose out of a statement of the Land Officer that the Govern¬
ment had agreed to exchange, without auction, large holdings of land on the coast
owned by the East African Estates and other large corporations—for smaller areas
in the Highlands. For the Minutes, see East African S'andard, Supplement,
September 20, 1924.

NATIVE RESERVES

321

Kikuyu, Kamba, and Nandi peoples, the enactment of the Crown Lands
Ordinance of 1915, which declared native lands to be Crown lands that
the government could alienate if they were not used, the decisions declaring
natives to be “tenants at will”, the declarations of the Labor, Economic,
Land Settlement, and Land Tenure Commissions all to the effect that
impliedly at least, the reserves should be reduced, the failure of the gov¬
ernment to gazette the reserves until 1926, all produced a widespread feel¬
ing of insecurity and unrest among the native people in Kenya, which was
one of the causes of the Thuku movement discussed elsewhere. 40

8. Guarantees

The first step in allaying this feeling of insecurity was taken by the
government in October, 1926—nine years after the enactment of the
Crown Lands Ordinance, when it finally proclaimed the twenty-three
native reserves. 41 Thus gazetted, they may be alienated by the local gov¬
ernment only after obtaining the prior consent of the Secretary of State.

Meanwhile, the natives have learned to put their trust in judicial rather
than executive guarantees. They have demanded some form of collective
title for the reserve which the courts will enforce against administrative
encroachments.

The district commissioners, in a meeting at Fort Hall, declared that
some documentary evidence should be given the Kikuyu people that they
owned their land; which “will help to restore a feeling of security,” which
is of “urgent necessity” and “of more value than any temporary financial
benefits which might accrue from the leasing of native land against the
native’s consent.” The different native associations presented vigorous
petitions to the East Africa Commission making the same demand.

In an effort to meet these demands, the Governor, Sir Robert Coryn-
don, proposed that land boards composed of officials and native representa¬
tives should be established in each reserve. The Governor should be allowed
to lease lands within the reserves to Europeans with the consent of these,
boards and subject to the consent of the Secretary of State. The East
Africa Commission declared, however, that such proposals “would not com¬
pletely allay the feeling of insecurity which now exists.” The Commission
proposed that either an ordinance or Order in Council should be enacted,
*Cf. Vol. I, p. 374-

The Nyika reserve was gazetted in 1916. In 1926 the boundaries of
twenty-four reserves were definitely published. Gazette, cited, October 13, 1926,
pp. 1195-1238.

During the preceding six years, the government had provisionally published
boundaries for criticism. Cf. the proposed boundaries of the Masai reserve,
ibid., 1920, p. 533.

322 THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

defining the status of native lands. It recommended the establishment of
a trust board in which title to all such lands should be vested. It did not
agree that alienations of lands in the reserves should be allowed; but
certain leases should be authorized.

It is doubtful whether these trust boards will give the natives as secure
a protection as the simple declaration of the Secretary of State that it is
not the policy of the government to alienate land in the reserves except
for trading sites. There is a danger that by gaining control of these
trust boards through direct or indirect means, settlers may persuade the
Secretary of State to give his consent to the alienation of land in the reserve
which he would otherwise oppose. There is little doubt but that this pres¬
sure to cut into existing reserves will be exerted in the future as it has been
in the past.

9. The Adequacy of the Reserves

Since the Europeans entered Kenya following a period of epidemics
and inter-tribal wars which had greatly reduced native populations, the
land which the tribes occupied was much smaller than the land which
they would have occupied if these epidemics had not occurred, and which
they would have occupied later had not the Europeans entered the territory.
Nevertheless, the Kenya reserves to-day are for the most part based on the
land occupied by the natives at the time the Europeans entered. At the
same time, it must be remembered that the native population will increase
in the future, and that while in Uganda and in Tanganyika the native may
gradually expand the area of the land which he uses in proportion to this
increase, the native in Kenya may not do this, being limited to the reserves.

The Kenya reserves as compared with those of South Africa and
Rhodesia are as follows:

NATIVE RESERVES

In Union of South Africa, Southern Rhodesia and Kenya

Territory

Reserves
(Sq. Miles)

Total

Native

Population

Density
per Sq. Mile

Acres per
Native
Inhabitant

South Africa.

43,611

4 . 953.743

” 3-7

5.6

South Rhodesia .

33.742

862,319

25-5

25.0

Kenya, exclusive of Masai

Reserve .

32,237

2.5.7,983

78.0

8.2

Kenya including Masai Re-

serve .

4^.837

2,560,983

54-7

11.7

Exclusive of the immense Masai reserve which is inhabited by only
forty-three thousand people, the Kenya reserves contain 8-3 acres per in-

j NATIVE RESERVES

323

habitant in comparison with 5.6 acres in South Africa. While the Kenya
Government has set aside some of the best land in the country in the
Kikuyu and Kavirondo reserves, the actual amount of cultivable ground is
much less than 8.2 acres per capita because perhaps a quarter of the area
of the Kenya reserves consists of mountains, water and arid regions un¬
suitable for cultivation. If the population of Kenya increases as a result
of improved medical facilities, it will probably be a matter of only twenty-
five years when the Kenya native will experience the land shortage which the
native of South Africa is experiencing to-day. Many natives will therefore
be obliged to take up their residence outside of the reserves.

The value of the commercial exports of the reserves now barely equals
the native taxes. In order to pay these taxes and to buy the necessities
of life, it appears that most native men must supplement their earnings
in the reserves by wages obtained outside. 42

The reserves set aside for the Kikuyu and Kavirondo people, which
contain the majority of the native population, are also over-populated. A
District Commissioner testified in 1919 that the density of population in
Kikuyu reserve land between Nairobi and Limoru was about four hundred
to the square mile, and that the population was increasing there. “This
density of population is from five to seven times as great as in the South
African Reserves where they are increasing the native holdings. . . .” 43
In the Nyeri and Fort Hall reserves, the population density is about
two hundred and twelve per square mile; in the Central Kavirondo reserve
it is about one hundred and sixty-five; in the Bunyoro section of north
Kavirondo, it reaches eleven hundred. 44 These density figures exceed those
of many South African reserves. 45

The Native Affairs Department is of the opinion that the Lumbwa
and Nandi reserves are already over-populated; that the Akamba reserve is
largely waterless; and that the Eldama Ravine, Kabarnet, Marakwet,
Elgeyo and Suk reserves are already inadequate for the present needs of
the population. 46

0 Cf. Vol. I, p. 393.

45 Report of the Land Settlement Commission, 1919, p. 12.

44 Cf. the population density figures in The East African Red Book for 1925-
1926, p. 87.

46 Cf. Vol. I, p. 77.

44 In a speech at Falmouth, England, in 1927, Sir Edward Grigg, Governor of
Kenya, is reported as follows: “If the native had not sufficient land to cultivate he
would then be subject to indirect compulsion and as his numbers increased com¬
pulsion of course would grow. The first principle of policy therefore was to make
native reserves of sufficient area to provide for the natural development of each
tribe and to secure them for ever to the natives in the firmest possible way. This
had been done in Kenya and the native reserves had been delimited. He believed
them to be ample in area for future native needs. . . .” East African Standard,
April 30, 1927, p. 16 B.

324

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

The general land situation in Kenya in 1925 was as follows:

Land Situation in Kenya —1925

Square Miles

Turkana and Northern Frontier Province 1 . 102,595

Total Area of Native Reserves excluding Turkana and N. F. P. 47,031

Total Land alienated or available for alienation to Europeans. 11,859

Forest Reserves . 2,980

Balance of land 2 . 39,772

Total area of Colony and Protectorate (less Jubaland). 204,237

1 Most of this area is uninhabitable.

2 Includes freehold land in Protectorate, forests not included in Forest Reserves,
Game Reserves and Waterless Lands.

In the Highland area 3,258 square miles are in European occupation
while 7,654 square miles are in native occupation. In the Lowlands and
Coast the Europeans and Asiatics occupy 272 square.miles.

At the present time, the average European farmer occupies about five
hundred acres of land in comparison with the eight acres held by the
average native. He justifies this discrimination on the ground that he,
the European, makes use of his land, while the native does not. But the
census returns, quoted above, show that the European in Kenya to-day has
only nine per cent of occupied land under cultivation. Settlers and some
officials have asserted that if the native does not put his land to better use
it should be taken away and given to the white man. But in view of the
over-crowding of the reserves and communal land tenure, it is very difficult
for one native to improve his land because of cross-fertilization and the
encroachment of his neighbor’s cattle. It is now impossible for a native
to obtain an individual title to land within the reserve, and practically
impossible for him to fence land to keep his neighbor’s cattle out. Like¬
wise, it is difficult for him to improve his agricultural methods when he
spends half of the year outside of the reserves at work on European farms.
On the other hand, even if a native has the wherewithal, he finds it im¬
possible to purchase land outside the reserve from the government which
restricts the sale of Crown land to Europeans, or to purchase land from a
settler, inasmuch as the governor has the power to veto transfer of land
from one race to another. Under the circumstances, it is doubtful whether,
especially in view of the increased population which an improved medical
service should bring about, improved agriculture in the reserves will relieve
the land problem.

Despite the fact that the reserves are inadequate, it does not appear that

It is evident that the Governor has been seriously misinformed as to the ade¬
quacy of the Kenya reserves.

NATIVE RESERVES

325

the government has any intention of increasing them. 47 European settlers
are urging that all available Crown land should be alienated immediately
in order to forestall such increases—a demand which the government has
partially, at least, accepted. Both in Rhodesia and in South Africa, the
native may purchase land outside of the reserves; but in Kenya this is im¬
possible under the present system of land administration. If Kenya does
not wish to gain the reputation of being more illiberal in her land policy
than South Africa, she should make it possible for natives, whether indi¬
vidually or through their native councils, to purchase land in certain outside
areas. 48

IO. Squatters

Thus the native population of Kenya is confined to reserves occupying
about fifty thousand square miles. A native family cannot, moreover,
move out of the reserve on to unalienated Crown land. Under the Native
Authority Ordinance, 1910, 49 a district official, when satisfied that any
native, a member of a tribe or community for whose occupation land has
been reserved, is cultivating or occupying unalienated Crown land outside
the lands so reserved, may order such native to move back into the reserves.
Such orders are now rigidly given, inasmuch as natives in Crown land
frequently steal stock and escape European control.

Of more importance, in view of the fact that most of the desirable
Crown land is alienated, is the position of natives living on European
farms. Because of the impossibility of cultivating all of their holdings,
Kenya farmers, like their brothers in South Africa and Rhodesia, at one
time allowed natives to squat on the land upon a crop share or cash-rent
basis. This practice, called “Kafir farming,” was condemned by the
Native Labor Commission in 1913, as being wrong in principle and detri¬
mental to the labor supply. 50

Acting upon the Commission’s recommendations, the government passed
the Resident Natives Ordinance 51 in 1918, the preamble of which declared
that “it is desirable to encourage resident native labour on farms and to
take measures for the regulation of the squatting or living of natives in

"Under the Crown Land (Amendment) October 1926, the Governor in Council
may, however, by notice in the Gazette declare that any area of Crown land shall
be included in the native reserves.

48 Cf. Vol. I, p. 82. * Ordinances, 1910, p. 96, sec. 10. ** Report, cited, p. 328.

51 Ordinances, 1918. p. 47. The High Court held that a squatter was not a
servant under the Master and Servants Ordinance, but a “tenant,” and conse¬
quently the anti-desertion provisions of the latter ordinance could not be applied.
The legislative council thereupon amended the Masters and Servants Ordinance
so as to make squatters “servants.” (No. 7 of 1924). But the Colonial Office dis¬
allowed this ordinance, so the act of 1918 was temporarily revived. Gazette, cited,
1924, pp. 776, 909. But the same end was later accomplished by a new Resident
Labor Ordinance, No. 5 of 1925.

326

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

places other than those appointed for them by the Government. . . .” If
a native wishes to live outside of the reserves he must make an agreement
with the European owner concerned, which cannot be for less than one
year nor for more than three. 52 These agreements must be attested by a
magistrate or some other official named by the government, who may
limit the number of families resident on farms “having due regard to labour
requirements.” These agreements provide that the head of the family
and all male members over the age of sixteen shall work one hundred and
eighty days out of the year for the owner, for which they shall be paid at a
rate agreed upon in the presence of a magistrate. In return, a native
may live upon the white farm with his family and use the soil for his
own needs. He may also be allowed to graze his cattle on the land. Each
employer or owner must keep a register of squatters and cattle which shall
indicate the rent received from the native squatter, and which shall be
open to government inspection. Kafir farming is prohibited. A magistrate
may, if it appears to him that there is no longer a necessity for the number
of families on the farm, revoke the permit.

Thus the Kenya squatter’s legislation exceeds in severity the law in
South Africa. It seems less liberal from the native standpoint than squat¬
ter’s legislation in Rhodesia, where a farmer may receive either rent or
labor from a squatter, and in Nyasaland, where the farmer is forbidden
to receive labor. 63 Under any system which requires a native and all
the male members of his family over the age of sixteen to work at least
half of the year for a European farmer in return for the right to use land,
a feudal system involving elements of involuntary servitude is likely to
develop, particularly when, because of their overcrowded condition, natives
cannot find land in the reserves upon which to live. In view of the fact
that attesting officers may decline to approve an agreement where the pay
for squatter labor appears inadequate, the possibility of abuse of this kind
is in theory removed. But since it is the policy of the government to
appoint European farmers as attesting officers, 54 this safeguard does not
appear to be adequate.

At the present time, Kenya farmers are making great efforts to per¬
suade as many natives as possible to leave the reserves and take up their
residence upon European farms, thus giving them a permanent in contrast

ra In the Legislative Council, Lord Delamere said he did not believe the natives
wanted to leave the European farms. They wanted security of tenure, a twenty
years’ term rather than a short three years’ period. The Chief Native Commis¬
sioner, however, declared that the Secretary of State for Colonies was opposed to
a period longer than three years. For Minutes, cf. East African Standard, Supple -
ment, April 18, 1925.

“This provision has not been enforced. Cf. Vol. I, p. 249.

M Cf. Gazette, cited, August 25, 1926, p. 975.

NATIVE RESERVES

327

to a transient labor supply. Because of the crowded conditions in some
areas, these efforts have been successful. The Native Affairs Department
says, “The migration from the Kikuyu Reserve to farms still
continues.” 65

In an effort to increase the workability of the squatter system the
Convention of Associations at the annual meeting in November, 1926,
passed a resolution asking that the law be altered so that the minimum
number of days which a squatter must work should be increased from one
hundred and eighty to two hundred and seventy days. In other words,
instead of working six months he should work nine months for the Euro¬
pean farmer out of every year. The mover of the resolution said that
“the primary idea was to increase the labour supply of the country.” 60

In his report of 1925, the Director of Agriculture declared that not
“until there is permanently resident in the alienated areas a large number
of native laborers with their families freely to engage their services by their
own volition, will the labor needs of European holdings be satisfactorily
met.” 67

Advantageous as the system may be to the European, it presents certain
drawbacks. Natives may bring their stock with them, which encroach
upon grazing land wanted for European cattle, and squatters have been
accused of stealing European cattle, especially when living out in distant
portions of European farms. In 1926, a committee of the Legislative
Council presented a long report on this subject, and said that part of the
trouble was due to the fact that the Squatters’ Registers were bodly kept
or not kept at all. In the absence of such control, it appears that a large
number of natives still illegally occupy European soil. The committee
asked that a special staff be provided for the enforcement of the Resident
Native Ordinance and that the burden of proof as to whether or not
certain meat had been stolen should rest with the person in whose possession
it was found—a curious departure from English conceptions of law. 58

As a result of this squatter legislation and the inadequacy of the
reserves, many natives in the future will be literally compelled to take up
residence on European farms upon conditions which the owners prescribe.

This form of compulsion, more humane than the former Portuguese sys¬
tem where natives were directly obliged by the government to work for
private employers 69 will probably prove more effective than the Portu¬
guese system in the long run; although the native population of Kenya has

M Native Affairs Department, Annual Report, 1924, p. 50.

M East African Standard, Special Supplement, November 6, 1926.

87 East African Standard, July 6, 1926.

“For the report, cf. East African Standard, May 15, 1926.

•Cf. Vol. I, p. 3?.

328

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

hitherto been so limited that this indirect process has not yet entirely pro¬
duced the labor supply which Europeans demand. Consequently, other
methods of securing labor have been tried which will be discussed in the
next chapter.

CHAPTER 2i

KENYA'S LABOR PROBLEM

Other chapters have pointed out that white farmers in Africa rely
upon native labor, and Kenya is no exception to the rule. Because of this
factor, and the nature of crops which require relatively large investments,
the prospective settler in Kenya is generally warned to furnish himself
with capital amounting to at least five thousand pounds. Settlers hav¬
ing such a sum usually have a standard of living and an attitude toward
manual labor different from that which ordinarily prevails in a frontier
community. But the number of settlers in Kenya does not depend so much
upon any requirement of capital as upon the supply of native labor.

i. History of the Labor Question

From the very beginning, European enterprise has found difficulty in
getting the natives to enter employment.

In 1899, an official report stated that “the idea of organised labour is
utterly foreign to most of the tribesmen. . . . The native has a strong
home instinct, and dislikes work at any distance from his own district.” 1

In 1903, another report declared that “the African is attached to his
home and dislikes leaving it.” It further stated that “the question as
to whether natives would willingly undertake service for long periods in
a distant country is not difficult to answer, and the reply would be in the
negative. . . .” It went on to say: “As has been shown, the Kavirondo
and the Kikuyu dislike to leave their homes even for a month and will do
no outside work at all during the season of cultivation.” 2

It was only after 1903 that European settlers began to arrive in large
numbers. And in a few years, particularly in 1907 and 1908, labor diffi¬
culties became acute, despite the fact that the British Administration as¬
sisted the settlers in procuring their labor. 3

1 Report of the Uganda Railway, C. 9331, cited, p. 20.

3 These observations were, however, directed to the question of whether or not
East African laborers should be recruited for the South African Mines. The report
stated that the agricultural and industrial enterprises which would enter East
Africa could be supported by local labor. Report on Slavery and Free Labor in
the British East Africa Protectorate, Cd. 1631 (1903), pp. 5, 8.

3 In the five months during 1907-8, the government received applications from
settlers for 1346 men, of whom six hundred and ninety-six were supplied. State¬
ment of the Governor, Affairs in the East Africa Protectorate, Cd. 4122 (1908)
p. 21.

329

330

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

In 1907, however, the government was not satisfied that the settlers
were treating their laborers as they should. Consequently, it published a
notice in the Gazette 4 which said that “Officers of the Administration and
Native Affairs will do their best to supply labourers for settlers, planters,
contractors, and others,” provided that they treat their labor in accord¬
ance with the principles laid" down in the notice. 6

But the restrictions were too severe for the settlers who held a mass
meeting on March 23, 1*908, and demanded the immediate withdrawal of
the Labor Rules. In the afternoon, they marched up to Government
House and asked the Governor, Sir James Sadler, for an immediate re¬
ply. When the Governor said he could not give a reply until the next
day, the settlers, who led the crowd, went away shouting, “Resign, re¬
sign!” This was “so serious and so gross an insult” that the Governor
suspended Lord Delamere and another member from the Legislative Coun¬
cil. 0 At that time, the Governor declared that Lord Delamere shouted
“resign,” but it is understood that later evidence showed that this was not
the case.

Following this incident, the Governor agreed to hold a conference with
the settlers, then organized into a Colonist Association. Just before the
meeting, the Secretary of the Association wrote that “it is grossly unfair to
invite the settler to this country, as has been done, to give him land under
conditions which force him to work, and at the same time to do away with
the foundation on which the whole of his enterprise and hope is based,
namely, cheap labor, whilst the native is allowed to retain large tracts of
land on which he can remain in idleness. . . .”

At the conference, a number of settlers demanded compulsion; and
Lord Delamere said, among other things, “If officials go into Kikuyu
country and tell the natives that they have no obligation to work, they
interpret it as the wish of the Government that they are not to do so. . . .
We have got to come to legalised methods and force the native to work;
I hope that we may rely on the Government to meet the case. ...” 7

The conference thereupon adopted a resolution asking that the Labor
Rules should be withdrawn, and that “all Government Officers be directed,
and be strictly required to encourage the native to seek labour, and to do

4 Gazette, cited, 1907, p. 478. Cf. also Cd. 4x22, cited, p. 28.

6 These principles provided that the employer should erect suitable huts and
provide for each laborer one good blanket free of charge, and a ration of two
pounds of rice or other grain, or two pounds of flour or beans every day, and two
pounds of sweet potatoes twice a week. He should detail one man out of every fifty
to cook. He should keep an adequate supply of medicines at each camp, and
arrange to have water boiled when unfit for drinking. He should furnish food
for men going to and returning from their homes to the place of employment.
The government would fix the rate of wages.

®Cd. 4122, pp. 1-2. 'Ibid., pp. 4, 16.

KENYA'S LABOR PROBLEM _3M

their utmost to assist those who require it in acquiring the same.” While
the Governor declined to withdraw the rules, he agreed to issue a further
circular in regard to the “encouragement” of labor. 8

Following this incident, the Secretary of State for the Colonies issued
instructions to stop the practice of government recruiting of labor for the
farm population. 9 Nevertheless, it appears that administrative officers
and chiefs continued to procure, whether directly or indirectly, labor
for settlers. Many native witnesses testified before a commission ap¬
pointed to study the shortage of labor in 1912, that their chiefs forced
them to go out and work; while others said that administrative officials
exerted some form of pressure. 10

2. Taxation and Labor

Some settlers and officials have believed that natives could and should
be induced by means of taxation to seek European employment.

One Governor, Sir Percy Girouard, is reported to say: “We con¬
sider that taxation is the only possible method of compelling the
native to leave his reserve for the purpose of seeking work. Only in this
way can the cost of living be increased for the native, and as we have
previously pointed out, it is on this that the supply of labour and the
price of labour depends.” 11

A large number of witnesses before the Labor Commission of 1913
believed that native taxes should be raised to increase the labor supply. 12
In 1922, one farmers’ association passed a resolution stating that taxes
should be collected during the coffee picking season so as to induce natives
to go out and work. More recently, another farmers’ association urged
the government to increase the poll tax to relieve the acute labor short¬
age, and to remit this tax if the native worked a certain period of time for
a European.

®The Governor later reinstated Delamere on the Legislative Council, on the
ground that “he has done more for East Africa in developing his large estates
man anyone else.” Gazette, cited, 1909, p. 80.

0 Report of the Native Labour Commission, 1912-1913, p. 320. In 1908, the gov¬
ernment established advisory labor boards composed of officials and settlers.
Gazette, cited, 1908, p. 398.

10 Cf. Report, cited, pp. 155, 158-162, 184. The Labor Commission reported that
“on the one hand, there is the officer who uses every form of persuasion with the
native to induce him to go to work, and on the other, the officer who, so far from
stimulating efforts of industry either in or out of the Reserves, gives the natives
tc understand that the Government is indifferent or opposed to natives leaving
their Reserves.” Ibid., p. 323.

11 East Africa Standard, February 8, 1913, quoted by Leys, Kenya, cited, p. 186.

,a The Labor Commission declared, however, that “To increase taxation,

whether a remission of the tax be granted or not on proof of work done, with a
view to increasing the supply of labour, is unjustifiable.” Report, cited, p. 329.
For the same opinion of the Governor of Tanganyika, cf. Vol. I, p. 510.

332 THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

In contrast to perhaps the majority of natives in Uganda and Tan¬
ganyika, few natives in Kenya can earn enough money in the reserves to
pay their taxes. The total commercial agricultural production of non-
Europeans in Kenya amounted in 1924 to about 546,000 pounds, 18 in
contrast to 876,000 pounds collected in native taxes of which 516,000
pounds came from the hut and poll tax and about 250,000 from customs.
Merely to pay the difference between this sum and the value of native ex¬
ports, natives must seek European employment until they collectively have
earned 320,000 pounds. In order to earn money for cloth and other ne¬
cessities, they must prolong the period of employment.

3. The Northey Circulars

It appears that government aid in regard to labor continued to be
given up to and during the World War. In 1917, the Governor, Sir H.
Conway Belfield, stated in the Legislative Council:

“It cannot be too well and too widely known that it is the declared policy
of the Government to give the fullest encouragement to settlers and natives
alike to arrange for the introduction and maintenance on farms of a supply
of labour sufficient to meet the varying requirements of different proprietors.
If any impression still exists that the legitimate requirements of the farmers
are to be subordinated to the policy of confining the native to his reserve,
I trust that these words may be sufficient to dispel that impression once and
for all. ... I am prepared to state definitely that we desire to make of the
native a useful citizen and that we consider the best means of doing so is to
induce him to work for a period of his life for the European. . . . We
further desire, by humane and properly regulated pressure within the reserves,
to induce natives to go out and work either as individuals or as residents with
their families on occupied farms.”

Resident magistrates will “satisfy themselves regarding the extent of
labour requirements,” while the native commissioners “should be author¬
ized to take such steps as may be justifiable to insure that all tribal dis¬
tricts and villages contribute according to their respective capacities to the
output of enough labour.” 14 In the same session, the Chief Secretary de¬
clared that at the time of the Labor Commission hearings in 1913, there was
a general feeling that the government was not doing enough to induce na¬
tives to come out of the reserves. But now, possibly owing to increased
activities on the part of district commissioners, the natives had been “induced
to work to an extent that they had never done before.” 15 In 1919, a new

13 Agricultural Census, 1925, p. 24.

14 Proceedings of the Legislative Council, first session, 1917, p. 3.

15 Ibid., pp. 1, 10.

KENYA'S LABOR PROBLEM

333

Governor, General Northey, also asked the Legislative Council: “Is it our
duty to allow these natives to remain in uneducated and unproductive idle¬
ness in their so-called Reserves?” He answered his own question: “I
think not. I believe that our duty is to encourage the energies of all
communities to produce from these rich lands the raw products and food¬
stuffs that the world at large, and the British Empire in particular, re¬
quire. This can only be done by encouragement of the thousands of able-
bodied natives to work with the European settler for the cultivation of the
land. ... I believe there is a great future for this country, but only if a
steady flow of natives out of the Reserves, working willingly for a good
wage, well housed and fed, under European control and supervision, can
be properly organized.” 18

Meanwhile, the ex-soldier settlers who had been given farms 17 entered
the country, and the labor problem became more acute than ever. In a
communication to the Convention of Associations (October 21, 1919),
Governor Northey declared: “The white man must be paramount. . . .
For the good of the country and for his own welfare he [the native] must
be brought out to work. . . . Our policy, then, I believe, should be to
encourage voluntary work in the first place but to provide power by
legislation to prevent idleness.”

Two days later, a labor circular was issued, over the name of the
Chief Native Commissioner, as follows:

“1. There appears to be still a considerable shortage of labour in certain
areas due to reluctance of the tribesmen to come out into the labour field;
as it is the wish of Government that they should do so, His Excellency desires
once again to bring the matter to the notice of Provincial and District Com¬
missioners, and at the same time to state that he sincerely hopes that by an
insistent advocacy of the Government’s wishes in this connection an increasing
supply of labour will result.

“2. His Excellency trusts that those officers who are in charge of what is
termed labour supplying districts are doing what they can to induce an aug¬
mentation of the supply of labour for the various farms and plantations in
the Protectorate, and he feels assured that all officers will agree with him
that the larger and more continuous the flow of labour is from the Reserves,
the more satisfactory will be the relations as between the native people and
the settlers and between the latter and the Government.

“ 3 - The necessity for an increased supply of labour cannot be brought too
frequently before the various native authorities, nor can they be too often
reminded that it is in their own interests to see that their young men become
wage-earners and do not remain idle for the greater part of the year. . . .

w Proceedings of the Legislative Council, first session, 1919, p. 2.

17 Cf. Vol. I, p. 304.

334

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

“4. In continuation of previous communications on this very important sub¬
ject, His Excellency desires to reiterate certain of his wishes and to add further
instructions as follows:

“(1) All Government officials in charge of native areas must exercise
every possible lawful influence to induce able-bodied male natives to go into
the labour field. Where farms are situated in the vicinity of a native area,
women and children should be encouraged to go out for such labour as they
can perform.

“(2) Native Chiefs and Elders must at all times render all possible law¬
ful assistance on the foregoing lines. They should be repeatedly reminded
that it is part of their duty to advise and encourage all unemployed
young men in the areas under their jurisdiction to go out and work on
plantations. . . .” ia

“7. Should the labour difficulties continue it may be necessary to bring in
other and special measures to meet the case. . .

Various district commissioners now went to work with a vengeance.
At Kyambu, the local official issued a circular stating that he intended to
arrange for a “temporary supply of child labour from the reserves” to pick
the coffee crop; and saying: “I shall be glad if any coffee growers who may
like to employ these children will write his name hereon, stating the num¬
ber required, the time for which they may be most needed.” [sic.]

The labour circular of 191*9 was brought to the attention of the Eng¬
lish public by a so-called Bishops’ Memorandum, signed by leading mis¬
sionaries in East Africa, protesting against this policy on the ground that
it was really compulsory labor for private purposes. To the native mind,
“A hint and an order on the part of the Government are indistinguish¬
able,” especially when the government calls for “insistent advocacy.” When
the chiefs are charged with the business of recruiting labour, “the door
is flung wide open to almost any abuse.” Moreover, the native was not
idle while in his reserve. “To leave his own plantation, perhaps at a
critical time, for the benefit of some one else’s plantation; to leave his
house unthatched, his corps unreaped, his wife unguarded perhaps for months
at a time, in return for cash which he does not want on the ‘advice’ of his
chief—which he dare not disregard—is not a prospect calculated to inspire
loyalty to the government from whom the advice emanates. . . Never¬
theless, the Bishops’ Memorandum went so far as to say: “Compulsory
labour is not in itself an evil, and we would favour some form of compul¬
sion when necessary, at any rate for work of national importance,” but it
should be definitely legalized, and confined to able-bodied men. Even so,

“Moreover, they should keep a record of those Chiefs and Headmen “who are
helpful and of those who are not helpful.”

KENYA'S LABOR PROBLEM

335

“any form of compulsory service is certain to be intensely unpopular with
the native. There is no more fruitful source of native discontent in any
country than the Corvee. . . .” 19

A stir was caused in England by the publication of these documents,
and such bodies as the Conference of Missionary Societies in Great Britain
and Ireland and the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines Protection Society took
the matter up with the government. The former body wrote to Lord Mil¬
ner, the Secretary of State for Colonies, expressing their “unqualified oppo¬
sition to compulsory labour for private profit” which they believed to be
“morally wrong and fundamentally at variance with Christian concep¬
tions of life and duty.”

At this criticism, the Kenya Government issued a further circular, on
July 14, 1920, toning down the original memorandum, and telling the
administrative officials to see to it that chiefs did not abuse their authority.
A debate on the Kenya labor policy took place in the House of Lords on
July 14, 1920, 20 following which the Colonial Office sent a despatch to
the Kenya Government asserting that His Majesty aimed “at the advance¬
ment and well-being of the native races in the Protectorate no less than the
meeting of the settlers’ requirements.” After calling attention to the ex¬
planatory circular of the Kenya Government stating what was meant by
pressure, Lord Milner declared: “I trust that it will now be clear to all
that there is no question of force or compulsion, but only of encouragement
and advice through the native Chiefs and Headmen. . . . On the other
hand ... it is desirable that the young able bodied men should become
wage earners and should not remain idle in the Reserves. ... In my opin¬
ion, the Protectorate Government would be failing in its duty if it did not
use all lawful and reasonable means to encourage the supply of labour
for the settlers who have embarked on enterprises calculated to assist not
only the Protectorate itself, but also this country and other parts of the
Empire by the production of raw materials which are in urgent demand.” 21

As this despatch was really a vindication of the original memorandum,
it did not satisfy British opinion. After further pressure, the Colonial
Office gave way, and issued a White Paper which said: “The principle that
Administrative Officers and Native Chiefs should take every opportunity
of inculcating among the natives habits of industry either inside or out¬
side the Reserves is obviously right, and not open to criticism. But beyond
taking steps to place at the disposal of natives any information which
they may possess as to where labour is required, and at the disposal of em¬
ployers any information which they may possess as to where sources of

“Published in Despatch on Native Labour, Cmd. 873 (1920), p. 8.

20 House of Lords Debates, July 14, 1920, Vol. 41, cols. 124 ff.

21 Despatch on Native Labour, Cmd. 873, cited, p. 4.

336

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

labour are available for voluntary recruitment, the Government officials
will in future take no part in recruiting labour for private employ¬
ment. . . 22

4. The Attack Against “Neutrality'

During the next four or five years, the administrative officials in
Kenya—who have native welfare as much at heart as any other set of
officials in Africa—followed a policy of complete neutrality in regard to
the recruiting of labor for private employment. Some of the settlers, de¬
prived of their former assistance, now made a series of accusations, charg¬
ing that officials were actually discouraging the natives from going out to
work. 23

In the meantime, settlers continued to complain about, and government
commissions continued to point out the existence of, a labor shortage. A
commission was appointed in 1921 to study the advisability of establishing
some form of labor bureau similar to those found in Southern Rhodesia or
elsewhere. While it reported against the establishment of such a bureau on
account of the expense, it nevertheless believed that there would be an
annual shortage of labor amounting to thirty-two thousand by 1926. 24
In 1925, the Economic and Finance Committee likewise studied the labor
question. In its report, it thought it necessary to sound a “note of warn¬
ing to employers that development [in the coffee industry] must largely
depend upon labour supply.” 25

22 Despatch Relating to Native Labour, Cmd. 1509 (1921). The full text is
printed in the Appendix to the section.

Nevertheless, at the 1920 session of the Legislative Council, the Acting Governor
said: “The labour circular has been grossly misinterpreted by those who allege that
it prescribes a system of forced labour. It is merely the publication in a new form
of the instructions which have been issued from time to time to District Com¬
missioners for years past, by successive Governors.” . . . This policy “has the
object of preventing the inevitable deterioration of the native races which would
occur if Government were tacitly to acquiesce in their remaining in their Reserves,
safe from prosecution by their former enemies, in a state of idleness and apathy
... It is surely incumbent on us to exercise every endeavour to teach the native
how the surplus population in the Reserves can best be employed both for their
own material welfare and in the economic development of the Protectorate.” If
“persuasive measures” fail, the Governor thought they should “take legal powers
to prevent the native from remaining idle. . . .” Minutes of the Legislative
Council, second session, 1920, p. 7.

23 Cf. the remarks of Mr. Harvey on a motion asking that a Select Committee
be appointed to investigate alleged interference with the free flow of voluntary
labor in the Nyanza Province. Legislative Council Debates, 1925, as quoted in the
East African Standard for April 25, 1925. It appeared from this discussion that
the chiefs now refused to furnish men for recruiters as they had formerly done.
This, according to Mr. Harvey, was obstructing the “free” flow of “voluntary”
labor. The committee, upon investigating the matter, could find nothing to justify
the charge, nor could the East Africa Commission, Report, cited, p. 166.

24 Report of the Labour Bureau Commission, Nairobi, 1921, p. 13.

25 Interim Report of the Economic and Finance Committee on Native Labour,
Nairobi, 1925, p. 3.

KENYA’S LABOR PROBLEM

337

The report of the Native Affairs Department in 1924 declared that “a
very acute shortage occurred during the latter part of the year, especially
in the coffee districts, and the completion of Uasin Gishu Railway, which
last year obtained without much difficulty more than twice the number of
men required this year, was seriously delayed by lack of labour.” 20 The
Principal Labor Inspector also declared that “an acute shortage occurred
in the latter part of the year mainly owing to the increased demand from
employers and the plentiful harvests in the native reserves.” 27

Increased European immigration and “closer settlement” of the land
will increase the demands for labor, as does the construction of new rail¬
ways or other public works. The total acreage of coffee-bearing farms
has increased from 43,359 in 1922 to 65,150 in 1925, and 26,224 acres
planted with trees now under three years of age 28 are gradually coming
into bearing.

In the face of this labor shortage, farmers and others revived the
demand for government aid, and also for imported labor. They believed
that the native was lazy and that thousands of natives were available for
labor, if only there were an incentive. “The native in the reserve,” one
of them declared, “farms his women rather than his land. In other words,
his farming is done through his women, and he himself hardly knows what
work is. For work is not his custom.” 20

In February, 1926, the Convention of Associations passed a resolution
stating that “In view of the inability of the present Native Administration
of this Colony to deal with the very serious situation arising out of the
general labour shortage and in view of the fact that neighbouring terri¬
tories of Africa refuse to permit recruitment of labour, this Convention
urges upon Government and the elected members the necessity of imme¬
diately tightening up administration in the reserves, and of making clear
their intention that all able-bodied adult natives do work of some sort.” 30
In September, 1926, the Nairobi Chamber of Commerce expressed anxiety
over the labor supply and said that it deemed it necessary that “in view of
the present shortage, the daily increasing demand and the future develop¬
ment of the Colony which will entail a still further demand, some stated
policy be disclosed by Government.” 31

Likewise, the Association of Chambers of Commerce called the atten-.
tion of the government “to the absolute necessity for the immediate estab¬
lishment of the Colony’s industries on sound foundations as regards the
labour supply.” The member who made this motion declared that the

” Native Affairs Department, Annual Report, 1924, p. 48.

71 Ibid., p. 52. 38 Agricultural Census, 1925, p. 33.

“Speech of Lord Francis Scott, East African Standard, June 6, 1925.

30 Editorial, ibid., May 29, 1926. 31 Ibid., September 18, 1926, p. 28a.

338

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

“very existence of the entire community” would be “seriously threatened”
unless action were taken. The labor supply in 1925 had declined ten
per cent. “Scarcely a single producing concern in the Colony” had had an
“adequate supply of labour during this period. ... At times, these con¬
cerns had been short of labour to the extent of fifty per cent of their
requirements.” Coffee was unpicked and maize unreaped because of a
labor shortage. Capital was frightened. At this junction, the govern¬
ment planned to embark upon a large building program which would still
further absorb the labor which the farmer needed. 32

5. Imported Labor

In addition to advocating, in these veiled terms, compulsory methods,
European industry in Kenya, through some of its representatives at least,
demanded the importation of labor. The majority of the members of
the Labor Commission of I9l'3 recommended the indenture of Asiatics,
if necessary for large works and plantations on the Coast, subject to com¬
pulsory repatriation. The minority favored unlimited importation of in¬
dentured labor provided that the conditions under which laborers worked
were controlled by the government. 33 The Labor Bureau Commission of
1921 declared that in case the measures for increasing the local supply
failed, a labor bureau should be established for recruiting African labor
outside the Colony. Kenya employers have worked to recruit labor in
Tanganyika and Uganda. 34

By the casting vote of the chairman, the farmers’ organization, called the
Convention of Associations, at its meeting in October, 1926, passed a
resolution asking the government to appoint a committee to inquire care¬
fully into the available labor supply and in the meantime to make inquiries
“as to suitable sources of supply outside the Colony, ascertain terms of em¬
ployment, and devise the necessary machinery for tapping such sources.” 35

In the discussion which preceded this motion, a number of members,
while rejecting the possibility of Oriental labor, favored the importation of
natives from Portuguese Africa. Lord Delamere said that in place of
Indians they should try the “Italian family system.” 36 Lord Delamere
later said:

“With regard to labour we have got to find a solution. I lean towards
the Italian who with his wife and family can get a greatly increased output

M East African Standard, Supplement, May 7, 1926.

n Report, cited, p. 326.

34 While neither entirely obstructs the voluntary employment of labor, they do
not allow, except under special circumstances, the recruiting of labor for foreign
service.

35 East African Standard, Supplement, October 30, 1926, p. 8.

** Ibid., p. 5.

KENYA'S LABOR PROBLEM

339

of labour as compared with our native at an admittedly high, in proportion,
rate of pay. ...” 37

Major Hemsted observed that in the coming year a big crisis would occur
because of a deliberately organized passive resistance movement on the
part of a section of the native community.

Following the adoption of the above motion the question was raised
whether it included the importation of Indian labor. It was pointed out
that three years ago the Convention passed a resolution against Indian
immigration. Despite the statement of a member that Indian coolies were
“of an entirely different calibre than Indian political agitators . . the
Convention now passed a new resolution opposing the introduction of
Indian labor.

Several district farmers’ associations asked the investigation of the
possibility of importing overseas labor into Kenya, 38 while the local papers
were full of correspondence in which the advantages and disadvantages of
the proposition were discussed. The government soon made known its
opposition to this proposal. 39 This opposition apparently rests upon its
expense and the social results which have been experienced in South Africa
and elsewhere where this policy has been tried. 40 From the standpoint of
the Kenya native population, however, it would appear that imported labor
would really be of advantage if it would relieve the pressure now imposed
on the reserves, and result in decreasing the number of men who are now
obliged to work away from their homes.

6 . Labor Pressure

Subject to the terrific demands of European organizations, the Kenya
Administration gradually retreated from its policy of “neutrality” estab¬
lished in 1921. In March, 1925, the acting Governor declared to the
Convention of Associations: “Government expects every administrative
officer to give all possible encouragement to the labour within their dis¬
trict to work on the lands which have been opened up by the settlers.” 41

In February, 1926, the Governor of Kenya joined with other East
Africa governors in a resolution which said that officials should give the
natives to understand that they must work either for themselves or for
Europeans; and that in the absence of transport facilities, they should work
for Europeans. 42 This statement was followed in October, 1926, by an

” Ibid., p. 14. 38 East African Standard, September 4, 1926, p. 36.

30 In 1926 Mr. Amery reiterated the opposition of the Colonial Office to inden¬
tured labor, whether in Kenya or elsewhere. H. C. Deb. March 29, 1926, col. 1633.
Cf. also H. C. Deb. April 26, 1920, col. 951.

40 Cf. Vol. I, Chap. 2. 41 East African Standard. March 14, 1925.

43 Cf. Vol. I, p. 309.

340

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

address of the Governor, Sir Edward Grigg, to the Convention of Asso¬
ciations, in which he said that the government “neither can nor will pro¬
duce labour from the Reserves by compulsion of any sort.” Nevertheless,
he said that the Kenya Government carried a special responsibility in re¬
gard to labor which governments did not carry in Europe. “Here in Africa
Government stands, to use an old phrase, in loco parentis to the African
population. If government gives encouragement and advice—I am talk¬
ing of genuine encouragement and advice, not of veiled compulsion of any
sort—and if it says that working on farms is a good thing and beneficial
to the native, thousands of natives will cheerfully go out. If government,
on the other hand, and the officers of government are indifferent, thousands
will equally cheerfully stay at home.” 43

This is the doctrine, then, of “encouragement and advice,” which, as
the Governor frankly admits, will succeed in furnishing the settlers with
labor as successfully as open compulsion. As the Bishops’ Memorandum
said in 1919, “A hint and an order on the part of the Government are
indistinguishable” to the native. The East Africa Labor Commission of
1913 pointed out: “The Chiefs and Headmen take their attitude from
their District Officer, . . . , where they are impressed by him with
the necessity of sending men to work, they, from a very natural de¬
sire to stand well with him, resort to methods which cannot be termed
otherwise than forcible, for the means employed are either actual physical
restraint, or the temporary seizure of stock, or threats.” 44

Toward the end of his speech, the Governor did say that the native
would be given the alternative of working on his own land where such an
alternative was open to him. The native should have the “fullest possible
opportunity of developing the great areas which have been secured to him
by law.” 45 Does this mean that the Kenya native must not only de¬
velop his own land as does the Uganda native, but also must turn out
and develop the European farms? It is difficult to reconcile the Governor’s
afterthought with respect to cultivating land in the reserves with his
first statement that if the government gives encouragement and advice,
thousands of natives will cheerfully go out.

Following the Governor’s speech, a debate took place in the Legislative
Council at which the Colonial Secretary said that administrative officers
had been “instructed generally and individually” that they were to “do
their utmost to promote the flow of labour” which was “of such immense

43 Government had a right to “compel natives to produce,” because “the de¬
velopment of the whole Colony is of paramount interest to all the natives in it.”

** Native Labour Commission, 1912-1913, East African Protectorate, p. 323.

48 East African Standard Supplement, October 30, 1926, p. 2.

KENYA'S LABOR PROBLEM

341

importance to the industries of this country”—a statement which contained
nothing about the right of the native to work for himself. 48

The gratitude of the local community toward these expressions of the
governor was reflected by the East African Standard in a leader which
declared that “Government policy is certainly more definite to-day than
it has been in past days,” and by a speaker at the Convention of Associa¬
tions who, in referring to the “very courageous speech” of the Governor,
said, that for the first time, a governor of Kenya had “identified himself
with white settlement in the Colony.” 47 A few months previously, a
writer to the Standard expressed his opinion thus: “The Government has
directly and indirectly brought pressure to bear on natives so as to make
them turn out to work”; but he doubted whether the natives or the
“people back home” would “stand for further pressure.” 48

It is difficult to determine whether as a result of the change in gov¬
ernment attitude, the labor policy of Kenya has reverted to that laid down
in the Northey circulars of 1919. At present, the Kenya Administration
would doubtless insist that there is no compulsion but merely “voluntary
pressure”—which appears to be a contradiction of terms. As a matter of
fact, the administration said the same thing about the Northey circulars
of 1919. The grave disadvantage of any such system of “persuasion,” 49
is the likelihood of abuse. The administrative officials of Kenya do not
wish to recruit labor for private enterprise; they are as much devoted to
native interests as officials in any other part of Africa. 50 But when an
African official is instructed to “urge” natives to seek employment out of
the reserves, but not to use compulsion, he is placed in a difficult position.
Settlers and recruiters constantly besiege him for help; and when it is
not forthcoming they can make his existence miserable. As long as the gov¬
ernment recognizes an obligation to assist settlers in obtaining labor—
an obligation which it has now accepted—it is difficult to see how the
native will have freedom of choice as between working for himself and
for the settler, when a labor shortage arises. Even if the pressure policy
should be lightly applied in Kenya, other territories, stimulated by

49 Minutes, East African Standard, Supplement, October 23, 1926, p. 5.

41 Editorial, East African Standard, October 22, 1926, and ibid.. Supplement,
October 30, 1926.

48 East African Standard, May 1, 1926, p. 30.

40 Cf. the criticism of the Rhodesia Native Affairs Committee, Vol. I, p. 228.

60 The fact that officials have been given the right to hold land in Kenya may
eventually align officials more with the settlers than with the natives. The Kenya
Missionary Council has declared: “We think that the holding of land by officials
in Kenya has [done] much to give rise to anxiety in the Native. The official at
once becomes an interested party whose sympathies are apt to be drawn to the side
of the employer of labour. . . . The official at present ought to be safeguarded from
influences which would vitiate his judgment as the protector of the untutored
African.”

342 THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

Kenya’s example, may seize upon this policy to obtain much more
literal results. 61

7. Labor Recruiting

In order to obtain this labor, European settlers now rely upon (1)
voluntary laborers who may or may not sign contracts; (2) laborers
who come out as a result of government pressure; (3) recruited laborers.
Some settlers utilize a favorite native headman to recruit in the reserves
for their personal needs. Other settlers go to professional recruiters, called
“Labor Agents,’’ licensed by the provincial commissioner of the province
where they wish to operate. 52 In 1925, about twenty such permits were
issued, including two to women and five to Indians. These agents, with
native “touts,’’ circulate through the reserves and endeavor by persuasion
or other means to induce natives to sign a contract to enter European em¬
ployment. 63 In 1913, the recruiting system was criticized by the Native
Labor Commission which declared that this system was bad on the ground
that the “Chiefs have every inducement to hold back labour in order to
supply them [the recruiters]”. It further maintained that “the evidence
shows that the chiefs in supplying them resort to force, while labour itself
is made distasteful to the labourers, as, in fact, they have little choice of
either work, locality, or employer.”

“The evidence also bears out the fact that force is equally used by the
Chiefs when labour is required by Government, and that the distinction
between a Labour Agent and the Government practically does not exist in
their minds, for they will not supply any person with labour unless he has
some means of showing that he has authority to recruit from the District
Officer; such a person becomes in effect an emissary of Government.

“The tendency of the whole system is to interfere seriously with the
supply of voluntary labour, which is the best from every point of view,
firstly by checking the flow, and secondly by forcing out those who have
worked voluntarily, and have returned to the Reserves to rest or for other
reasons, to work either for employers who obtain labour through Labor
Agents or for Government, before the object for which they have returned
has been accomplished. Instances have occurred of natives in permanent
employment who have been given leave to go to the Reserve, being com¬
pelled by the Chief to go to work elsewhere.” 64

With the growing intelligence of the native in the Kavirondo and

61 Cf. the experience of the Congo and French West Africa, index.

“Rules, Masters and Servants Ordinance, 1910, Gazette, cited, 1910, p. 227.

“The provisions of the Kenya legislation in regard to medical examinations
of recruits and the attesting of contracts are discussed in Vol. I, p. 351.

64 Report of the Native Labour Commission, 1912-1913, p. 330.

KENYA’S LABOR PROBLEM

343

Kikuyu reserves, chiefs no longer dare to impose this type of compulsion.
Thanks partly to the establishment of such bodies as the Kavirondo Wel¬
fare Association, the natives in the reserves know what their rights are.
It appears, however, that in the more backward reserves, recruiters still
seek the aid of chiefs in securing labor. 55 Where such conditions exist,
the chiefs come to look upon their subjects as a source of revenue. Most
of these illicit negotiations are handled not by European labor agents but
by their native “touts,” who do not need to be licensed, and hence escape
the control of the government. The administration realizes that steps
should be taken to correct this condition. Sir Edward Grigg wishes to
abolish professional recruiting altogether.

There is no monopolistic labor bureau in Kenya such as one finds in
the Belgian Congo, Southern Rhodesia, or South Africa. Groups of set¬
tlers have formed such bureaus, notable among which were the Fort Hall
Recruiting Association and the Kisumu Labor Bureau. But all of these
attempts have failed. The agitation has, nevertheless, persisted, and in
1921, the Kenya Government appointed a Labor Bureau Commission to
go into the question. Of the witnesses called, fifty-three were in favor
of the establishment of a Labor Bureau, while thirty-three were opposed.
Most of these witnesses opposed such bureaus on account of their great
expense. 56

In 1926, the Chief Native Commissioner appointed a labor committee
which was asked to advise as to “whether any system of labour bureaux and
exchanges can usefully be initiated in the Colony.” The Chief Native
Commissioner reported to the Legislative Council that the government
would provide rest-houses for recruited labor en route to or from the re¬
serves. Thus the government would furnish the facilities which the re¬
cruiter had formerly provided, and he would then disappear. It would
seem that, from the employer’s standpoint, there would be no need for the
private recruiter, as long as government officials impose pressure on labor
and the government provides for their needs en route.

8. The Labor Supply

How successful, from the employer’s standpoint, has the Kenya labor
policy been? The potential supply of labor in Kenya has been subject to

" The Labor Bureau Commission, Report, 1921, cited, p. 5; cf. also Report of the
East Africa Commission, p. 173.

59 The commission considered four possible types of bureaus: (1) a Government
Department; (2) a private undertaking, such as the Rhodesian Labor Bureau,
receiving a subsidy from the government; (3) a Board of Control, administering
a fund created by a special labor tax, on lines described in Part 6, Chapter 13, of
the Federated Malay States Labor Code, 1912; (4) various forms of employers’
associations on the lines of the Southern Indian Labor Commission.

344

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

various estimates. In 1921, the Labor Bureau Commission expressed the
opinion that the native males available for work were confined to those
between the ages of sixteen and thirty—a group which constituted one-
seventh of the total native population. It believed that twenty per cent
should be deducted from this group for the unfit, and two and one-half
per cent for those engaged in trade. Moreover, certain tribes, such as
those inhabiting the Machakos, Kitui, and Ravine reserves, had not
come into the labor market to any extent. According to these calcula¬
tions, the total available supply in Kenya came to about one hundred and
seventy-six thousand men, but the Commission declared that only half of
this number could be expected to be in actual employment, which would
make the constant supply about eighty-eight thousand. 57

A few years later, the Economic and Finance Committee estimated
that males between fifteen and forty, a group which constituted one-fifth
of the total population, or nearly four hundred and twenty-four thousand
men, 68 (in 1921) could be regarded as suitable for European employ¬
ment. It appears that the government is now registering for employment
a large number of men below the age of fifteen or above the age of forty
as actually going into employment, inasmuch as nearly 575,000 men were
registered in 1925, and 622,836 at the end of 1926.

In 1927 another Labor Commission reported that the estimated maxi¬
mum and minimum seasonal demand for labor would be as follows:

1927 Minimum. 170,000 Maximum. 203,000

1928 Minimum. 187,000 Maximum. 222,000

1929 Minimum. 206,000 No maximum given.

The Commission estimated the supply of adult male laborers at 170,000
in 1927. It is reported to have declared, “The annual increasing number
of women and children seeking light employment such as Coffee picking
and weeding justifies the belief that the extra demands for large Coffee
crops in 1927 will be met.” 69

The Commission considered that sufficient labor for 1927 was on hand
and that in the absence of unforeseen circumstances, no justification existed
for apprehension in regard to the adequacy of the labor supply to meet the
needs of steady development for the next three years, provided the sug¬
gestions of the Commission in regard to proper organization on the part
of employers are adopted and that economy is exercised.

”Report of the Labour Bureau Commission, 1921, Table II.

68 Appendix A, Interim Report of the Economic and Finance Committee on
Native Labour, 1925.

08 It estimates that agriculture will have increased by the end of 1929 as
follows: Coffee—11,000 acres; Sisal—30,000 acres; maize—87,000 acres; wheat—
66,000 acres

KENYA’S LABOR PROBLEM

345

At the same time it should be pointed out that the minimum demand
fixed by the Commission for 1929 is 206,000 men which is 41 per cent of
the adult males in the country.

If every native man between the ages of fifteen and forty were con¬
tinually in European employment, the total available labor supply would be
about 500,000. But as twenty per cent of the male population is esti¬
mated to be unfit for such employment, and as large numbers of men are
obliged to plant crops and otherwise cultivate their land at certain times
of the year, every commission has agreed that at the most not more than
half, or 250,000 of the eligible men can be expected to be under European
employment at the same time.

While this is the potential supply of labor in the country, the actual
supply depends upon the willingness of the native to leave his home and
seek work from Europeans. As a result of efforts which have been
described, the actual supply of labor has increased since l'oi2 as follows:

Kenya Labor Supply

Year

Number under Employment

1912

12,000

1920

90,000

1923

129,296

1924

133,900

1925

152,384

1927 1

185,409’

‘First three months.

‘These figures are taken from the Report of the Labour Bureau Commission,
1921, p. 9; the Native Affairs Department, Annual Report, 1924, p. 55; and the
East African Standard, Report of the Chief Registrar* September 18, 1926, p. 42;
and ibid., April 23, 1927, p. 28B, and from certain official sources.

In other words, native labor under employment has increased about 100
per cent in the last seven years. The number of men at work is about
34 per cent of the total number of available men between the ages of
fifteen and forty. It is probably a little less if deduction is made for
alien natives under employment.

Because of the distance of certain tribes from the labor market and
because some tribes such as the Masai refuse to work, this percentage
weighs heavily on certain districts. According to the report of the Chief
Registrar of Natives, during the first three months in 1927 72 per cent
of the adult male population in the Lumbwa-Kericho tribe, 72.28 per
cent in the Kyambu-Nairobi (Kikuyu) tribe, 64.45 P er cent i n the Nandi
tribe, 50.30 per cent in Fort Hall, 48.22 per cent in North Kavirondo, and
44.91 per cent in North and South Nyeri were under European employ¬
ment. These tribes were offset by the Masai, only 25.28 per cent of whose

346

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

men were at work; and by the natives of the Machakos district, 20 per
cent of whose men were under European employment. 00

The situation in Kenya, compared with that in other territories, is
shown as follows:

Natives under European Employment

Territory

Total

Population

Male

Population 1

Actually

continuously

employed

Per cent

of total
population
employed

Per cent
of men
employed

Kenya .

2,500,000

500,000

169,000“

6.8

33-8

Belgian Congo ....

10,500,000

2,100,000

300,000

2.9

14.3

Tanganyika.

4 . 123,593

824,698

128,000 3

3-1

* 5-5

Transkei.

1,053,000

210,000

8 6,000 4

8.2

41.0

Nigeria .

18,660,717

3 , 732,143

80,000

•4

2.1

Southern Rhodesia

899,573

I 79 , 9 i 5

50,000

5.6

27.8

Gold Coast.

2,298,433

459,686

25,000

1.1

5-4

Uganda.

3 ,H 5,449

629,090

25,000

4.0

Basutoland.

543,000

108,600

38,000 4

7 -

35 -

1 Estimated as one-fifth of the total population.

“We have used the 1926 figure. Had the 1927 figure of 185,000 been used the
percentage under employment would be 7.4 per cent and 37 per cent respectively.

“This is probably an exaggerated figure. Cf. Vol. I, p. 496.

4 Excluding women. Cf. Vol. I, p. 170. Some of these figures are only estimates,
inasmuch as some territories, such as Nigeria and Uganda, have no detailed
records of labor under employment. But we have used reasonably accurate figures
for Kenya and the Congo.

It seems clear from this table that next to the Belgian Congo, Kenya
has more natives under employment than any other territory in Africa, 61
and that from the standpoint of population, it has a larger percentage of
natives under employment than the Belgian Congo. It is exceeded only
by the Transkei and Basutoland.

The success in transforming the Kenya native from a peasant producer
or “loafer” as the European settlers assert him to be, into a wage-earner
has not, however, as we have seen, relieved the labor shortage.

9. Labor-Saving Devices

This review shows that in Kenya, European enterprise has outrun the
labor supply just as it has in South Africa, Southern Rhodesia, and the
Belgian Congo. It is doubtful whether legalized compulsion could supply

60 Cf. the article “Labour Statistics and Tribal Progress,” East African Stand¬
ard, March 26, 1927. This article says that 20 per cent of the men between fifteen
and forty are physically unfit for work, and estimates that the available male
population is four hundred and seven thousand.

n Excluding always North Africa.

KENYA'S LABOR PROBLEM

347

European needs in Kenya to a much greater extent than they are sup¬
plied at present, unless, indeed, the native reserves are destroyed. A num¬
ber of thoughtful Europeans, both settlers and officials, have come to real¬
ize that instead of basing future hopes on a larger quantity of laborers,
they should improve labor efficiency. The waste of labor in Africa to-day
is appalling. Every European must have several “boys’' to administer to
his needs, and industry is organized on a similarly extravagant basis. Sev¬
eral years ago, the sisal estates reorganized their industry upon the basis of
labor-saving machinery which relieved their labor difficulties to a marked
extent. Instead of using cattle for ploughing, a number of European
farmers have now introduced tractors thereby effecting a reduction of
about half the labor formerly employed. 02 Other farmers have effected
a labor saving of seventy-five per cent by using lorries instead of oxen for
harvesting maize. It appears, however, that the extension of the use
of machinery in Kenya depends upon the cheapening of the price of oil.

More interesting still is the fact that the government and some farm¬
ers are considering the desirability of introducing labor-saving crops. At
the present time, sisal and coffee are two of the three leading exports of
Kenya. Because of the great care with which these products are pre¬
pared for the market, they need a much larger number of units of labor
than does maize or dairying. 03 The production of tea, which some Eu¬
ropeans now wish to introduce into Kenya, also requires a relatively ex¬
cessive labor force. In his speech to the Convention of Associations, Sir
Edward Grigg pointed out that Canada, Australia, and New Zealand were
founded on the industries of stock breeding, wool, dairying, and sheep.
He mentioned the phenomenal development of wheat in Canada for which
white men working for themselves were responsible. In his opinion, the
cold of the Canadian prairies was more trying than the climate of Kenya ;
and the heat of Australia was as strong as the heat of Kenya. He men¬
tioned the development of the sugar industry in Queensland by the use
of white labor. One could imply from this speech that the Governor be¬
lieves that the white man in Kenya should himself perform manual labor.
He openly asked that the industries of wheat and dairying should be greatly
advanced. 84 If these two ideas of labor-saving crops and of white labor

®Cf. the report of the meeting on Fuel Oils, East African Standard, March 20,
1926, p. 10.

“ Cf. Interim Report of the Economic and Finance Committee on Native Labour,
cited, p. 13.

** In the Election Manifesto, the unofficial members of the Legislative Council
likewise declared that “closer settlement for mixed farming, dairying and wheat
growing (the industries which make the least call on the labor supply) on lands
already alienated as well as on Crown lands” should be encouraged, East African
Standard, January i, 1937, p. 35.

348

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

could be carried into effect, European enterprise in Kenya would become
“largely independent of the labour supply,” and the greatest problem con¬
fronting the country would be solved. But the difficulty is in applying
these theories. The type of settler who has come to Kenya has not been
the immigrant from Central Europe who has been accustomed to using
his hands, but a man of comparative means, usually unfamiliar with
manual labor—made more arduous than ever in Kenya altitudes and
under the Kenya sun. Some of the speakers who followed the Governor at
the Convention of Associations pointed out that coffee, tea, and sisal were
planted in districts unsuitable for wheat or stock. The policy advocated
by the Governor was “suicidal and could lead to nothing but disaster.”
The country was to be sacrificed because the powers-that-be refused to take
the “step that would save it”—apparently a reference to legalized forced
labor.

Moreover, the profits from an acre of coffee are ten times the profits
from an acre of wheat. No settler will willingly sacrifice this form of
income any more than he will close up his farm. It is difficult to see how
the local administration can compel a farm owner to tear up his coffee
and plant maize. If this end is attained, it will mean that the present
intensive system of agriculture will be replaced by an extensive system,
and that a settler, to make a living, will have to use a larger acreage than
before. This will automatically cut down the agricultural openings for
the white immigrant, and likewise diminish the value of land.

Notwithstanding the good intentions back of these proposals, it is
problematical how far better recruiting methods, less waste in the em¬
ployment of labor, the use of labor-saving machinery, and the introduc¬
tion of new types of crops will relieve the labor shortage, made more acute
by increased native production. On the other hand, the increasing demand
for labor from white settlers is not problematical; it is a certainty. In¬
stead, therefore, of counting upon labor-saving devices or the indefinite
extension of the labor supply, some Europeans in Kenya believe that the
demand for labor should be controlled in relation to the available supply;
in other words, that land alienation and European immigration should be
restricted.

IO. Limiting the Demand

In a memorandum to the East African Commission at Kenya, the
Missionary Council declared that the time “seems to have come when the
encouragement of further European settlement should be held in abey¬
ance, until it is seen that the country can stand a fresh immigration of
settlers.” It went on to say: “We, therefore, recommend definitely that
no further alienation of Crown Land should take place, first because there

KENYA'S LABOR PROBLEM

349

is very little left, and the unestimated needs of the African population and
its increase have not yet been computed, and secondly, because to alienate
fresh land now to Europeans is likely to emphasize acutely the difficulties
of the labour supply, and the impossibility of fully developing the areas
already alienated.”

The East African Standard, the leading newspaper of the territory, in
1926, declared: . . Before attracting further settlers, we have to be

satisfied that the present rate of production will not be jeopardized by
watering our existing labour supply or that we are correct in forcing the
pace of production beyond the rate of progress made by our labour. . . 05

The Standard further remarked, in a later editorial, “If we are going too
fast in our development, let us be told so, with the remedy.” 68 But the
Governor, Sir Edward Grigg, did not apparently see the connection be¬
tween further settlement and the labor shortage. In a speech at Eldoret,
he boldly declared that after communications, what was needed was new
settlers and capital [cheers]. He had heard rumors of discouragement in
England regarding the future development of white settlement in Kenya,
but he could assure them [his audience] that he would have no part in
this discouragement, and would do his utmost to develop European settle¬
ment in Kenya [loud cheers] as he was convinced that that was what
the country needed. 67

In his Convention of Associations speech, the Governor said: “The
central aim of the Colony should be settlement and still more settlement”—
a sentiment which he reiterated in the Legislative Council. 08

It appears, nevertheless, that the labor question was troubling the
Colonial Office at home. In an answer to a question in the House of
Commons in March, 1926, 69 the Secretary of State said: “Where land in
districts suitable for European settlement is available, either from un¬
occupied Crown land, or by purchase or lease from the present European
holders, and where there is a supply of native labour which will be at¬
tracted by the terms of employment offered, I am entirely of the opinion
of the Governor of Kenya that European settlement in East Africa is to be
welcomed.” 70

In reply to a question in the Kenya Legislative Council, the Land

“ Cf. the editorial on “Further Land Alienation,” East African Standard,
August 28, 1926, p. 13.

“ Ibid., September 25, 1926.

47 As reported in ibid., December 19, 1926, p. 28A.

43 Ibid., Supplement, November 18, 1926, p. 6.

®//. C. Debates, March 15, 1926, col. 11.

70 He added, “There are, however, in these tropical dependences large areas
where these conditions are not fulfilled, and where the country can be better devel¬
oped by the encouragement of native cultivators.”

350

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

Commissioner declared that certain farms would be put up for auction on
the understanding that “no labour difficulties would be caused.” 71 Fol¬
lowing the gazetting of the native reserves, the elected members of the
council demanded, however, that land alienation should not be “held up
owing to any possible shortage of labor.” 72 This they regarded as an
“unwarrantable interference with a domestic matter.” 73

The Convention of Associations said that in “view of the increasing
European population, all Crown lands should be alienated forthwith.” 74
Previously, the Ruir Settlers’ Association protested that the alienation of
land should not be held up because of a wrong native policy which resulted
in a labor shortage.

In November, 1926, the Commissioner of Lands told the Legislative
council that the rumor to the effect that the Secretary of State had “im¬
peded alienations of land” was a “myth.” 75 Despite London’s uneasiness
about the labor supply in relation to land alienation, the Kenya Advisory
Committee, a body appointed by the Governor to keep the Publicity Office
in London informed as to policies in the colony and to formulate develop¬
ment schemes, outlined plans in 1927 for closer settlement and even
studied schemes for assisted emigration of white farmers to the terri¬
tory. 76 The policy of the government is still therefore to increase the
number of settlers as quickly as possible, which will increase the demand
for labor without increasing the supply.

European settlers who have invested their fortunes in a country at the
invitation of the British Government cannot be blamed for demanding
native labor. Put in the same position, the Twelve Apostles would not
have acted otherwise. But if the British Government encourages white
settlement, as the Governor is now doing, instead of imposing restrictions
on immigration and the alienation of land, it should be held responsible for
the bankruptcy of European enterprise, should it take place.

So far, we have been discussing the question from the point of view
of the European. Before discussing it from the point of view of the native,
we shall discuss the question of the treatment of labor.

71 East African Standard, July 24, 1926, p. 29.

12 Apparently the elected members believed that alienation would be the best
safeguard against the extension of the reserves.

13 Ibid., June 2 6, 1926, p. 32.

74 Ibid., Supplement, November 6, 1926, p. 2.

1,6 Ibid., Supplement, November 6, 1926, p. 3. He also said he had been exer¬
cised by much that had been said about the labor shortage.

”Cf. “Closer Settlement in Kenya,” East African Standard, February 26, 1927,
p. 41.

CHAPTER 22

THE TREATMENT OF LABOR
I. Masters and Servants Ordinance

The treatment of labor concerns not only the native but also the em¬
ployer, inasmuch as in Africa, the efficiency of labor and the percentage
of desertions depend to a great extent upon working conditions. As long
as European employment in Kenya is agricultural instead of mining in
nature, the problem of the treatment of labor will in some ways be more
simple than in South Africa. Nevertheless, the administration of labor
legislation in a community having a large number of small farmers as em¬
ployers is more difficult than that of a community having a few mines em¬
ploying large bodies of men.

Native labor in Kenya is protected by the Masters and Servants Ordi¬
nance of 1910 1 which makes it an offense for the employer to withhold
wages, and requires him to supply proper food and housing, unless the
native is in a position to supply himself. The employer must also pro¬
vide medical attendance. Notwithstanding these provisions, for a period
of fifteen years, the government imposed no definite standards, and con¬
sequently the employer was nearly free to do as he liked. In 1913, the
Native Labor Commission reported that the existence of a labor shortage
was partly caused by the unsuitability and monotony of diet and by other
disagreeable living conditions. 2

In 1919, the Chief Native Commissioner informed the Legislative
Council that if things were to “go on much longer in this irresponsible
manner,” there would soon “be no labour,” and there would be “no natives,
left to work.” 3

A step toward improving conditions was taken by the introduction of
an amendment to the Masters and Servants Ordinance of 1919 which
provided for a system of labor inspection and of medical examination of
recruited labor. 4 At first, the bill was vigorously opposed by settler
members of the Legislative Council who declared that its consideration

4 Ordinances, 1910, p. 9. J Report, cited, p. 322.

* Proceedings of the Legislative Council, third session, 1919, p. 17.

* Masters and Servants Amendment Ordinance, 1919, Ordinances, 1919, p. 80.

351

352

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

should be postponed until after the registration system had been put into
effect. 5 The bill, however, finally passed. It authorizes a labor inspector
to enter any labor camp or farm to inspect sanitary arrangements, food, and
housing. He may take cognizance of any offense committed by an em¬
ployer, who may be prosecuted by the chief native commissioner. This
official may also institute an action on behalf of any native employee
against an employer. In 1923, twenty-four proceedings were instituted
against employers, a number which declined to nine in 1924. This reduc¬
tion was due to the practice of serving employers formal notices and
demanding compliance with specific instructions within a stated period. 1
A government medical officer may exercise the powers of inspection con¬
ferred upon the labor inspectors and may “order the supply of such
variety of food for servants as he may deem necessary, provided that cost
of the food supplied . . . shall not exceed the normal cost of rations
ordinarily supplied.” The medical officer may also condemn unfit food
and housing. Recruited laborers must pass a medical examination before
administrative officials may attest their contracts.

At the present time, the Kenya Government, following the example of
the Belgian Congo and British West Africa, 7 employs four labor inspectors.
One of these inspectors spends his whole time upon matters concerning
railway labor. A second is occupied with construction labor at Eldoret;
and another remains in the Nairobi office. The remaining inspector at¬
tempts to inspect iwo thousand farms—obviously an impossible task. The
salaries of these inspectors, ranging from two hundred and fifty to four
hundred pounds, seem unduly low. A minimum of two more inspectors is
necessary if these farms are to be adequately supervised.

Kenya has no legislation providing for accident compensation. In
practice, a number of employers pay compensation recommended by govern¬
ment inspectors, which in case of death is usually two years’ wages, or in the
case of the loss of a leg is two hundred and fifty shillings—figures higher
than those in the Congo, but not prescribed by law. Thus out of seventy-
six accidents reported in 1921, forty-six men received compensation amount¬
ing to £113.6. In 1924, however, only ten out of sixty-six victims of
accidents were compensated—the total sum paid being £39.55.®

Although about six thousand women and twelve thousand children

6 Cf. Vol. I, p. 357.

*Native Affairs Department, Annual Report, 1924, p. 43. In 1922, the govern¬
ment recovered from employers 1079 pounds in wages for five hundred and eighty-
one claimants. In 1924, it recovered four hundred and seventeen pounds for two
hundred and forty-five claimants. Ibid., p. 51.

7 Cf. Vol. I, p. 763, Vol. II, p. 564.

8 Native Affairs Department, Annual Report, 1924, p. 51.

THE TREATMENT OF LABOR

353

are employed on European farms, 9 mostly in connection with the picking
of coffee, they are subject to little protection from the government. It is
believed that this work is not physically injurious. It has led, however, to
moral abuses in connection with women workers living away from home,
and it has also led to a growing indiscipline among children. In an
attempt to improve matters, the administration has promulgated rules
which provide that no owner shall allow any native woman worker
to remain on the premises at night unless accompanied by her husband, if
married, or by her father or other relatives if single, or less suitable
separate or joint female accommodations are provided. 10 Under an amend¬
ment of the Masters and Servants Ordinance of 1919, the employment
of natives under the age of sixteen as porters, fuel cutters, trolley or
rickshaw boys, or in any other class of labor for which in the opinion of
the government medical officer children are unsuitable, is prohibited.
Nevertheless, so-called toto or child labor is widely used in Kenya, not
only for coffee picking where it is not physically harmful, but also for
heavier work. Thus children have been used on the sisal estates in the
Thika and Fort Hall districts, and in fuel and ballast camps. Recently,
the labor inspectors stopped children eight or nine years of age from break¬
ing heavy stone for European employers—the allotted task being seventeen
cubic feet a day. Inasmuch as this toto labor is casual and not contract
labor, it is not subject to medical examination. Further legislation appears
to be necessary to safeguard the interests of native women and children.

2. Female and Child Labor

In 1925, the Kenya Medical Service instructed one of its officers on
return from leave to study the treatment of labor in South Africa, the
Congo, and other places. This official published a series of articles in
the local paper, pointing out that Kenya fell short of many other territories
in the treatment of labor. 11

It appears that the diet given the Kenya native is inferior to that
of other parts of Africa. 12 The Chief Medical Officer declared in the
annual report for 1924 that “Visits to European farms have disclosed
the fact that in almost all the cases, African labour is housed under the
most unsanitary conditions and much overcrowding occurs. 13 The govern-

8 The number of children under employment increased from 5935 in 1922 to
11,315 in 1925. Agricultural Census, 1925, p. 41.

“ Gazette, cited, 1923, p. 294. Cf. also Sanitary Rules, 1924, ibid., 1924, p. 229,
requiring native employees to use specified latrines.

11 Cf. “Straight Talks on Labour,” No. 2, East African Standard, June 10, 1926,
p. 7. ““Native Diets,” Kenya Medical Journal, August, 1925.

11 Cf. East African Standard, March 21, 1925.

354

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

ment took steps to improve these conditions by the promulgation, in 1926,
of the Native Labor (Medical Treatment) Rules, 14 which oblige an
employer of more than fifty men to keep on hand a stock of certain defined
medicine and equipment, and which provide that an employer shall be
liable for the maintenance of any servant admitted as an in-patient in a
government hospital until the termination of the contract of the
native or for a maximum of thirty days. 16 The question of the proper
diet for native laborers has also received the careful attention of various
committees.

While conditions are gradually improving, much remains to be done,
particularly in regard to housing and in the enactment of accident com¬
pensation laws.

3. Government Labor

Forced labor for certain public purposes is at times necessary in every
territory in Africa. 10 Yet when administrative officials are at liberty to
resort to compulsion at their discretion, they are not apt to make suitable
efforts to obtain voluntary labor, nor to treat compulsory labor well, once
it is at hand. Moreover, it appears that for a time it was the practice
of the Kenya Government to pay compulsory labor on the railway two
shillings a month less than the wage paid to voluntary labor. But this
practice was prohibited by the Secretary of State. 17

Further difficulties over the use of wholesale batches of labor arose
in the case of the construction of the Uasin Gishu Railway, a branch
line of the Uganda Railway designed to open up another part of the
Highlands for white settlement. Most of these boys were recruited in
Tanganyika with the special permission of that government, although a
few came from South Africa.

In the contract between the Crown Agents and the contractors who
built the railway, it was provided that “the rations, accommodations,
mode of recruiting, employment, etc.,’’ shall at all times be subject to the
approval and control of the Native Affairs Department. 18 Partly because
the company relied upon labor conscripted by the government, the com¬
pany became indifferent to the laborers’ needs. In some cases, the sub¬
contractors in charge of recruiting would provide only one day’s food to
natives going home on a five days’ journey. In other cases, sub-contractors

14 Gazette, cited, August 25, 1926, p. 973.

“This obligation does not apply in regard to squatters.

,a Cf. Vo!. I, p. 464.

1T Cf. Despatch in Compulsory Labour for Government Purposes, Cmd. 2464
(1925), p. 14.

See Articles 18 and 33-41 of the Contract of September 15, 1921. Cf. Appendix
“E,” Native Affairs Department, Annual Report, 1923, p. 41.

THE TREATMENT OF LABOR

355

would hire as “voluntary” workers laborers previously recruited but
rejected by medical officers. Natives also complained that wages were
unfairly cut, and that the tasks required each day were too large. In
one case, the contractors repatriated twenty-six Cape boys to Durban,
South Africa, where they had been recruited. Upon their arrival there,
the boys complained to the magistrate that the contractor had without
cause deducted from their pay eighty-five pounds. Upon investigation,
it was found that a deduction of only seven pounds was justified. But no
action could be taken, because the contractor was in Kenya, and the
complainants in South Africa.

Apparently because of the large number of men employed and the
great distances over which they had come, the death rate was for a time
high. In one month during 1922, the death rate reached eighty-three per
thousand, which led the Secretary of State for the Colonies to order an
investigation. A more stern control by the labor inspectors and other factors
brought down the death rate to an average of 51.32 per thousand for 1922,
35.28 per thousand for 1923, and 14.28 per thousand for 1924. In the
latter year, 5,836 men were employed in contrast to 17,426 in May, 1923.
This decrease in the death rate was due partly to the decreased number
of men under employment. “It is becoming apparent every year that the
chief contributing factor in a high death rate is the concentration of a
large number of men in one camp.” 19 These high death rates were
also due to the high altitudes where the natives worked, which increased
their susceptibility to disease.

Following the completion of the Uasin Gishu Railway in 1924, work
commenced on the Fort Hall-Nyeri line, where forty-two hundred men
were under employment, and where the death rate in that year was 16.48
per thousand.

It appears that the Kenya employers follow the contract system
in vogue in practically every part of Africa where white enterprise is
dependent upon colored labor. Under the Kenya Ordinance, contracts
may be made for a period of two years, but in view of the desire of natives
to return to their reserves for part of the year, the customary contract ex¬
tends over a period of six months. The 1910 Masters and Servants
Ordinance punished desertion with a fine not exceeding two months’ wages
or imprisonment for two months. 20 But it provided that the employer
must make a complaint before a magistrate “without undue delay.”

In 1916, the Legislative Council increased the severity of these sanctions

59 Native Affairs Department, Annual Report, 1924, p. 44. “Instructions for the
Care of Labor by Government Departments” are printed in the Gazette, 1921,

P- l? 4 -

Section 48 (5).

356

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

by passing an amendment making desertion a cognizable offense for which
a police officer might arrest without a warrant. It also increased the
penalty for desertion to a fine of one hundred and fifty shillings or im¬
prisonment for six months. 21

But the Colonial Office insisted that, with the installation of the
registration system described below, desertion should no longer be a
cognizable offense. That is, if a settler wanted a native arrested for
desertion, he should first make out a complaint, as before 1916. Since
then, the Crown had been obliged to prosecute for desertion, whether the
employer wished to prosecute or not. Consequently, the employer some¬
times had to go to court miles away to be a witness, in some cases, against
his will.

These considerations led to the repeal, in 1924, of the provision that
desertion is an offense cognizable to the police. 22 In this respect, the Kenya
legislation is more liberal than that of Uganda or Tanganyika. But neither
of the latter territories has the registration system. 23

In order legally to punish offenses of laborers and particularly to
punish the offense of desertion, settlers must now go many miles to make
a complaint to a magistrate. In view of this difficulty, settlers have asked
that settler magistrates be appointed to deal with cases on the spot—
an idea which Governor Grigg has approved on the ground that it would
place responsibility upon the settler. The proposition has been severely
attacked in the House of Commons and elsewhere on the ground that it
would lead to abuse under the guise of law. While presumably a settler
magistrate would not be allowed to pass judgment upon his own employees,
he would, nevertheless, have the settler point of view, and it would be very
difficult for the Chief Justice to prevent abuses, once this power was
granted. An increased number of traveling inspectors having magisterial
powers would be a better solution.

In order to maintain a more effective control over native labor, Kenya
has in certain respects followed South Africa and Southern Rhodesia
in adopting the principle of the pass system. For a number of years, the

21 Ordinances, 1916, p. 1.

22 Proceedings of the Legislative Council, session of July 1924, East African
Standard, July 5, 1924.

23 In 1925, the courts held illegal the practice of “indefinite leave” in a case
where an employer carried one hundred and thirty-two natives on his labor roll
but actually employed only ninety-two natives. One native worked for one month,
received his wages, and went home on three months’ leave without pay. But in
order to retain his services, the employer would not indorse the discharge upon the
native’s certificate, without which indorsement it was illegal to take employment
elsewhere. Judgment, East African Standard, April 18, 1925. According to Kenya
legislation, natives must work off thirty-day contracts in forty-two days. Cf. The
Masters and Servants (Amendment) Ordinance, 1924, p. 108. This merely revived
a provision in a 1918 Ordinance. Ordinances, 1918, p. 45.

THE TREATMENT OF LABOR

357

East Africa Protectorate followed certain pass regulations. In 1915, the
Legislative Council passed a Registration Ordinance based upon the
finger-print system. The ordinance was not put into effect, however,
until 1920, on account of the War. 24 Under the present system, each
male native is required to register himself before a district officer. At this
time, the finger prints of all ten digits are taken, and three certificates, or
kipandis, are made out. One, the boy must carry in a metallic retainer; a
second goes to the Finger Print Office at Nairobi; and the third remains
with the district commissioner. Upon entering European employment, a
native must present his certificate for endorsement by the employer. Before
leaving the employer, the native must obtain a discharge; otherwise it is
illegal to accept employment elsewhere. The employer must keep a labor
register and send monthly labor returns to the chief registrar at Nairobi.
Although at first employers were slow to comply with these provisions,
at present all but seven per cent regularly send in returns. This registra¬
tion system, which is remarkably well administered, has now succeeded in
registering five hundred and sixty thousand natives—practically all the
native males in the protectorate over fifteen years of age. Despite the
reduction in its expense, the system still costs the government about fifteen
thousand pounds a year.

By means of this system, it is supposedly easy to identify and trace
deserters, since every native is catalogued. Lord Delamere declared in the
Legislative Council: “If the Registration Ordinance were properly carried
out with goodwill, there would be practically no desertion as was the case
for a short time, because it was almost impossible for anyone to get away,
provided that reasonable methods were carried out in the minor courts
of the country.” 25 But the native is clever, and when he wants to desert,
he sometimes destroys a certificate and tells the government that he has
lost it. Upon paying three shillings, he may have it replaced by a duplicate.
Unscrupulous labor recruiters frequently advance this sum in order to get
the deserter to work for a new employer! The repeal of the provision
making desertion a cognizable offense, which took place at the introduction
of the Kipandt system, makes the apprehension of deserters more difficult
than before. Originally, the natives bitterly resented the obligation to
carry their kipandis, which they regarded as badges of servitude. This was
one of the grievances which led to the Thuku movement. 26 To the credit
of Kenya, it must be admitted that the system is administered more

w Ordinances, 1915, p. lxxii; ibid., 1920, p. in; Native Registration Ordinance,
ibid., 1921, p. 247; Native Registration Rule, Gazette, cited, 1923, p. 743; Kyambu
Rules, ibid., 1925, p. 434.

* East Africa Standard, Supplement, April 18, 1925.

* Cf. Vol. I, p. 375.

358

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

leniently than it is in South Africa. 27 The native is not asked to show his
certificate while in his reserve. Only European or Indian officials may
ask him for it outside the reserve. That is, he is not molested by native
constables. With his life-long kipandi on his person, a native may freely
move from one part of the colony to another. The system presents some
advantages to the native, since in case of death the government may
trace his relatives and thus settle his estate. It appears that the native
agitation against the system has, temporarily at least, declined.

This machinery for adjusting the relations of European employers to
native wage-earners creates a new category of “crimes” unknown to native
law and involving no moral turpitude, according to European standards.
As we have seen, the machinery punishes desertion and negligence. Like¬
wise, failure to carry a kipandi, to pay taxes, and to live up to sanitary
rules are all offenses created by European law. In 1922, 2187 natives
were punished under the Masters and Servants Ordinance. In the same
year, there were also 3872 violations of the Revenue, Municipal, and
other laws, 2216 of which were for non-payment of hut taxes. The
Kenya prisons became crowded with native offenders against these minor
regulations huddled indiscriminately with hardened criminals. The
situation thus created led the Governor to appoint a Native Punishment
Commission, to inquire, among other subjects, into the methods whereby
labor offenses could be effectively dealt with. The Commission said:
“Imprisonment for many technical offences is a great mistake; fines should
ordinarily be imposed. ... In default of fine, it is suggested that periods
of detention be inflicted, the detention to consist of an obligation to live
in a place allotted for the purpose, and to work not as a-prisoner sur¬
rounded by guards, but on parole for a Government Department.” 28
Its results would be to render such convicts free from any chance of con¬
tamination through association with criminals in jails. 29

This idea of detention camps was carried into effect in an ordinance
passed in 1925.

While undoubtedly native offenders against labor and tax laws should

27 This will not be true, however, if South Africa adopts the measure now under
consideration. Cf. Vol. I, p. 1x6.

* Native Punishment Commission Report, 1923, Nairobi, p. 2.

28 It did not believe that flogging for technical offenses was suitable. It went
on to say: “But it is doubtful if natives can be flogged to a higher morality. It
has in the end a brutalising effect both on the convict, on the magistrate, and on the
person who inflicts the punishment, and it should, in our opinion, be confined to
juveniles who might be caned for trivial offenses and to those who commit brutal
crimes, who should be flogged. . . . The Commission as a whole is not convinced
that flogging has much more deterrent effect on the average native than it has on
the average schoolboy. . . . The native evidence shows that imprisonment is the
most dreaded form of punishment.” Ibid., p. 2.

THE TREATMENT OF LABOR

359

not be herded into an ordinary prison, there is a danger that if the detention
camp system is put into effect, officials will impose stem sentences in order
to secure to the government a cheap and compulsory labor supply, thus
indirectly increasing the settlers’ labor supply . 30 Grave abuses under a
similar peonage system have occurred in the southern states of America . 31

It is understood that the Tanganyika Government proposes to improve
upon the plan by limiting the labor of these prisoners in detention camps
to work for the native administration—a system which might lead to equal
abuses by the native chiefs. It should be remembered that in those colonies
where a system of peasant production prevails, offenses against labor laws
and regulations are seldom committed, and hence the problem with which
Kenya is confronted does not arise.

** Cf. the correspondence between the Colonial Office and the Anti-Slavery
Society, The Anti-Slavery Reporter and Aborigines' Friend, January, 1926, p. 139.

Many of these abuses have arisen, however, from the practice of farming out
of prisoners to private employers. Cf. E.*B. Rueter, The American Race Problem,
New York, 1927, pp. 238 ff.

CHAPTER 23

KENYA NATIVE POLICY

In establishing control over the East Africa Protectorate, the ad¬
ministration encountered a number of difficulties with war-like nomadic
tribes. Perhaps the chief of these was the Somali people, living in the
north in what is called Jubaland and in the Lamu district. Following
the murder of an official by these semi-Arabian people, the British Govern¬
ment undertook an expedition against the Somalis in 1901, as a result
of which they obliged the Somalis to pay a fine of five thousand cattle.
The Somalis, as a group, now give little difficulty in Kenya, but Somali
traders cause trouble within the reserves, because of their thieving habits.
In order to protect the natives against their activities, as well as against
the activities of other traders, the government occasionally proclaims
“closed districts” from which traders are excluded.

I. Administration

Under Foreign Office control, the Protectorate was divided into seven
provinces (excluding the coastal strip), each in charge of a sub¬
commissioner, and each was divided into districts administered by collectors
and sub-collectors, who were in charge of Europeans and natives alike. 1

This general system of administration prevailed until 1924, when,
because of the growth of European areas, a change was made and resident
commissioners were appointed to administer European affairs in ten extra¬
provincial districts such as Naivasha and Nakuru. They correspond
directly with the Colonial Secretary, the administrative head of the govern¬
ment. The remainder of the country is divided into seven provinces, 2

1 Report on the East Africa Protectorate, Cd. 1626 (1903) p. 11.

3 Until recently, there were eight provinces, but in 1924 the province of Jubaland
was ceded to Italy. In the secret Treaty of London, in 1915, it was provided that
Italy could “claim some equitable compensation, particularly as regards the settle¬
ment in her favor of the questions relative to the frontiers of the Italian colonies
of Eritrea, Somaliland, and Libya, and the neighboring colonies belonging to
France and Great Britain.” In fulfilment of this pledge, in 1924, the British
Government finally ceded to Italy the Juba province south of the Juba River,
which is suitable for the cultivation of cotton. The text of the treaty is printed as
a schedule to the Anglo-Italian Treaty Act, 1925, 15 & 16 Geo. 5, Ch. 9. The
Italian Government undertakes in this treaty that if at any time it shall desire
to abandon all or any part of the territory thus transferred, it shall offer the same

360

KENYA NATIVE POLICY

361

each in charge of a senior commissioner responsible to a Chief Native
Commissioner. 3 These provinces are in turn divided into twenty-six native
districts, each in charge of a district commissioner, who is responsible to
the senior commissioner of the province. The Estimates provide for one
hundred and twelve administrative officials or one official for about every
22,300 people. 4 The ratio is much smaller than in other British colonies,
and would indicate that a comparatively large European population de¬
mands administrative attention and also that a firmer control over the
native is needed in a White Settlement colony than in a native state. The
absence of well organized native groups also makes direct administration
necessary. A commissioner has a limited judicial power over both Euro¬
peans and natives, the extent of which depends upon whether the Governor
has bestowed upon him the powers of a first, second, or third class
subordinate court. 6

Resembling in this respect the natives of other parts of East Africa,
the natives of Kenya are divided roughly into the Bantu and the Nilotic
peoples. The leading Bantu peoples are the Kikuyu and the Akamba.®
The natives inhabiting the Kavirondo reserves are divided into the Ja Luos,
who are Nilotics, and the Bantu. The Giriama, a Bantu tribe inhabiting
part of the Coast Province, revolted against the government in 1914/
The leading Nilotic people are the Masai, a pastoral and warring tribe,
to whom the Nandi, the Lumba, and the Kamasia are related. These
tribes usually have important religious leaders called Laibons at their head.

When the Europeans occupied this territory, they found no native

to the British Government upon such terms as may be just. In event of differences
as to the terms of transfer, the question shall be referred to arbitration in accord¬
ance with the provisions prescribed by the Council of the League of Nations.
The provisions of this treaty affecting the Sultan of Zanzibar are discussed in
Vol. I, p. 271.

* Designation of Officers Ordinance, 1921, Ordinances, 1921, p. 5. There is
apparently no ordinance establishing the office of Chief Native Commissioner or
defining his powers. But by proclamation, the Governor has delegated to this
officer the Governor’s duties in connection with the administration of the Masters
and Servants Ordinance, the Resident Native Ordinance, the Registration of
Natives Ordinance, the inspection of labor, and native policy and administration
generally.

* In Nigeria, there is one official for every one hundred thousand people, and
in Uganda, one for every forty-nine thousand.

“ Courts Ordinance. Ordinances, 1907, p. 36. The subordinate court of the
first class may impose imprisonment not exceeding two years and a fine not ex¬
ceeding two thousand shillings. A second class court may impose imprisonment for
six months and a fine not exceeding four hundred shillings, while a third class
court may impose imprisonment for one month and a fine not exceeding one hun¬
dred shillings. The third class court does not have jurisdiction over Europeans.

“The native customs of these people are discussed in C. W. Hobley, Bantu
Beliefs and Magic, London, 1922; C. W. Hobley, Ethnology of A-kamba and other
East Africa Tribes, Cambridge, 1910; Routledge, With a Prehistoric People, cited.
G. St. J. Orde Browne, The Vanishing Tribes of Kenya, Philadelphia, 1925.

1 Cf. Vol. I, p. 373.

362

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

states such as exist in Uganda. Except for a few groups governed by out¬
standing chiefs like Karuri, among the Kikuyu, 8 the Bantu villages were
loosely governed by Councils of Elders. Because of this type of organiza¬
tion, the Kenya native administration has paid little attention to ethnic
considerations. Thus it has divided up the twenty-six native districts
which embrace the native reserves into five hundred and twenty-two loca¬
tions, in many cases without regard to tribal boundaries.

2. Native Headmen

In administering these locations, the government makes use of headmen
who are usually members of well-known native families, appointed after
consultation with the Councils of Elders concerned. 9 In numerous cases,
these headmen have no traditional authority; neither do they have judicial
power, nor collect taxes. Their principal work is to maintain order and
transmit instructions from the administrative officials to the people. Kenya
thus follows a policy of direct administration. 10

Until recently, these headmen have been paid sums ranging from two
hundred and forty shillings to eighteen hundred shillings a year—sums
which, according to the headmen, are entirely inadequate to meet their
needs, particularly as some of them employ out of their own funds a num¬
ber of sub-headmen and clerks. The financial strain has been so great
that many of them have been tempted to make illegal ‘exactions. In order
to eliminate this temptation, the government increased salaries in 1026.
The plan is to group locations under an over-headman, who will receive
from fifty to one hundred shillings a month. Even these rates are low
in comparison with salaries to native chiefs in other British territories. 11
At present, the Kenya Government changes headmen about to fit adminis¬
trative needs and, as we shall see, it does not follow the principle of
hereditary succession in appointing them. 12 In establishing the native dis¬
trict councils, the administration has also ignored tribal differences. Thus
in the case of the native councils for the Kavirondo reserves, the govem-

8 Report on the East Africa Protectorate, Cd. 1626, p. 7.

"The powers of these headmen are laid down by the Native Authority Ordi¬
nance, 1912. Ordinances, 19x2, p. 94. They are obliged to maintain order; they
may make arrests of suspected natives whom they must take within twelve hours
to the district commissioner for trial; they may compel the attendance of natives
at tribunals; and they may issue orders at the advice or suggestion of the adminis¬
trative officer on such subjects as the manufacture of native liquor, drinking bouts,
the cultivation of poisonous plants, etc.

10 Under the Native Authority Ordinance, the Council of Elders may be ap¬
pointed as a collective headman of a location. This was done in the case of a
Masai location in Uasin Gishu; Gazette, cited, 1923, p. 339.

11 Cf. Vol. I, p. 578.

”Cf. Vol. I, p. 363.

KENYA NATIVE POLICY

363

ment in one case created a body having a Bantu majority and a Luo
minority, and another body with a reverse state of affairs.

While the government justifies this policy on the ground that heredi¬
tary chiefs are unknown to Kenya tribes, one has the feeling that the
Kenya Administration has not studied native institutions with a view to
using them as a basis of administration to the extent that Tanganyika,
Nigeria, and the Gold Coast Administrations have done. On the con¬
trary, the Kenya Government has rejected the appeals of native groups
for the recognition of paramount chiefs. Natives in the Kavirondo reserve
have made such a request in regard to Chief Mumias; some of the Masai
have made a similar request, while the Luo people have asked that the
government recognize a chief of their selection. In the past, there have
been several important chiefs, such as Kinanjui and Karuri, among the
Kikuyu people. But the government has not granted them any more legal
authority than more humble headmen. Despite the agitation among the
Kikuyu for some recognition of their tribal or national existence, these
people are divided at the present time into half a dozen administrative
districts.

If the natives really want a paramount chief, there is no reason why
they should not have one—except the political reason of “divide and
rule”—of dividing peoples in order to weaken them for the purpose of
preventing the growth of native organizations which may present a united
front to the whites. If such is the policy of the Kenya Administration
to-day, it is defeating itself, since in preventing tribal development, the
government is indirectly encouraging the natives to enter into detribalized
combinations such as Harry Thuku started, 13 combinations whose chief
purpose of existence, unlike that of a tribe, is opposition to Europeans.

The goal of the Kenya Government is not the goal of the Nigeria,
Gold Coast, or Tanganyika systems, but rather, to quote the acting
Governor, “a Native Administrative Service, which will afford opportuni¬
ties for the more intelligent and capable Headmen to rise by grades and
by scales of salary.” He continued: “The number of Headmen fit for
admission to such a service is, at present, limited, though as education
spreads throughout the Reserves, the numbers will certainly increase.
It is likely that this Colony will then be faced with the problem in its
Native Administration as to whether the Headmen should be drawn from
the class of Chief with territorial influence, whose claim to office will be
based on his authority over the natives in his reserve and on his inherited
position, or from the young men who have received an education at the
Mission School, and who have acquired a knowledge of Swahili and

18 Cf. Vol. I, p. 374-

364

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

possibly of English. It should be our object to utilize both classes and
find employment for them in Government.” 14

Kenya is no more likely to be successful in this system of administra¬
tion, which differs from that of most other British colonies for reasons
which are discussed elsewhere, 15 than are the French. From the stand¬
point of the welfare of the natives and the protection of the whites against
growing native indiscipline, which a strengthened tribalism would tend to
forestall, the Kenya Administration should seriously consider the de¬
sirability of placing locations, headmen, and councils upon a tribal basis. 10

3. Native Courts

The second feature of native administration in the Kenya reserves is
the Native Court, which usually consists of a Council of Elders appointed
for this purpose by the government under the Native Court Rules of
1913. 17 Councils of Elders thus recognized have jurisdiction over disputes
in regard to property having a value up to two thousand shillings. They
may try petty criminal offenses arising out of native law and custom, pro¬
vided they do not impose punishment which involves mutilation, torture,
etc. They may impose fines not exceeding five hundred shillings, and
confinement for six months in a government prison, upon a warrant signed
by the district commissioner. Administrative officers may revise any case
decided by the Council of Elders. All fees of court go to the elders,
in the form of compensation, but fines go to the general revenue of the
government. 18

14 Address of the Acting Governor, E. B. Denham, August 11, 1925, Legislative
Council, p. 15. 15 Cf. Vol. I, p. 717.

18 In its memorandum to the East Africa Commission, the Kenya Missionary
Council said: “‘Divide and rule' may have been the correct action in the early
days of the British occupation, but we think that weaknesses of division have been
fully demonstrated, both in pre-British and British history of the tribes of Kenya.
What is wanted now is consolidation. The stereotyping of existence of small
detached tribal communities such as, for instance, pertain in the Kavirondo coun¬
try cannot be done without permanently weakening the life of Africans as a
whole.”

The Council also asked that the native laws be published not only in English
but in Swahili. It declared: “Again and again also have the scales been weighed
against the Natives through the fact that the publication of all the laws is in
English. Chiefs have thus been placed most unfairly at a disadvantage in their
dealings with District Officers. Arbitrary orders based on no legal Ordinance or
interpretations thereof have all the force of a legal ordinance, when those to whom
the orders are given cannot check them by reference to the written law. And the
people labour under the same disadvantage in receiving orders from a Chief that
the Chief labours under in receiving orders from a District Officer. We, as
Missionaries, have had to protest on occasion, on the basis of our knowledge of the
powers which could lawfully be exercised by an official. These protests would
have come more fitly from the Chiefs and people themselves.”

1T Rules under Section 10, Courts Ordinance, 1910, Gazette, cited, 1913, p. 13°;

“Whenever the district commissioner is satisfied that part of the fine according
to native law and custom should go to the native as compensation, he may thus

KENYA NATIVE POLICY

365

The composition of these native courts varies according to custom.
In the Kavirondo reserves, they are known as Monday courts from the
day on which they sit, and every elder is entitled to be a member. Some¬
times sixty natives form a court or Baraza. In order to facilitate business,
cases are frequently referred to smaller committees which report back to
the open Baraza. Any person in the audience can interrogate the parties,
and decisions are made by a show of hands—in much the same way as the
courts of the Athenian democracy. A register of cases for each court is
kept in Swahili by an educated clerk, and is inspected by the district com¬
missioner who may transfer or revise native cases as he sees fit.

As a rule, there is a native court in each of the five hundred and
twenty-two locations in Kenya—which has made the problem of control
difficult. Consequently, attempts have been made to reduce the number
of native courts, which has led in the Kikuyu reserve (Fort Hall) to the
establishment of a regular giama, or native court, for every five or eight
locations. In the South Kavirondo reserve, twenty-seven petty tribunals
have been consolidated recently into three central tribunals. 19 Likewise,
native courts of appeal are being created. Such a court has been established
at Kisumu for the Central Kavirondo reserve, and another has been
instituted at North Kavirondo. The latter court is composed of fifteen
elders, three from the location of each of the parties in question; three each
from two other locations; and three from the court of first instance.

These native tribunals hear an immense number of cases. In 1924, the
native courts in Central Kavirondo decided 3372 civil cases and seven
hundred and nine criminal matters. One hundred thirty-one appeals
were taken to the native appellate court at Kisumu, of which the
baraza allowed fifty-six. Eighteen appeals from the baraza were taken
to the district commissioner, who upheld the baraza in fifteen cases. The
district commissioner therefore changed the decisions in only three cases.
If an administrator were obliged to wade through four thousand cases a
year, he would go crazy from impatience and fatigue. While these courts
give satisfaction to the natives, generally speaking, complaints have been
made against the present system of paying elders by court fees on the
ground that it leads to bribery. Among the Kikuyu, it has been a time-
honored custom for each party to give the elder a gift, called the ngoyma,
a practice which has been abused. A step forward would be taken by
paying a number of judges regular sitting fees, as is done in Nigeria. 20

dispose of it. “Native law and custom” means the law and custom of the com¬
munity over which the Council of Elders is authorized to exercise jurisdiction.

”Native Affairs Department, Annual Report, 1923, p. 10.

”The Department of Native Affairs publishes an interesting paper in English
and Swahili, called Habari.

366

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

4. Native Councils

The third institution of the reserves is the Native Council, one of which
is being established in each native district. Each council is composed of
the district commissioner (who acts as president) and natives (some of
whom are appointed directly by the Governor, and others of whom are
nominated by native barazas). These members serve for a term of three
years. The councils, which meet quarterly, may pass resolutions, subject to
the approval of the governor, for the “welfare and good government of the
native inhabitants” of the area on matters of purely local native administra¬
tion, such as food and water supply, outspans, cattle dips, roads, bridges
and culverts, public health, the recruiting of labor for public purposes,
the use of land, education, markets, agriculture, and livestock. Violations
of resolutions are liable to a penalty of imprisonment for not more than
two months or to a fine of one hundred and fifty shillings. 21 The council is
also empowered to levy a local native rate, the proceeds of which constitute
a native fund, expended on the native community. In the Kavirondo
areas, the rate is one shilling per head. 22

In addition to this local rate, the fund receives rents from mission and
trading sites in the reserves, which bring in about four thousand pounds
a year, collective fines, and also monies from a former native trust fund. 23
It is desirable that the fines of native courts should also go into these
funds, rather than to the general .government. The budget is drafted every
year by the district commissioner, who usually prepares the agenda of
the council meeting. If the Estimates, which provide for expenditures
upon education, mills, etc., within the reserves, are approved by the council,
they are sent to the provincial commissioner, and then to the Chief Native
Commissioner. They are finally approved by the Governor-in-Council.
Expenditures are audited by the auditor of the colony. 24

Two-thirds of the members of the council constitute a quorum. “The
President may disallow any question or motion which in his opinion is
undesirable in the public interest.” 26 By the end of 1925, sixteen of

a Native Authority (Amendment) Ordinance, Ordinances, 1924, p. 91.

23 Some councils have attempted to collect “cesses” or taxes from natives be¬
longing to the group concerned, but living outside the district. As such cesses fell
upon the European labor supply, the settlers protested. At the Convention of
Associations, in the fall of 1926, Governor Grigg promised that no exactions out¬
side the reserves would be allowed.

“Native Trust Fund Ordinance, Ordinances, 1921, p. 131. Ordinance 2 of 1925
empowered the government to transfer these funds to the councils. According to
the balance sheet of 1924, these funds, which were obtained from collective fines,
etc., contained total assets of 332,866 shillings. Gazette, cited, 1925, p. 1107.

“Local Native Funds (Accounting) Rules, ibid., 1925, p. 365.

“Local Native Councils (Procedure) Rules, ibid., 1925, p. 432, para. 10.

KENYA NATIVE POLICY

367

iese councils had been established . 26 In many places, such as Kyambu,
ort Hall, South Nyeri, and Meru, the councils have a majority of govern-
lent-nominated members and a minority of members nominated by the
ative barazas. In other cases, the “elected” members constitute the ma-
irity, as in the Masai Council, which is composed of fourteen official
eadmen and twenty-two baraza members; the North Kavirondo reserve,
hich has twenty-eight government members and fifty-three baraza mem-
:rs, and the Central Kavirondo Council, with nineteen government and
fty-three baraza members. In the South Lumbwa Council, government
ad baraza members are evenly divided.

The methods of nominating baraza members vary. Sometimes a
araza is attended by twelve hundred people. In the Fort Hall reserve,
le candidates for election to the council, each wearing a large number,
t before the district commissioner, who is seated on a platform. People
len file between the candidate and the commissioner, touching the three
len they wish to elect. The men are tallied according to the number they
ear. This system is still rudimentary and some natives complain that
hiefs control the voting. But in the Fort Hall Council, nine out of the
.velve elected members are mission boys; only three are conservative old
hiefs, one of whom is a witch doctor. At council meetings, the mission
oys are more timid than the chiefs. Some of them are, however, “na-
ionalistic” in the sense that they feel so strongly that tribal existence
lould be preserved that they oppose even the abolition of such vicious
ustoms as female circumcision.

At a recent session of the Fort Hall Council, a system of registration
f births and deaths was adopted—an almost revolutionary measure in
iew of the past attitude of natives toward such matters. The council also
greed that at the time of marriage dowry should be registered in terms of
billings—a measure which will prevent the countless disputes which arise
i native courts over the value of the dowry, which is usually paid in sheep
r cattle. The council also discussed proposals in regard to the prohibition
f sugar mills and to the control of the maize trade. At one of its early
neetings, the Kavirondo Council abolished the custom of burning the
tut of a deceased man following the funeral, and of passing over his
vidow to her husband’s brother. Two years ago, officials would have
aid that natives could not possibly discuss these subjects. . As a result of
hese councils, they are intelligently discussing them to-day. By itself, the
government could never have installed a system of birth or death registra-
ion, because of the tremendous native opposition to outside interference
vith these vital affairs. But through the medium of a council, the govern-

88 Gazette, cited, 1925, pp. 504, 520, 5S5, 776, 902, 1014.

368

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

ment may explain the advantages of these proposals to the natives. When
a native council adopts these proposals, they gain the support of the leaders
of native opinion—a support which would be absent if the government
attempted to apply these regulations without consulting such a body.

While the councils from the administrative standpoint thus perform
a helpful service, their primary importance in an inter-racial community
is that they serve as a peaceful outlet to native sentiment in regard to the
policies of the European administration. For the time being, these councils
will serve as a safety valve for native feeling. But for this very reason,
they may early become effective centers of native opposition to European
rule. They will eventually demand a share in the actual administration
of the government. Kenya may well study the Tanganyika and Nigerian
method of satisfying this demand by the introduction, modified to suit local
circumstances, of the principle of indirect rule. The first step in this
direction would be to recognize paramount chiefs where it is possible, and
to vest in them some real judicial authority . 27 As at present organized,
the Kenya councils will probably continue as advisory bodies, full control
over the funds remaining in the hands of European officials who preside
at all council meetings. In order to develop native responsibility, it would
be much better to transfer these funds to a real native authority. Whether
or not this step is taken, the Kenya native funds plan will not perform its
highest service until the government turns a certain proportion of native
taxes into these funds as the Government of South Africa has done . 28
At present, as we have seen, natives must, in addition to making a contribu¬
tion to the general government, pay a local rate to improve their reserves.
This system seems scarcely equitable, and will set narrow limits to the
financial benefits which these funds may bestow.

There are a number of native organizations independent of government
control in Kenya to-day. The southern Kikuyus have an active association
which, while it has remained loyal to the government, has presented re¬
peated memoranda on land and other questions. The East Africa As¬
sociation, founded by Harry Thuku, as a dissident offshoot of the Southern
Kikuyu Association, still exists and is in communication with its former
leader. Perhaps the most interesting of these associations is the Kavirondo
Welfare Association, organized and supervised by Archdeacon Owen.
This Association attempts to develop communal life in the reserves by the
construction of demonstration maize mills, etc., while it does not hesitate
to take questions affecting native rights into courts. There is a disposition

77 The reasons for this type of policy are discussed in detail in other sections.
Cf. Index—Native courts.

38 Cf. Vol. I, p. 114.

KENYA NATIVE POLICY

369

on the part of the administration to feel that since the establishment of the
district councils, these private associations should come to an end, and that
their work can be performed by the government and missionaries. Yet the
councils are so much under official control that they do not serve as com¬
plete mirrors of opinion. The Association fills a place in Kenya as useful
as that of a political party in a European state.

5. Native Obligations

Three definite obligations are imposed on the natives living in the
Kenya reserves: (1) taxation, (2) free labor for communal purposes,
(3) compulsory paid labor for public purposes. Every native male over
the apparent age of sixteen and also every widow is liable to a hut or poll
tax, the rate of which gradually increased from two rupees in 1903 20 to
three rupees in 1910, 30 and to sixteen shillings in 1921. 31 It was reduced to
six rupees, or twelve shillings, in 1923. The Masai, however, still pay a
pound because of their great wealth in cattle.

Since each hut is liable to a separate tax, a husband must pay a tax
for each wife. If, in order to evade additional taxes, a husband crowds
more than one wife into a hut, he is nevertheless liable to a separate tax.
In Kenya, a widow is obliged to pay a tax on the hut she occupies, despite
the fact that in native law it is owned by her son or other descendant of
her husband—a fact which has led to a good deal of criticism from the
natives. The practice of the government is, however, to remit the taxes
of those unable to pay. Natives not liable to a hut tax pay a poll tax of
the same amount. Partly because of the fact that this levy is a hut and
not a poll tax, probably the majority of the natives in the reserves have
more than one tax to pay. In order to avoid double taxation, many
natives and their friends advocate the abolition of the hut tax in favor of
a poll tax alone, such as exists in Uganda. 32 Others believe that the hut
tax should be retained since it is a tax on polygamy and, roughly speaking,
hits the rich man harder than it does the poor man.

It is now the practice of one brother to stay at home and keep the
family gardens, while another brother goes into the town or to European
farms long enough to earn tax money for the whole family—which, in
the case of taxes for two brothers, would be the equivalent of two or three
months’ wages. 33

29 Hut Tax Regulation, Ordinances, cited, 1876-1902, p. 117.

“Native Hut and Poll Tax Ordinance, 1910, Ordinances, 1910, p. 4.

88 Proclamation No. 86, ibid., 1921, p. 50.

33 Cf. an article by Archdeacon W. C. Owen, East African Standard, June 3,
I92J.

83 Under certain circumstances, the government allows the tax to be paid in
produce—a privilege granted today only to nomadic tribes along the Abyssinian

370

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

Unlike the practice in Uganda and other British colonies, the collection
of taxes in Kenya is in the hands not of the headmen, but of the district
commissioners. These commissioners, assisted by native “hut-counters,”
prepare a tax roll containing the name of each hut owner and the number
of his wives and huts. When tax-time comes, district commissioners visit
different centers in the district where the people have been collected by the
headmen. 34 When the tax is paid, individual receipts are issued and the
names are checked against the individual tax-roll. This work takes each
district officer three or four months a year. In 1925, the administration in
North Kavirondo tried the experiment of having two chiefs collect taxes
in their locations. The experiment is said to have worked well, and its
trial elsewhere should be seriously considered as it would be an excellent
means of imposing a controlled responsibility upon native officials, while
it would relieve district officers of a tremendous amount of work.

The question of what the Kenya native receives in return for this
money is discussed later.

The second obligation imposed upon the Kenya native is unpaid labor.
Under the Roads in Native Reserves Ordinance, 1910, free labor may be
required from all able-bodied males for the construction and maintenance
of boundary beacons, mounds, roads, and bridges. 35 Likewise, under the
Native Authority Ordinance, 36 each headmen may require able-bodied
men to work in the making or maintaining of any water course or other
work constructed or to be constructed for the benefit of the com¬
munity. But apparently a native cannot be obliged to work more than six
days a quarter, or twenty-four days a year under both ordinances. Most
of the roads in Kenya reserves are constructed and maintained by this type
of unpaid compulsory labor. Inasmuch as the people are working for their
own community, the system may be theoretically justified. It is, however,
capable of abuse. While only males are legally liable for this labor, in
Kenya women and children have been called out, sometimes by chiefs, and
sometimes by administrators. 37

frontier. If the tax is not paid by April first of each year, a native may be con¬
victed by distress; and in default of distress, the court may order his imprisonment
not to exceed three months. Certain exemptions may be made on account of age,
infirmity, and poverty.

34 Collection of Taxes and the Duties of Hut Counters and Headmen, Rules
under the Hut Tax Ordinance, 1910, Gazette, cited, 1913, p. 58; amended, ibid.,
1920, p. 55.

Ordinances, 1910, p. 43.

39 Section 7 (h), Native Authority Ordinance, Ordinances, 1912, p. 95.

* T One case was stated by the Kenya Government (Circular 89, December 14*
1922,) as follows: “A regrettable case has recently occurred in which an Adminis¬
trative Officer has issued an order purporting to be made under the Native Au¬
thority Ordinance which resulted in large numbers of women and children being
required to carry large loads of grass for a considerable distance, for which they

KENYA NATIVE POLICY

371

This unpaid labor is not exacted from natives living outside of the
reserves. But in southern Kikuyu where the reserve boundaries coincide
with European farms, all labor on roads in the reserves and through the
settled areas is now paid, owing to complaints of European farmers. This
is a cause of complaint of the Fort Hall natives who still render unpaid
labor. Some of these natives have resorted to the amusing and intelligent
expedient of entering into a labor contract with other natives, and filling
out registration forms required by the government each month so that
they may claim exemption! The period of service under this system is
about twice that required by the prestation system in the French colonies,
and the work is not restricted, as in the French system, merely to main¬
tenance. Moreover, any kind of free labor tends to be inefficient and
wasteful. For these reasons, the Labor Commission in 1912 and the
Kenya Missionary Council in 1925 recommended the abolition of free
labor. 38

In the third place, a Kenya native is liable to the obligation of per¬
forming paid labor, for not more than sixty days in any one year, for
porterage of government officials on tour and for the transport of urgent
government stores, and also for the construction and maintenance of the
following works of a public nature: (1) roads, bridges, and waterworks,
(2) railways, (3) government buildings, (4) harbor works, wharves, and
piers, (5) telegraph and telephone systems, (6) such other works as the
government may declare to be of a public nature. 30 Before utilizing com¬
pulsory labor for any of these purposes except for the porterage of officials
and urgent stores, the local administration must first obtain the sanction
of the Secretary of State—a sanction which must be sought for a specified
work and for a specified period. 40 In explaining these restrictions, the
Secretary of State said in 1925 that the extent to which compulsory
labor for public purposes should be utilized is “limited by the degree in
which those who are thus compelled to give their labour understand

received very inadequate payment and no food.” The circular called the attention
of officers to the despatch of the Secretary of State in regard to compulsory labor,
and said that “severe disciplinary measures” would be taken if these instructions
were not followed. Cf. also Circular No. 33, Native Affairs Department, 1924.

38 The Labor Commission of 1912 was of the opinion “that this form of forced
labour is wasteful, that work without pay is liable to create a distaste for work
altogether, and that the results are of little general practical value.” It went on
to say: “It is, therefore, recommended that roads and other public works in Re¬
serves should be constructed by labour paid at the market rate under competent
supervision by a technical Department.” Report, cited, p. 333.

Archdeacon W. E. Owen, among others, has made a similar proposal. East
African Standard, December 11, 1920.

38 These limitations were imposed in an amendment to the Native Authority
Ordinance, 1922, as a result of the White Paper of 1921. Cf. Vol. I, p. 335.

“Cf. Vol. I, p. 373.

372 _ THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

the social utility of the works on which they are employed.” He went on
to say:

“However necessary for the development of the Colony the works to which
he is put may be, it is not to be expected that he will readily appreciate their
necessity when he is called upon to take part in them far outside the limits
of his tribal territory; and there will be no mitigation on this account of the
distaste and resentment naturally produced by the use of compulsion. . . .
The standard of work under any system of compulsion will naturally be
inferior to that of voluntary workers; and in addition the fact that compulsory
labour is available tends to discount enterprise and progress by diverting
attention from the possibilities of labour-saving machinery. Moreover, in the
case of natives such as those of Kenya, in whom it is desired to encourage
habits of industry, I fear that the result of any widespread association of
labour with the sense of oppression caused by resort to the compulsory system
may outweigh any educative influence which might otherwise be effected by
inducing the natives to offer their labour upon terms sufficiently attractive to
them.” 41

Consequently, in the case of the Uasin Gishu Railway, the Colonial Office
laid down the requirement that only four thousand laborers could be con¬
scripted for railway construction at a time; while it definitely refused to
grant permission to conscript labor for work at the Kisumu docks. It
also insisted, that conscripted labor should be paid the same rate as volun¬
tary labor. 42

Under regulations, the government has exempted from the obligation
to perform compulsory labor ten different classes of natives, such as head¬
men, natives actually working under contract, teachers and clergymen,
and natives steadily 43 engaged in a trade, in business, or in agriculture.
Under the ordinance, natives who have been “fully employed in any oc¬
cupation” for three months out of the preceding twelve are also exempt.
While this clearly applies to natives working for European employers, it
is not clear whether it applies to natives working for themselves three
months out of the year in the reserves. In the despatch already cited,
the secretary of State for the Colonies said: “In the selection of the
individuals for compulsory labour efforts should, as you say, be made to
pick out the non-workers. By ‘non-workers’ I refer, of course, not merely
to those able-bodied males who have not engaged in work for wages out¬
side their reserve, but to the class which has neither undertaken such work
nor has shown willingness to produce economic crops for export from the

“Despatch of February 6, 1925, Compulsory Labour for Government Purposes,
Cmd. 2464, p. 16.

42 The treatment of government labor has already been discussed in Vol. I, p. 354-

48 My italics.

KENYA NATIVE POLICY

373

land in the reserve.” While the administrative official clearly cannot
conscript a native working for a European, these instructions grant him
a great deal of discretion which may be used to discriminate against the
native farmer who may not work “steadily” in the reserve and thus
indirectly result in leading natives to seek European employment to escape
government exactions.

In 1924, the Kenya Government conscripted about 25,500 men for a
total of 241,195 days for public purposes. About fifteen thousand of these
men were for the use of the administration, apparently for porterage. 44

Such are the obligations of the Kenya native: a tax of twelve shillings,
which many natives must pay two or three times, supplemented by a council
rate; the obligation to perform twenty-four days of free labor a year,
and under certain circumstances to perform sixty days of paid labor a
year—a maximum liability of three months’ public service. In addition,
the native is “encouraged” to go out and work for the European settler
and to develop the land which remains at home. Nevertheless, the average
European in Kenya believes that the native lives an indolent life. It
should be reiterated that the Europeans, the Asiatics, and the natives in
European employment escape all of these obligations except the obligation
to pay taxes.

Kenya officials assert that the obligation to perform compulsory unpaid
labor is seldom enforced to the maximum limit of twenty-four days. If
this is so, the Roads Ordinance under which the natives are made liable for
this period could without practical difficulty be repealed. In all fairness
it should be pointed out that the Secretary of State for the Colonies im¬
poses more strict control upon the conscription of labor for public purposes
in Kenya and Uganda than he imposes in any other territory in Africa.
In Tanganyika, the administration may freely conscript labor without
securing prior consent. 45

6. Native Opposition

Following early trouble with the Somalis, the government was obliged
to suppress a revolt of the Nandis in 1905. Just before the World War.
a Bantu tribe near the coast, the Giriama, revolted when officers attempted
to move them out of the area north of the Sabaki river. They had been
driven south of the river years before by the Galla invasion but had
gradually returned. The East Africa Commission expressed the opinion
that this move was caused by a desire to secure land for European estates.
It appears that this opinion was, however, erroneous, inasmuch as there are

**Native Affairs Department, Annual Report, 1924, Appendix “E.”

44 Cf. Vol. I, p. 467.

374

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

no such estates in the area vacated. Dr. Leys expresses the opinion that
the tribe was moved in order to make more labor available for the coast. 48
Administrative officers assert that the move was made in an effort to
bring the tribe under closer administration and to get it to return to land
which it had always held since the Galla invasion; and that the revolt
occurred because of the indiscreet methods of the officer in charge.

The Masai, as we have seen, have also caused some trouble.

The greatest excitement of all in Kenya, however, was caused by a
native named Harry Thuku. In the midst of the financial and economic
depression in Kenya in 1921, the settlers decided, as a retrenchment
measure, to reduce, native wages one-third.

During this period Kenya was experiencing difficulties with its cur¬
rency, at that time the Indian rupee. When its value rose from is. 4d. to
2s. 4d. the government attempted to stabilize it at 2s. Thereafter the price
fell to is. 4d., which led to complaints that capital had been confiscated.
European over-drafts at the bank were automatically increased fifty
per cent. Following unsuccessful attempts to control the price of the
rupee, the government substituted the florin, and from January, 1922,
it adopted the East Africa shilling which has the value of an English
shilling, but is divided into a hundred cents. These readjustments, to¬
gether with efforts to reduce the value of local money, which need not be
discussed, led to further unrest among the natives, who could not under¬
stand the fluctuation in the purchasing power of the wages which they
received.

Moreover, taxes were now raised from twelve to sixteen shillings; the
registration system was put into effect; and government commissioners
talked of taking away native land. Meanwhile the government had started
or intensified its policy of labor “encouragement,” particularly of women
and children for coffee estates. Prompted by these exactions, a native
called Harry Thuku, formerly a government employee, and a native of
questionable moral character, 47 formed an East Africa Native Association,
which held protest meetings throughout the reserves, sometimes attended
by as many as five thousand natives. 48 It is believed that Thuku was
under the influence of and financed by local Indians. At one meeting,

“Leys, Kenya, cited, p. 131.

47 It is understood that Thuku had served a term in prison for forgery and that
he had been excommunicated from the church of which he had been a member.

48 It appears that Thuku originally belonged to the South Kikuyu Association
which had been established by missionaries. But he withdrew because of jealousy
and disagreement with the policy of that association. At that time, the South
Kikuyu Association limited its activities to the southern part of the province.
Thuku went north where he got a hearing, which he probably would not have
received had the original Kikuyu Association embraced the whole of the province.

KENYA NATIVE POLICY

375

Thuku, who became more and more violent in his criticism, urged the
natives to throw all their kipandis into a motor lorry and dump them in
front of Government House. The leaders in the movement made not only
a political but a religious appeal. In one communication, native Christians
were urged to pray for Thuku and his elders who “have been set apart
by our God to be our guides in our present condition of slavery which we
knew not . . . before the Europeans came into this our country of East
Africa.” The prayer continued: “Also remember how that our God
brought the Children of Israel out of the house of bondage of King
Pharoah. . . . And to Him let us pray again, for He is our God. Also
let us have faith, since in the eyes of our God there is no distinction of
white or black. All are the sons of Adam and alike before Him, Jehovah,
our living God. Also remember how that Goliath was unable to hurt
David when David was a child and not yet full-grown. Nor could Saul
hurt David, for David was chosen by Jehovah our God. . . . Thou, Lord
Jehovah, our God, it is Thou Who hast set apart to be our Master and
Guide Harry Thuku; may he be the chief of us all.” Of this invocation
the Chief Native Commissioner said (in 1922) “. . . The whole tenor of
the prayer is to stimulate enmity between Black and White. . . . This I
consider highly seditious.” 40

Apparently because of this “seditious” teaching, the government ar¬
rested Thuku in March, 1922, under the Removal of Natives Ordinance of
1909 50 which enables the Governor to deport a native conducting himself
so as to be dangerous to peace and good order from one part of the pro¬
tectorate to another without making specific charges against him. But
instead of taking him to the permanent jail, located in an impregnable
position outside of town, the authorities put Thuku in the Nairobi police
quarter guard. In the evening, a crowd of natives, numbering about
two thousand, gradually accumulated in front of the guard. At the order
of the resident magistrate, some of the natives went home, but in the
morning the crowd was greater than ever. Rickshaw boys, cooks, and
government employees all deserted and came to the demonstration. Mean¬
while, leading natives had an interview with the Governor’s deputy, as a
result of which they urged the natives at the jail to disperse. They would
probably have done so had it not been for native prostitutes in front who
harangued the men to stay. The crowd then surged forward toward the
forty native askari guarding the jail, which led the police officer in charge
to telephone for the King’s African Rifles. Meanwhile a native agitator

40 Native Disturbances in Kenya, Cmd. 1691 (1922) pp. 5-6. For similar
native movements, cf. Index—native revolts.

00 Ordinances, 1909, p. 51.

376

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

tore down a white flag, which led a European police captain to grapple
with him. In the melee, the captain stumbled and fell, and the askari,
who had been continuously on duty for the last eighteen hours, thinking
their officer had been attacked, fired upon the crowd without orders, killing
eighteen natives. At the magistrate’s inquest, it was declared that while
the shooting was regrettable, it was justified under the circumstances. 51
Thuku along with several other leaders was deported to Jubaland. The
government employees who left their work to witness the demonstration
were either dismissed or fined from two weeks’ to a month’s salary. 52
Since 1921, there has been no widespread native disaffection in Kenya.
But at the meeting of the Convention of Associations in the fall of 1926,
one representative (Major Hemsted) expressed the opinion that the
natives would soon present an organized resistance to European labor de¬
mands—an opinion echoed by one writer in the local paper. 53

Whether or not further trouble with the natives arises will largely
depend upon government policy in the future.

7. Inter-Racial Crime

When a white community finds itself surrounded by another race of
inferior civilization and standards of living, it unconsciously feels itself
in danger. In this atmosphere of fear, an abnormal psychology is produced
which drives men to action which, isolated, or separated from this racial
environment, they would not take. When to this fear a conflict between
economic interests is added, any such inter-racial community lives in a
high state of nervous tension, which magnifies the friction points between
white and black.

As early as 1905, the Colonist Association told the Secretary of State
for Colonies: “As the country becomes more settled, as fences are erected
and the savage finds himself shut out from the enjoyment of land which
before he could roam over and enjoy, so will his resentment grow.”

There is no doubt that native crime in Kenya has increased within the
last few years. In his 1925 report, the Kenya Commissioner of Police
states that crime grows in proportion to the extension of settled areas in
the colony. While there were only four hundred and ninety-two serious
crimes committed in 1925 in the native reserves where the vast majority
of the natives live, 3,926 serious crimes were committed, mostly by natives,
in the European areas. The report says that “house-breaking or burglary

“ For the finding, see the East African Standard, April 1, 1922. And Cmd.
1691, cited, p. 15.

““Nairobi Disturbances and Government Native Employees,” Government
Circular 22, March 27, 1922.

M Cf. Vol. I, p. 341.

KENYA NATIVE POLICY

377

is one of the offences against property to which the native who has come
into contact with civilisation in the towns of the Colony is becoming in¬
creasingly addicted. . . .” It goes on to say that “Gambling in its simpler
forms appeals strongly to the great majority of natives” and that the
gambler most frequently degenerates into the thief. “The congregation
in the larger townships of unemployed natives, many of whom may be
regarded as detribalised, is accountable for the large proportion of offences
against property which continue to be prevalent and to increase in urban
areas. This type of native is outside tribal control, does not and will
not work, and is the constant associate of prostitutes and of characters
as bad or worse than his own. He is insolent and contemptuous of au¬
thority, and in fact is the native counterpart of the ‘hooligan’, that objec¬
tionable feature of the larger towns in England.” Cases of house-breaking
were reported to have increased from one hundred and ninety-three in
1924 to two hundred and sixty-one in 1925. 54

The primary cause for the increase in native crime is, as the police
report points out, the dissolution of old tribal law and the imposition
upon disorganized native life of a new system which the native does not
understand. European law, applied by a foreign government, has no hold
over him except the hold of force. Natives will have little moral com¬
punction in violating it 55 until it comes to be supported by native opinion.

Moreover, natives have frequently been victims of injustice in European
courts. While they have been very lenient with European offenders
against natives, they have, as a rule, been extremely severe with native
offenders against Europeans.

It appears that the increased contact between the two races in Kenya
has also led to an increase in the assaults on European women. One
of the most vicious of these assaults was committed by a native at Kijabe
in 1926 upon a European woman about eighty years of age. The Kenya
settlers exercised remarkable restraint under circumstances which in the
United States would have led to a lynching. Following this assault,,
legislation was introduced making rape a capital offense whether com¬
mitted by white or black; but it is doubtful whether the possibility of the
death penalty will deter a native otherwise bent upon crime.

The feeling of the European population in regard to the growth of
native crime was illustrated by a resolution of the Executive Committee of

“The report published in East African Standard, February 26, 1927, p. 15.
The report points out that the proportion of police to population in Kenya is one
to 1148; while in the London Metropolitan Police Area, it is one to three hundred
and sixty-seven. The proportion of murders to population in Kenya is one per
one hundred thousand persons compared to four per one hundred thousand in
England and Wales.

65 Cf. Vol. I, p. 720.

378

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

the Convention of Associations which referred to the “grave situation aris¬
ing out of the recent lamentable indications of the general moral deteriora¬
tion of the native.” 5e In October, 1926, the Convention carried a motion
urging that an indorsement as to the nature of his offense should be made
upon the registration certificate of a native who had committed a crime.

It is perhaps natural that in this tense atmosphere the government
and some Europeans should come to believe that their best protection is in
force. Throughout all the colonies of Central Africa, the military and
police forces are composed of native soldiers commanded by European
officers. Such is the case with the King’s African Rifles and the police
forces in British East Africa. But in a community where inter-racial feel¬
ing develops as a result of white settlement, there is a feeling, subconscious
at least, that the natives will revolt against the whites and that in this
revolt they will be joined by the native soldiers. In order to protect
Europeans against this possibility, the governments of white settlement
colonies believe that a European military organization should be estab¬
lished. These considerations have led South Africa and Rhodesia to
adopt conscription for the white population. The same development is
now taking place in Kenya. In 1905, the Colonist Association petitioned
the Secretary of State that a “burgher” force of whites be established, a
demand which the Europeans repeated in 1913. In 1921, the government
introduced legislation 57 to this effect, which was passed by the Legislative
Council, but which was vetoed by the Labor Secretary of State.

In November, 1926, the same bill was published for reintroduction
in the Legislative Council; and a select committee of that body, which
included six elected members, agreed that the principle of compulsory
service was necessary “for dealing with internal disturbances.” The
Governor, Sir Edward Grigg, declared that the purpose of European
conscription was to “give adequate mobility to the reserve companies of the
King’s African Rifles, should they be needed to maintain peace upon our
frontiers.” Europeans should serve along with Africans for this purpose.
In January, 1927, the terms of a modified bill were published, which
provides for the compulsory enrollment in the Defense Force of all male
European residents between the ages of eighteen and fifty, both of whose
parents are Europeans. Thus both Indians and natives are excluded.
These conscripts are liable to render general military service “within the
Colony for the defense thereof or for the protection of life and property
therein.” Each defense force district is organized to constitute a complete
unit and is in charge of a district commandant and a local committee.

M East African Standard, June 19, 1926, p. 32.

17 Minutes of the Proceedings of the Legislative Council, 1921, p. 139.

KENYA NATIVE POLICY

379

Every man liable between the ages of eighteen and thirty must undergo
an annual course of training not exceeding a hundred hours; while men
between thirty and fifty must undergo a course not exceeding twelve hours
in the aggregate. 58

It appears, however, that many Europeans in the towns, who constitute
a more transient element in the population than the Europeans in the
country, opposed this idea of compulsion. A mass meeting was held at
Nairobi in December, 1926, at which a resolution was adopted protesting
against the bill which was described as a “scandalous infringement of the
liberties of Kenya settlers.” 50 It is a case, apparently, where the govern¬
ment and the responsible Europeans wish to impose obligations upon the
general European community, the members of which do not believe that
inter-racial conflict will arise, but who insist that the government follow
policies which, sooner or later, may lead to trouble.

8. Poor Whites

Another product of the inter-racial community has also begun to appear
in Kenya—the Poor White—the unsuccessful European who cannot main¬
tain the high standards established by the leaders of the community. Diffi¬
culties of educating European children on farms, which the Kenya Gov¬
ernment is now trying to overcome, tend in a few cases, at least, to the
production of illiterate Europeans whom the Director of Education recently
called “White Negroes.” A recent census showed that twenty-five per
cent of the white children in the Nakuru district and eighteen per cent
in the Naivasha district were growing up without an education. The
Director said that if this state of affairs continued, Europeans could not
“maintain the influence and prestige” of their race. 60 The activities of
the Salvation Army in Nairobi would indicate that some Europeans are
already on the border line.

This discussion of Kenya’s native policy shows that Kenya is inclined
to follow the example of South Africa rather than that of Tanganyika'
or of Nigeria. Instead of attempting to build up tribal institutions, Kenya
has, with the best of intentions, instituted a system of advisory councils,
without regard to tribal differences, through which natives may voice
complaints. As long as a third of the able-bodied men . are permanently
away from home, it will probably be impossible to build up tribal insti¬
tutions. It is possible that the very existence of white settlement makes

For the statement of “objects and reasons” reprinted from the Gazette, cf.
East African Standard, March 26, 1927, p. 9.

“ African World, December 18, 1926, p. 344.

80 Speech at Thika; East African Standard, January 9, 1926.

380

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

an anti-tribal native policy inevitable. If this is true, the contrast between
white settlement territories and native states will become greater than
ever. In the first, native groups will dissolve and their place will be
taken by advisory councils under government control and by unofficial
political associations which cannot possibly take the place in native life
which the tribe formerly occupied and whose chief basis of existence will
inevitably become racial. In native states, however, tribal institutions will
remain intact and develop under conditions in which natives will be more
concerned about relationships between natives than their relations with
Europeans.

CHAPTER 24

THE DUAL POLICY

In West Africa, Uganda, and Tanganyika the British Government
has made determined efforts to improve native agriculture for the purpose
of increasing trade with Europe and of bettering the material condition
of the natives themselves. Likewise, the leading colonial governments in
Africa have done something to provide a medical service for the natives
and to aid, directly or indirectly, educational development. But when a
European in contrast to a native system of agriculture and industry is
introduced into a colony such as Kenya, the efforts of the administration
on behalf of these native enterprises are necessarily made more difficult.
The government in a territory having a comparatively large and per¬
manent white population must pay attention to European education and
medical assistance—an attention which need not be as great in a territory
where the white population is more limited and transient. In theory,
therefore, less revenue in a white settlement colony should go to the
natives than in a native state.

I. The Doctrine of Trusteeship

The extent to which the interests of natives in African territory may
be subordinated to European interests is supposedly controlled by certain
declarations of policy, some of which take the form of international engage¬
ments. As early as 1885, the British Government had pledged itself in
the Act of Berlin to improve the moral and physical well-being of the
native populations in Africa, 1 and in article 23 of the Covenant of the
League of Nations the British Government promised to secure “just treat¬
ment of the native inhabitants” under its control. The most specific
declaration to this effect came in 1923 at the time of the settlement of the
Indian controversy when the British Government said:

"Primarily, Kenya is an African territory and His Majesty’s Government
think it necessary definitely to record their considered opinion that the interests
of the African natives must be paramount, and that if, and when, those
interests and the interests of the immigrant races should conflict, the former

1 Cf. Vol. II, p. 889. •

38i

382

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

should prevail. Obviously the interests of the other communities, European,
Indian or Arab, must severally be safeguarded. Whatever the circumstances
in which members of these communities have entered Kenya, there will be no
drastic action or reversal of measures already introduced, such as may have
been contemplated in some quarters, the result of which might be to destroy
or impair the existing interests of those who have already settled in Kenya.
But in the administration of Kenya, His Majesty’s Government regard
themselves as exercising a trust on behalf of the African population, and
they are unable to delegate or share this trust, the object of which may be
defined as the protection and advancement of the native races. It is not
necessary to attempt to elaborate this position; the lines of development are
as yet in certain directions undetermined, and many difficult problems arise
which require time for their solution. But there can be no room for doubt
that it is the mission of Great Britain to work continuously for the training
and education of the Africans towards a higher intellectual moral and
economic level than that which they had reached when the Crown assumed
the responsibility for the administration of this territory. At present special
consideration is being given to economic development in the native reserves,
and within the limits imposed by the finances of the Colony, all that is possible
for the advancement and development of the Africans, both inside and outside
the native reserves, will be done.” 3

Thus while the British Government has encouraged the white settle¬
ment of Kenya, it has also undertaken to promote the welfare of the
native inhabitants—the Dual Policy of development. According to this
policy, the government should encourage native along with European
agriculture and fulfil the educational and health needs of the natives as
much as those of Europeans. It appears that the suggestion of native
agricultural development in Kenya first came from the Economic and
Finance Committee in 1921, which urged the native production of maize
as a temporary means of saving Kenya from bankruptcy. While the
authors of this policy apparently intended it as a temporary measure, Gov¬
ernor Coryndon emphasized it as a permanent policy; and it has had the
official support of the Secretary of State. The East Africa Commission
declared that ‘‘the dual policy of increasing the quantity and quality of
production on the native lands pari passu with the development of Euro¬
pean cultivation” is necessary, if only on financial grounds. 3

While attention has been directed primarily to its economic aspects, the
Dual Policy in its widest application means that the native inhabitants of
a Kenya territory should have the same opportunities for social develop¬
ment as the inhabitants of any other territory. The European population
should not be a handicap but rather a help to native advancement.

9 In diary in Kenya, Cmd. 1932, p. 10. * Report, cited, p. 181.

THE DUAL POLICY

383

What steps have been taken in Kenya to carry this policy into effect?
As we have seen, the British Government has established certain native
reserves based with several exceptions upon the land which natives occupied
at the coming of the white man. Likewise, it has in theory rejected the
idea of compulsory labor for private purposes. These measures are, how¬
ever, more or less defensive in the sense that they attempt to safeguard
the economic independence of the native. What is the native to do with
his land and with his time? What steps are being taken to improve his
social and physical well-being? In other words, has the Kenya Govern¬
ment undertaken to carry out any obligations in regard to education,
health, and the promotion of native agriculture? What does the native
receive in return for the taxes he pays? The rate of native taxation in
the territories of Kenya, Uganda, and Tanganyika is about the same.
In Kenya, the rate is twelve shillings except in the case of the Masai,
where it is a pound. Native councils may also impose local rates which
are not considered in these calculations. In Uganda, the tax rate is
somewhat higher—fifteen shillings for most districts. In Tanganyika, a
hut and poll tax is imposed averaging about twelve shillings.

The per capita situation is as follows:

NATIVE TAXES AND EXPORTS
EAST AFRICA—1926

Colony

Native

Hut and
Poll Taxes

Average
tax per
Capita

Exports

Per cent
Taxes to
Exports

Kenya .

516,250

2,724,629

19.0

Uganda .

401,500

5 . 097 . 2*5

7-9

Tanganyika.

691,000

3,007,879

23.0

From this table, it is evident that despite the fact that the rate in these
territories is about the same, the Kenya native is subject to a much heavier
direct tax than the native of Uganda and to a somewhat heavier tax than
the native of Tanganyika. This is partly due to the fact that in contrast
to Kenya, where natives over sixteen must pay a separate hut tax for each
additional wife, in Uganda a man over eighteen is liable only to a poll
tax. It may also be due to more liberal exemptions in Uganda and
Tanganyika than in Kenya.

How much of this tax money is directly returned to the native? In
the first place, all of these governments expend certain sums on salaries
of headmen or chiefs as follows:

384

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

PAYMENTS TO NATIVE AUTHORITIES, 1926

Territory

Salaries

Percent
of total
native tax

Uganda .

72,200

18.0

Tanganyika .

125,590 1

18.2

Kenya .

32,000

, 6.2*

3 This is the payment to native treasuries.

3 1926 Estimates. In all territories, payments to native interpreters, station
hands, hut counters, tribal retainers, etc., are excluded from these figures.

Thus it is evident that Kenya returns a much smaller proportion of her
revenue to native chiefs and headmen than do the other two governments,
which is explained by the policy of direct administration and the absence
of important chiefs in Kenya.

In the second place, all of these governments make certain expenditures
in regard to education, medical work, and agriculture. We shall first
examine the expenditures of the Kenya Government in regard to these
subjects, without differentiating between amounts spent upon ' natives,
Indians, and Europeans in comparison with expenditures in other
territories.

Ill

EXPENDITURES UPON NATIVE WELFARE 1
In EAST AFRICA in 1926

COLONIES

Agriculture,

Veterinary,

Forests

Education

'v' ■

Total Welfare

Amt.

% of

Amt.

% of

Amt.

%of

Amt.

%of

per 100

Expen-

per 100

Expen-

per 100

Expen-

per 100

Expen-

persons

ditures

persons

ditures

persons

ditures

persons

ditures

Kenya

6.200

6.75

4.249

4.62

7.512

8.18

17.961

19-55

Uganda

2.872

6.95

1463

3-55

4.370

10.56

8.705

21.06

Tanganyika

3-595

8.38

1.609

3.76

4.680

11.92

9.884

24.06

Zanzibar

* 5-45

6.91

7.16

3.20

20.70

9.25

43-31

19.36

1 Percentages of total ordinary expenditures

According to this table Kenya devotes a slightly smaller proportion
of her revenue to agriculture and medical work than do Uganda and
Tanganyika. Her per capita expenditures on native welfare are, how¬
ever, about twice as high, but they must be divided between three main

THE DUAL POLICY

385

racial communities while the expenditures in the other two territories go
almost entirely to the natives alone . 4 In the following table, an attempt
has been made to segregate expenditures upon the natives in Kenya from
general expenditures, and then to compare native expenditures in Kenya,
a white settlement colony, with corresponding expenditures in Uganda,
a native state.

NATIVE WELFARE EXPENDITURE—KENYA AND UGANDA
1926

Kenya Ucanda

Expenditu

re in Pounds

Expenditu

re in Pounds

Amount

Per Hundred

Amount

Per Hundred

Natives

I. Agriculture .

. 44.87* '

1 -75

74,011

2.36

II. Medical work .

. 147,000*

5-74

137,029

4-37

III. Education .

. 64,34* !

2.43

46,085

1.47

‘Total agricultural expenditure amounts to 113,999 pounds of which 24,676
pounds are “exclusively native.” Upon the basis of the value of non-European to
European agricultural exports, we have allocated the sum of 20,200 pounds as
the native share in general expenditure which would bring total native expendi¬
ture to 44,876 pounds.

'Total medical expenditure is 195.959 pounds, three-fourths of which we have
arbitrarily estimated as being expended on natives. There is no indication in
government reports how this sum is allocated.

'Total educational expenditure is 110,623 pounds of which 54,941 pounds
are ear-marked as “exclusively native”. We have allocated the sum of 7400
pounds as the native share in general expenditure, again using as the basis of
allocation relative value of non-European and European agricultural exports.

Thus Kenya makes larger per capita expenditures upon native medical
and educational work than does Uganda. It spends less, however, in the
promotion of native agriculture.

Properly to evaluate this work, one should also take into account the
number of officers assigned to promoting the welfare of the native popula¬
tion along these lines, and the number of natives actually receiving these
benefits. In the following table an attempt has been made to determine
the number of natives served by each European officer in Kenya, Uganda,'
and Tanganyika.

Table V shows that there are more European doctors and govern¬
ment educators in Kenya in relation to the native population than in
Tanganyika and Uganda.

Tables VI and VII show the number of natives actually served
by the medical and educational departments in these respective territories.

4 The heavy expenditures in Zanzibar are due to the extremely prosperous
condition on this island which is a result of the clove trade, cf. Vol. I, p. 275.

386

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

NATIVE WELFARE PERSONNEL
British East Africa
1926

Department

Kenya

Number of
European
Officers

|Numberof|

Natives

Served

perOfficer

Uganda

Total
Number
of Officers!

|Numberof
Natives
Served
[per Officer!

Tanganyika

Total
Number
of Officers!

[Number of
Natives
Served
per Officer

Veterinary Dept.
Field Officers.
Inspectors ...
Total .

Agricultural Dept.
Field Officers.
Inspectors ...
Total .

Medical Dept.
Field Doctors.
Assistants ...

Total

Education Dept.
Administrative

Officers .

Teachers and
Instructors .
Total .

101

For

Na¬

tives

185,000

108,000

1 In the Medical Department, no classification of officers as European or
Native could be found, so the figures presented were estimated to be in the same
proportion to the total as in the Agricultural Department.

NATIVE CASES TREATED BY GOVERNMENT SERVICES, 1923-1924

Treated at

Admissions to Dispensaries

Hospitals (outpatients) Total

Kenya . 25,990 163,603 189,593*

Tanganyika . 21,227 147,086 169,032*

Uganda . 16,731 239,745 246,476*

1 Annual Medical Report, 1925, Kenya, pp. 72, 74.

* lhid. f 1924, Tanganyika, p. 72. 'Ibid., 1924, Uganda, pp. 23, 24.

THE DUAL POLICY

387

According to this table, Kenya admits a larger number of natives
to government hospitals than do either Tanganyika or Uganda. The total
number of cases treated in hospitals and dispensaries in Kenya is more
than in Tanganyika, despite the fact that Tanganyika has several million
more natives than Kenya. As far as dispensary work is concerned, Kenya
is far behind Uganda.

Table VII shows the number of natives attending government and
mission schools in the three territories, and the grants-in-aid made by these
respective governments to mission schools.

VII

NATIVE SCHOOLS

Grants-in-Aid

Gov- to Mission Schools

ernment Mission 1925 1926

Kenya . 1,683 42,071 1 £14*805 £27,723 *

Tanganyika . 4,892 162,800* 11,000"

Uganda . 53 s 172,600* 10,800 22,500

' Report of the East Africa Commission, cited, p. 176. There are 21,071 in
Assisted Schools; Colonial Report, Kenya, 1925, p. 22.

'Approximate, Report, Education Department, Tanganyika Territory, 1924,
p. 48.

* In Makerere College.

4 Report, Education Department, Uganda, 1925, p. 21.

•includes Home Training and Child Welfare, and grant to Alliance High
School, Kikuyu.

* In the case of Tanganyika grants to mission schools were made for the
first time in 1926-27.

This table would appear to show that while Kenya is far ahead of
Uganda in attendance of natives at government schools, it is consid¬
erably behind Tanganyika. It shows a much larger attendance in mission
schools in Tanganyika and Uganda than in Kenya. But these figures are
estimates only. The best judge of the attitude of respective governments
toward mission education is shown by the amount of financial assistance
they give mission schools. In this respect, Kenya is making larger grants
than neighboring territories.

It seems clear that so far the Kenya Government has done more for
native education than the Uganda Government, and that the Kenya
Government has, in comparison with Tanganyika, done a great deal
for its natives in the way of medical work. But Tables IV and V show
that in the Agricultural and Veterinary Services for natives Kenya lags
considerably behind Uganda and somewhat behind Tanganyika. While
Tanganyika and Uganda provide a European veterinary officer for every
108,000 and 157,000 natives respectively, Kenya provides an officer for
every 233.000 natives. Likewise while Tanganyika and Uganda provide

388

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

an agricultural officer for every 228,000 and 125,000 natives respectively,
Kenya provides an officer for every 233,000 natives. Kenya’s per capita
expenditures upon native agricultural and veterinary needs are also smaller
than those of Uganda.

It should be pointed out that Uganda is now making plans for rapid
extension of educational work and that her large reserves will make possible
great increases in the future, while expenditures in Kenya already appear
to have reached their limit. 6 Nevertheless, the Government of Kenya
deserves a great deal of credit for the efforts which it is making in regard
to the advancement of health and education among its native population.
It has done less in promoting native agriculture and animal husbandry
for evident reasons. We shall now discuss in a little more detail the
efforts of Kenya along all of these lines.

2. Education

The burden of native education has been carried in the past by the
Church Missionary Society and by the Church of Scotland. While the
former organization has aimed to cover as much territory as possible, the
Church of Scotland Mission has concentrated its educational activities with
a view to thoroughness, of which its schools at Kikuyu are outstanding
examples.

Before the World War, it appears that the East Africa Government,
along with other governments in Africa, paid little attention to the educa¬
tional and medical needs of the African population. But in 1913, it did
display interest in technical education by opening an industrial school
at Machakos and by making a grant to missions of five pounds for each
apprentice under indenture. 0

Apart from this, the government itself did little for native education
until 1924. But in that year, it enacted an Education Ordinance which
lays down principles governing the relations between missions and gov¬
ernment in regard to education similar to those in other British territories,
and provides for the appointment of a Central Advisory Committee and
district committees. The latter consist of representatives of the local
native council, of European organizations, and of government nominees. 7
According to the report of the Education Department, “Up to the date

5 For the time being, native welfare expenditures in Tanganyika also appear
to have reached their limit. But it should be remembered that Tanganyika is
a Territory which was ravaged by war for four years, and that the administra¬
tion has been in operation for a period of only six or seven years.

a Report of the East Africa Protectorate, Colonial Report No. 791, 1912-

1913-

Ordinances, 1924, p. 96. This ordinance empowers the governor to impose
compulsory education upon areas as he sees fit.

THE DUAL POLICY

389

of the appointment of the Central Advisory Committee, African Education
was rapidly reaching a condition that can only be described as depressing.” 8
While ‘‘the position is by no means satisfactory now,” the government
has increased its grants-in-aid to the mission schools. It has also estab¬
lished government schools at five different centers.

Thanks partly to American support, the government has launched one
of the most encouraging educational activities in Africa—the School for
Jeanes teachers at Kabete. This type of school was first endowed by an
American Quaker woman named Jeanes, for the purpose of training negro
visiting teachers who spend several weeks periodically in a number of
negro communities, assisting the local school teachers and housewives.
The school at Kabete trains African supervisors of village school teachers.

The success of the Jeanes plan in Kenya will depend, however, upon
whether or not the teachers on the spot have a foundation which will
enable them to benefit by these visits. Educational officers in Uganda
believe that for the time being, it is more important to train a few good
village teachers than to train supervisors of mediocre village teachers.
In any case, the Kenya experiment should be watched with great interest.

The government maintains four schools for European children, the
attendance of which in 1925 was six hundred and twenty-six and the cost
of which, excluding administrative expenses, was 26,247 pounds. Likewise,
it maintains two schools for Indians having an attendance of nine hundred
and thirty-three, and makes grants to four Indian schools having an
attendance of eight hundred and eleven—or a total of seventeen hundred
and forty-four. The cost to the government of Indian education in 1925
was 11,943 pounds. It maintains two schools for Arabs. The cost of
Arab and African education, exclusive of administration expenses, in
1925 was 36,017 pounds. 0 In 1926, the government adopted the principle
that each community should pay for its own education. 10

While education in Uganda and Tanganyika is taking an agricultural
turn, education in Kenya has been rather technical in character. The
Education Department says that the system, “while offering the fullest,
opportunity for a gradual and reasonable development of Africans in
accordance with their environment, must, at the same time, fit them for co¬
operation with the superior races. In other words, the activities of Euro¬
pean, Indian and African must be carefully dove-tailed into each other.” 11

Many European settlers interpret this statement to mean that native
education should not be literary or agricultural, but that it should pri¬
marily be technical for the purpose of training native artisans and crafts-

* Annual Report, Education Department, 1924, p. 23.

8 Colonial Report, Kenya, 1925, p. 21. 10 Cf. Vol. I, p. 296. u Report, cited, p. 19.

390

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

men to take the place of the Indians upon whom the European population
is now obliged to rely. Agricultural education would, however, increase
peasant farmers and thus decrease the labor supply.

3. Medical Work

We have noted the medical estimates and the number of medical officers
which they provide. The Kenya Government maintains twenty-six native
hospitals in the territory, and a comparatively large medical staff. Despite
present expenditure, there is not, according to the report of the Native
Affairs Department, a single medical officer in the Kerio, Masai, or Coast
provinces which have a combined native population of 326,500. 12

Although Kenya employs more European doctors and maintains a
greater number of hospitals than Uganda, she does not reach as many
natives because of the under-development of native dispensary and ma¬
ternity work. The improvement of this branch of the medical service of
Kenya deserves serious attention.

From this survey, it is only possible to draw the conclusion that the
Government of Kenya has been making just as earnest efforts in im¬
proving the health and in educating its African population as any other
government in East Africa. 13 As far as these two subjects are concerned,
the Dual Policy has been realized in fact; that is to say, the government
has not slighted the needs of the natives because of the presence of a
large European population. It is only fair to add, however, that there
is little conflict for the moment between settler and native interests over
education and medical work. Expenditures upon these activities come
not from European but from native taxes. The improvement of the
health of the natives means an improvement in their efficiency and an
increase in their number. The education of the native, at least in technical
subjects, likewise improves his efficiency as a workman so that the native
may soon eliminate the Asiatic artisan. At the same time, any kind of
education will increase the intelligence of the native and his sensitiveness
to exactions, so that the more the Kenya Government stresses native
education, the stronger the native will become in defending what he regards
as his interests.

4. Native Agriculture and Transport

But the Dual Policy means also the development of native agriculture
alongside of European agriculture. It is just here that one may expect a
conflict between settler and native interests to arise. The settler is

” Report, cited, 1924, pp. 39 ff.

u Except for Zanzibar, which occupies a special position because of its great
wealth.

THE DUAL POLICY

391

dependent upon native labor; and it is logical to believe that the more
the government encourages native agriculture, the smaller will become the
native population willing to leave home to work on Europeans’ plantations
as wage-earners. Is the Kenya native given the same encouragement and
assistance in the production and marketing of crops as the native of
Uganda, Tanganyika, or West Africa?

In 1924, the East Africa Commission answered this question in the
negative, as follows:

“Altogether there seems little doubt that the Department of Agriculture
has in the past devoted most of its attention to the improved cultivation in
European areas, and that, until the last three years, very little indeed was
done to encourage native production. In Kikuyu district, one of the richest
native agricultural districts in Kenya, with a population of 665,000, there
are only two agricultural officers devoting themselves to native production,
and one of these has to spend a certain amount of his time at the native
agricultural training farm at Kabete. We were informed that, in the Kitui
district of the Ukamba province, where there are 110,000 Akamba natives,
the only assistance received from the Agricultural Department in ten years
has been the issue of a few bags of seed. . . .

“The Animal Husbandry Department, which embraces the veterinary
services, seems to devote the greater part of its time to the care of European
cattle, and the setting of quarantine boundaries about native cattle areas
where disease is known to exist. We were informed that a certain cattle
area in one of the Ukamba districts has been in uninterrupted veterinary
quarantine for not less than seven years. The Kitui Akamba possess as many
or more cattle than all the European settlers in the country, but the district
has received little attention from the department. It is alleged that the only
activity of the department in this district was confined to the construction of
a dipping tank for the station during the war, to facilitate the export of native
cattle needed as rations for the troops. The tank is now abandoned and
derelict.

“There is a feeling among the natives that the resources of the technical
departments of the country, which are supported out of the general taxation,
to which the natives contribute so largely, have been used too exclusively for
the development of the European areas. . . .” 14

■

Within the last year, this condition has been considerably improved.
At the present time, the Agricultural and Veterinary Departments each
have native sections. Nine European agricultural supervisors with about
forty native instructors devote their time to native agriculture. Native
agricultural apprentices are trained at two schools, while a number of
native agricultural shows are held. In addition, five European veterinary

14 Report of the East Africa Commission, 1925, pp. 155-156.

392

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

officers, eight stock inspectors, and ten native veterinaries look after native
live stock. 15 The Veterinary Department has installed a number of
testing and inoculating stations in the reserve to keep the traffic in cattle
in and out of the reserve safe. Native stock is becoming so numerous
that a bill called the Crop Production and Live Stock Ordinance has
been drafted which authorizes the government to dispose of undesirable
stock. While the purpose of the bill is supposedly to improve the quality
of the stock, it is evident that such legislation might be administered in
a way which would arouse native hostility.

Despite these efforts, even now the European personnel devoted to the
promotion of native agriculture and husbandry is below that in Uganda
and Tanganyika. 10 Partly as a result of the efforts of the Kenya Agri¬
cultural and Veterinary Services, the native agricultural exports increased
from 176,000 pounds in 1922 to 480,300 pounds in 1924. Exports of
maize increased from 73,000 to 130,000 pounds and those of hides and
skins from 50,000 to 154,000 pounds. 17

The leading native export crop is maize. 18 In the Kavirondo area,
the cultivation of cotton is being started. In 1924, the Kenya Depart¬
ment of Agriculture distributed to native farmers in the reserves almost
four hundred and ninety-five tons of seed, three hundred and twenty tons
of which were cotton seed. While native agriculture has considerably in¬
creased since 1923, non-European agricultural production in Kenya is
still small, as the following table shows.

VIII

VALUE OF NATIVE PRODUCTION IN 1925
Territory Value in Pounds

Kenya . 546,000 18

Tanganyika . 1,700,000

Uganda . 5,000,000

Thus despite the efforts of agricultural officers, native exports are
comparatively low because Kenya, unlike Tanganyika and Uganda, nec¬
essarily emphasizes production on European farms. It would appear that
so far the Kenya Public Works Department has done little to develop
A. system of roads within the reserves, but has confined most of its activities
to European areas. 20 The Kenya Government has not organized a Motor

16 Report, 1924, cited, p. 15.

19 Cf. Vol. I, pp. 473, 619. 17 Report, cited, p, 29.

19 Annual Report of the Department of Agriculture, 1924, p. 21.

“The total agricultural production of Kenya, in comparison with the produc¬
tion of the other territories, is discussed in Vol. I, p. 535. In 1926 the value of
Native Production in Kenya declined to 476,100 pounds. Agricultural Census, 1926,
p. 22.

30 Cf. Report of the East Africa Commission, cited, p. 165.

THE DUAL POLICY

393

Transport service, as have the Uganda and Tanganyika Governments to
assist in the evacuation of native produce. At present, the native reserves
rely for transportation largely upon the ox-carts of Indian ndukas. Until
recently, railways were also constructed with the needs of European
farmers rather than of natives in view. While the Fort Hall-Nyeri line
now under construction has been built to serve the European community
at Nyeri, it nevertheless passes through the Kikuyu reserve and will thus
serve native interests. 21

Another obstruction in the way of native production is the fact that
the government makes it impossible for the Kenya native to produce
coffee, hundreds of tons of which are produced by the natives of Tanga¬
nyika and Uganda, by the Coffee Plantations Registration Ordinance,
which requires every coffee grower to secure an annual license costing thirty
shillings. 22 Even if this sum were not prohibitive to a native grower,
the district commissioners could refuse to issue a license. These restric¬
tions have been imposed at the demand of European planters who fear
native coffee growing will, through improper care, lead to the spread of
disease and also to the stealing of coffee from Europeans. It appears that
in this particular, the economic interests of the native are definitely sub¬
ordinated to those of Europeans.

There are two types of coffee in East Africa: Robusta and Arabica.
Robusta coffee is of inferior quality and grows without much attention,
being virtually pest proof. This coffee is grown in large quantities by
the natives in part of Tanganyika and Uganda. Arabica coffee is of fine
quality and, because of its susceptibility to disease, requires expert atten¬
tion. This coffee is grown by European planters in Kenya and Tanga¬
nyika, and by natives in part of Tanganyika. The Kenya Coffee Ordinance
operates to prohibit the growth of both kinds of coffee by the Kenya
native. If European fears justify the prohibition of the growth of
Arabica coffee, it would appear only equitable that the natives be allowed
to grow Robusta coffee on their land in the reserves—a proposal made by
the Kenya Missionary Council in 1924. Moreover, the government should
give natives more expert advice in the production of maize which would,
to a certain extent, overcome the handicap from which they at present
suffer in regard to coffee.

While inadequate transport facilities, lack of agricultural assistance,

21 As far as existing railways in Kenya are concerned, 683 miles run through
European areas, while 272 miles run through native reserves. While hitherto
native areas have thus been slighted, an improvement has been made in the rail¬
ways under construction. One hundred and thirty-four miles of such roads will
traverse native reserves while ninety-five miles will traverse European land.
H. C. Debates, April 13, 1926, Vol. 13, Col. 194.

” Ordinances, 1918, p. 9.

394

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

and administrative prohibition of coffee production explain why native
agriculture for export is much lower in Kenya than in neighboring terri¬
tory, perhaps the fundamental reason is that about thirty-five per cent
of the men are at any one time away from the reserves working for
European employers. The Kenya Missionary Council has stated: “The
necessity laid upon the Colony to bring a wage-earning class of natives
into being, has been the main cause of keeping back the production of the
Reserves. . . . We think that, properly encouraged, production in the
Reserves of 2,000,000 people will vastly exceed that of 100,000 males
working on farms.” It is difficult to see how a native can work for him¬
self and for a European at the same time. Having induced natives living
in the reserve to accept employment outside, it is probable that the Euro¬
peans will demand that the reserves be alienated to white farmers on the
ground that they are not being used.

5. Dual Policy and the Labor Supply

The government, however, has worked out an ingenious theory that
the greater the production in the reserves, the greater will become the
labor supply of the Europeans. The theory apparently is that in working
for himself, the native will develop habits of industry which will lead
him to seek work on a European farm.

The East Africa Commission subscribed to this theory that increased
native production does not necessarily mean a decreased labor supply, 28
and in his address before the Convention of Associations of October, 1926,
Sir Edward Grigg stated: “Those tribes which are most industrious and
efficient at home also send out the largest labor supply.” He apparently
had in mind the Kavirondo and the Kikuyu, but the fact is that these
two groups constitute a majority of the total population of Kenya; more¬
over, they live in reserves which are both fertile and over-populated and
which are close to European centers of employment.

These advocates apparently believe that a native can complete his own
work in a few months, and then work the remainder of the time on a
European farm. The immediate difficulty with this argument is that
the planting season in the reserves comes at exactly the same time as the
season for picking coffee on European farms.* 4 The increase in native
agriculture in 1925 may explain why the native labor supply declined
eight thousand five hundred units during that year. 25

The experience of the mines of South Africa and of the Gold Coast

** Cmd. 2387, cited, p. 167.

**Cf. Native Affairs Department, Annual Report, 1924, p. 49.

K Agricultural Census, 1925, cited, p. 21.

THE DUAL POLICY

395

as been that increased native production automatically decreases the
European supply of labor. A few miles away from Nairobi, this same
henomenon has been forcefully demonstrated in Uganda where, largely
ecause of cotton production, some European plantations have been obliged
■) close down, and even the government has difficulty in getting labor. 20
t appears that Uganda’s experience is now being repeated in Nyasaland."

Moreover, if the native’s standard of living increases, and if a native
Dciety develops in Kenya as it has developed in other parts of Africa, the
atives will require more and more time to cultivate their own gardens.
)ne cannot conceive of the peasants of France making an annual migra-
ion to Italy for the purpose of working on estates six months out of the
ear. It is reasonable to believe that the same forces which keep them at
ome will operate to keep the African natives at home if the policy of
)ual Development is really carried out.

6 . European Opposition to Dual Development

European settlers do not accept the government’s optimism as to the
fleet of the Dual Policy upon their labor supply. The local newspapers
rint articles headed as follows: “Inherent Laziness of the Uganda
Jative,” “The Cotton Menace in Tanganyika.” 28 One farmer spokes-
lan told the East Africa Commission that there had been “no diminishing
apply [of labor] until the policy of native production was introduced.” *
l well-known merchant recently expressed the sentiment of the European
□mmunity in a letter which said:

"If the Government persists in the scheme of intensive development in the
eserves, what then? Under present conditions, labour is practically unavail-
ble. Were the natives engaged in big agricultural pursuits in the reserves
rhat chance would the European have at all, of securing labour? . . . Justice
lust be done to those who, after years of arduous labour and heart-burnings
re now threatened wdth bankruptcy because, owing to lack of man power,
hey are unable to reap the harvest of their work. Therefore, lest Kenya
all into pitfalls similar to those which have overwhelmed Uganda, the
roblem of labour for the European and the development of the reserves must
e taken in conjunction one with another, with a view to giving a square
eal to all concerned. It is not enough to say that the native must take his
hare in the progress of the Colony by developing the reserves. He must also
ake his share in assisting the European, who has shown him the way, and
as been chiefly responsible for advancing the country to its present stage of
evelopment.” *°

* Cf. Vol. I, p. 627. B Cf. Vol. I, p. 253.

“ East African Standard, November 25, 1924. * Ibid., November 15, 1924.

*° S. Jacobs, “The Labor Problem,” ibid., October 23, 1926.

396

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

At the meeting of the Convention of Associations in October, 1926,
the president said that it was a matter of speculation whether advancing
the interests of the natives was going to defeat the second object of the
Dual Policy—“the utilization to the fullest extent of this wonderfully
fertile land for the benefit of mankind”—by which he meant the devel¬
opment of the country by the European settler.

In a debate on a resolution condemning the Dual Policy, speakers
said that as a result of its application in the last few years, native men
were simply carousing in the reserves. One speaker said that “practically
the only end attained hitherto by the Dual Policy” was “the imposition
on native women of a dastardly form of slavery.”

Lord Delamere, however, shrewdly pointed out that the Dual Policy
had led to the declaration of the governors that the native must work
either in his reserve or outside. But as the machinery for making the
native work outside was much stronger than that requiring him to work
inside, the policy operated to the advantage of the settler. Upon Lord
Delamere’s intervention, the original motion was amended to the effect
that “some drastic revision of the application of the Dual Policy is
necessary.” 31

7. Social Effects of the Kenya System
While both officials and settlers have directed their attention primarily
to the effect of native agriculture upon European labor supply, the social
importance of this in contrast to the plantation policy is even more funda¬
mental from the standpoint of the future of the natives of Kenya. It
appears that the labor needs of European industry in Kenya are re¬
sponsible for certain social conditions which are harmful to native develop¬
ment and which indirectly injure, from the standpoint of health and of
crime, the European community. The Kenya Missionary Council, in its
memorandum to the East Africa Commission, stated that, in its opinion,

“The absence from home of contract labour is in large numbers of cases
detrimental to the health and well being of that labour, and especially is this
the case on the large plantations. . . . Diseases such as malaria are being
increased in some Reserves as the result of the return of labour from malaria
infected farms. Spirillar fever is also greatly on the increase and is largely
due to the labour travelling to and from their homes to infected labour camps.
The conditions of life away from their women folk, even though the morality
is not yet high in the Reserves, is not such as to conduce to the well being of
the labour while at work, and his return to the Reserve may cause the
spread of syphilis and other diseases acquired outside. Further the necessity
for married men, especially the younger men, spending long periods of time
m East African Standard, Supplement, October 30, 1926, p. 10.

nvay from home is not for the well being of that home or of the wife and
:hildren left behind.

“As to the question of the influence of the absence from the Reserves of
;o much labour on the growing of their food crops, we are of opinion that it
rertainly means more work for those who are left, who also have now to do
:he many tribal duties and Government work in the Reserves, and that this
work increasingly falls upon the women and girls, who, it is generally ad-
nitted ought to have the burdens lightened and not increased. This being
>o, we think strongly that anything that militates against the welfare of the
women and girls in the Reserves, must militate against the welfare of the
:ribe, and therefore of the country as a whole.”

Government officials and others have pointed out with some pride that
sixty per cent of the adult men of the most intelligent tribes in the
:olony are away from home working for Europeans. This means therefore
that the most intelligent tribes are suffering the most injury. A Belgian
commission has declared that only ten per cent of the able-bodied men
can be permanently away from home without seriously injuring native
social life. 32

According to the present policy of the British government and of the
British settlers, Dual Policy has come to mean that the native population
of Kenya will receive an education and medical care equal to that any¬
where in central Africa. It means that native laborers under European
employment will be well-cared for and treated. But it does not mean
that natives will be allowed to live their own lives and work on their own
farms as they do in purely native states. As a result of the land and
labor policies of the Kenya government, the majority of the men of the
most intelligent tribes are permanently under European employment.
Whatever the theoretical position of the government as to compulsion may
be, the fact is that many of these men have little choice as to whether or
not they work for Europeans. A growing land shortage will increase
their dependence upon European employment.

No one can blame the settlers who have cut loose from Europe and
taken up permanent residence in Kenya for demanding labor and for
opposing any policy which will cut down the labor supply. At the same
time, the British Government has declared before the entire world that
the interest of the African in Kenya must be paramount, and it has pledged
itself to the policy of Dual Development, a policy which should give to
the native in Kenya exactly the same opportunities as he has in Uganda.
There will always be a number of natives who will prefer to work for
Europeans rather than for themselves. But if this number is insufficient

“ Cf. Vol. II, p. 546.

398

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

to meet the needs of the Europeans who have settled in Kenya, the
British Government should consider the advisability of buying out the
holdings of those settlers who wish to sell.

The world will judge British Colonial policy not where it is strongest
but where it is in danger of being weakest. It will judge it not in West
Africa but in East Africa. All of the other colonial powers on the
continent are closely watching British policy in East Africa in the hope
of finding precedents which they may apply to their own territories. As
a later chapter will point out,” the future of Kenya may control that
of the entire continent.

“ Cf. Vol. I, p. 539.

CHAPTER 25

THE DEMAND FOR SELF-GOVERNMENT

Since the days of the American Revolution, British colonists separated
by great distances from the home country have sooner or later demanded
the right not to participate in the home government, but to govern them¬
selves—a demand which has been granted in the case of the six Dominions
and of Southern Rhodesia. 1 The motives which have led the European
inhabitants of these territories to make this demand are naturally present
in Kenya to-day. Under “Crown Colony” government, the European in¬
habitant must submit to action taken in many cases without his approval,
and in other cases even without his knowledge. The European com¬
munity in Kenya has especially criticized the government for making land
alienations to large companies or favored individuals, and for expending
money for such purposes as the improvement of Government House at
Mombasa, and the construction of a new Government House at Nairobi
at a cost of eighty thousand pounds. 2 While some of these expenditures
were approved by the unofficial members of the Legislative Council, some
Europeans did not believe that a fully responsible Legislative Council would
authorize such “extravagance.” 8

The European population demands responsible government for the
same reasons as those which have led European populations to demand
responsible government elsewhere in the Empire. In addition, some settlers
demand this change so as to settle land and labor policies without regard
to the qualms of the Imperial Government. A member of the Legislative
Council told his constituents a few months ago: “You will never solve
the labour problem until you have control of the country. When you
have that, you will immediately solve the problem.” 4

I. Convention of Associations

In order to make their influence felt, the European settlers have formed
a number of organizations, the first of which was called the Colonist

1 The Irish Free State, which ta self-governing, stands upon a different basis.

* This house is to shelter the Secretariat of the East Africa Conference and the
Legislative Council.

’“Robbing the Hen Roost,” East African Standard, February 20, 1926, p. 16A;
also “Land Policy Secrecy,” ibid., November 6, 1926.

4 Quoted (with disapproval) by an editorial, ibid., November 27, 1926, p. 13.

399

400

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

Association, which came into existence in 1905. In a petition to the
Secretary of State in that year, it demanded a long list of reforms and
called attention to the “Native Menace.” 6 Partly as a result of its
efforts, the Legislative Council, with three unofficial members, was estab¬
lished in 1906. In 1910, Lord Delamere and Major Grogan, two out¬
standing figures in Kenya history, brought together a large number of
farmer organizations into what was called the Convention of Associations. 8
This body has ever since wielded an important influence over the govern¬
ment. Before the War, it incessantly demanded elective representatives
on the Council. To emphasize this demand, the nominated members de¬
clined to sit on the Council between 1913 and 1919. In the latter year
the principle of representation was finally granted. The Convention usu¬
ally holds its annual meeting just before the opening of the regular session
of the Legislative Council. These meetings are ordinarily addressed by
the Governor of the colony. In 1919, Governor Northey said: “The
Convention of Associations seems to be your most representative body, and
I shall hope to be invited to attend its future meetings, with any Heads
of Departments or others desired, to advise and discuss, hear and put
forward reasonable views.” Department officials are now asked to attend
and explain or defend their policies. The Convention passes resolutions
virtually instructing the unofficial European members how to vote on
measures before the Council. While the granting of elective representa¬
tives on the Council should have brought an end to the need for this
body, it has continued to exist and to take repeated and pronounced stands
upon every question of policy, whether it is a matter of native labor or of
Asiatics.

The settlers of Kenya have not hesitated to use extra-legal means of
getting their way. In 1907, Mr. Grogan before a large crowd in front
of the Court House horse-whipped a native rickshaw boy accused of
having insulted two European lady passengers by lifting the shafts of
the rickshaw too high. Following his arrest, a hundred settlers swore,
it was reported, to release Grogan should he be sentenced to imprison¬
ment—a report which led the Governor to ask the Colonial Office to
detain a war ship at Mombasa. 7 Grogan was sentenced to imprisonment

“House of Lords Papers, No. 158, 1907.

* One of the objects of the Convention is “to promote the political organisation
of the Colony on lines consonant with the a-spirations of the European Com¬
munity. . . Each Association belonging to the Convention is entitled to send
one delegate for the first twenty members.

Elected members of the Legislative Council are ex-officio members of the
Convention. Cf. Constitution and Rules, Convention of Associations, Nairobi.

7 At the trial, one of the accomplices of Grogan said: “As it has always been the
first principle with me to flog a nigger on sight who insults a white woman, I felt
it my bounden duty to take the step I did.”

THE DEMAND FOR SELF-GOVERNMENT

401

for one month, but he was not put in the ordinary jail, because of con¬
siderations of sanitation, but confined in a private home. Even so, this
sentence was denounced by the Times of East Africa on the ground that
it lowered the prestige of the white man among the blacks. The settlers
held a mass meeting to protest against the sentence. On the other hand,
Lord Elgin, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, said that it was clear
that Grogan’s action was a “deliberate defiance of settled order and gov¬
ernment.” The Secretary was bound to observe that “the commission of
such flagrant acts of lawlessness and injustice as those of which the de¬
fendants in this case have been guilty is the surest way to provoke an
outbreak. ...” 8

A year later, the settlers held a mass meeting to protest against the
labor policy of the government. Following this meeting, a noisy crowd
marched to Government House, where they called upon the Governor
to resign. 9

During the Indian crisis of 1920-1923, which came to a head over the
question of elective representation on the Legislative Council, as well as
over the ownership of land, the settlers threatened a revolution if their
demands were not granted. 1 ® During this period, in 1921, Europeans
assaulted the Rev. C. F. Andrews, the well-known missionary, who was
visiting Kenya in regard to the Indian question.

Opposition to the imposition of an income tax was less picturesque,
but more successful. In order to increase revenue to overcome the financial
depression in 19201921, the Kenya Government raised the native poll
tax to eight rupees, an increase which the Colonial Office supported only
upon condition that increases on non-native taxes having an equivalent yield
should be imposed. At this time, the only direct tax paid by the Europeans
was a poll tax of thirty shillings a year. 11 Consequently, an Income
Tax Ordinance was passed and went into effect in November, 1920. 12
Organizing themselves into a European Taxpayers’ Protection League,
most of the settlers flatly refused to pay or even to make returns, on the
ground that they were already excessively taxed through the customs and
the railway, and that they were on the verge of bankruptcy due to the
depression—statements which appear to be true. In 1921, Lord Delamere
unsuccessfully moved the repeal of the tax, and raised the question as to
whether it was constitutional in a colony where there was no representative

8 Correspondence relating to the Flogging of Natives by certain Europeans at
Nairobi, Cd. 3562 (1907).

* Cf. Vol. I, p. 330.

10 Cf. Vol. I, p. 293.

u Non-Native Poll Tax Ordinance, 1912; Ordinances, 1912, p. 87.

u Ordinances, 1920, p. 125. Cf. also Minutes of the Proceedings of the Legis¬
lative Council of East Africa, second session, 1920, pp. 31, 9s.

402 THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

government. 13 The Economic and Finance Committee, then studying the

financial situation of the colony, recommended the abolition of the tax 14 _

a suggestion in which the Secretary of State for the Colonies finally con¬
curred, provided that an equivalent source of revenue could be found in
import duties, particularly on wines and luxuries consumed largely by
Europeans. At a special session of the Legislative Council, the Attorney
General introduced bills for these two purposes, which were passed. 15
The only direct tax paid by Europeans today is a poll tax of thirty
shillings. Indirect taxes are, however, high—amounting to about thirty-
five pounds per European. In comparison Indians pay total taxes esti¬
mated to be about six pounds, while natives pay a per capita sum of about
six shillings.

2. The Elected Members

The dominant settler point of view has been presented to the gov¬
ernment by the elected members in the Legislative Council who call
themselves the Democratic party. For a time, the elected members, re¬
garding themselves as His Majesty’s Opposition, objected as a matter of
course to most government proposals. But so damaging to the reputation
of Kenya did these divisions become, that several years ago there was
established what was termed “Government by Agreement,” in which the
elected members agreed that they would suppress opposition and work
with the government so as to present a united front to the outside world.
But according to the local press, the government took advantage of this
policy to discuss matters “in an atmosphere of most regrettable secrecy,”
and thus deprived the members of their independence.

The control of the European minority for a time was increased by
the procedure in regard to the Estimates. While these Estimates are
prepared by the Chief Secretary, they must be voted by the Legislative
Council; and the practice has been to refer the Draft Estimates to a select
committee having an unofficial majority where items of expenditure and
of revenue have been unmercifully scrutinized, and as a result of which
government proposals have occasionally been modified. This practice was
changed in 1926, in favor of debating each item of the Estimates in a
committee of the Council. Under the old system, departmental heads indi¬
vidually were responsible for expenditures, and they fell into the habit
of asking for supplementary votes. Under the new system, the Governor
will be directly responsible, and departmental officers must confine their

13 Minutes of the Proceedings, cited, 1921, p. 73.

14 First Interim Report, Economic and Finance Committee, 1922, p. 3.

16 Minutes of The Proceedings of the Legislative Council, May 25, 1922.

THE DEMAND FOR SELF-GOVERNMENT

403

expenditures to a definite sum. 16 What effect the new procedure will have
upon unofficial influence it is impossible to forecast. Periodically, members
move the reduction of salaries of unpopular officials, notably the Chief
Native Commissioner. During the regime of General Northey, the official
members were given freedom to vote upon measures as they liked. As
a result, several of them voted with the settler element and in some cases
defeated government proposals.

Moreover, most of the important commissions appointed to investigate
such matters as land policy and native labor have had a settler majority;
settlers have been appointed members of road boards and district councils,
and attesting officers under the Masters and Servants and Registration
Ordinances; and it appears that some of them will be made magistrates.
A plan for organizing self-government in the municipalities is now being
studied. Through these various means, the European element in the
country has had a definite influence on policy, particularly in regard to
land, labor, and taxation.

While in South Africa the European population is large enough to
make possible a vigorous division of opinion upon native policy, the number
of Europeans in Kenya is as yet so small that they usually speak upon native
matters with a united voice. Consequently, a Governor finds himself
quickly isolated whenever he follows a line which does not conform to their
immediate interests. To stand up against the glare of a united European
opposition, a Governor must possess an extraordinary amount of character.
Unfortunately, in the opinion of a number of observers, Kenya has had
a line of remarkably weak Governors until the coming of Sir Edward
Grigg, and even the present Governor has been careful to make utterances
which to a great extent conform to settler beliefs.

What the Convention of Associations is aiming at is responsible gov¬
ernment. As a first step, it demands an elective majority on the Legis¬
lative Council. In the platform of the elected members seeking re-election
to the Legislative Council, announced in the fall of 1926, was the first
plank: “To press by any constitutional means for a European elected
majority over all parties in the Legislative Council.” 17 Going even
farther, the Economic Commission in 1919 suggested that the present
department heads should form themselves into a cabinet responsible to the
Legislative Council. 18 The Convention of Associations in 1921 asked that
Kenya should be represented at the Imperial Conference, the membership
of which is now limited to the Dominions and India. More recently,
the Convention declared that an East African Federation was out of the

10 Cf. editorial, East African Standard, October 16, 1926, p. 11.

"Ibid., January 1, 1927, p. 35. 18 Report, cited, p. 22.

404

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

question “until our own position as a civil state is completely safeguarded
by changes in our Constitution which will enable us to decide for our¬
selves the desirability or otherwise [sic] of such a step.” In 1926, the
Convention of Associations passed a resolution to the effect that in view of
the “economic, political, and social growth of this Colony,” such a measure
of self-government should be granted “as will enable its affairs to be
guided by those persons who are familiar with its conditions and are
ultimately responsible for its future.” 10 In November, 1926, The East
African Standard, asserting that the present system was unworkable, asked
that the example of Natal and of Southern Rhodesia be followed in
Kenya. 20

In the winter of 1927 discussion both in Kenya and in England
over responsible government or at least an elected majority became wide¬
spread.

The attitude of the Colonial Office toward this aim of responsible
government has wavered. In January, 1922, Mr. Churchill, Secretary
of State for the Colonies, declared: “We do not contemplate any settle¬
ment or system which will prevent Kenya becoming a characteristically
and distinctively British Colony, looking forward in the full fruition of
time to responsible self-government.” But in the White Paper of 1923,
the government declared:

“It has been suggested that it might be possible for Kenya to advance
in the near future on the lines of responsible self-government, subject to the
reservation of native affairs. 11 There are, however, in the opinion of His
Majesty’s Government, objections to the adoption in Kenya at this stage of such
an arrangement, whether it take the form of removing all matters affecting
Africans from consideration in the Council, or the appointment of the Governor
as High Commissioner for Native Affairs, or provision for a special veto by the
Crown on local legislation which touches native interests. . . .

“His Majesty’s Government cannot but regard the grant of responsible
self-government as out of the question within any period of time which need
now be taken into consideration. Nor, indeed, would they contemplate yet
the possibility of substituting an unofficial majority in the Council for the
Government official majority. . . . Meanwhile, the administration of the
Colony will follow the British traditions and principles which have been
successful in other Colonies, and progress towards self-government must be
left to take the lines which the passage of time and the growth of experience
may indicate as being best for the country.” M

18 East African Standard, Supplement, October 30, 1926, p. 11.

30 Editorial, East African Standard, November, 1926, p. 16C. The argu¬
ment indicated that the writer had in mind responsible government.

“As has been done in Southern Rhodesia. Cf. Vol. I, p. 219.

33 Indians in Kenya, Cmd. 1922, p. n.

THE DEMAND FOR SELF-GOVERNMENT

405

A later Secretary of State, Mr. L. S. Amery, declared at an East
African dinner that it was impossible “that for all time that prosperous
community, representing the most virile and active elements of the race,
would be content to be subject to Crown Colony rule.” 23 It would
appear, therefore, that the present government is inclined to be sympathetic
towards Kenya’s demands. But it has reserved final decision until after
the report of the special Commission which proceeded to East Africa
in December, I927. 23 "

3. Protective Tariffs

The unofficial element has already been strong enough to secure the
adoption of a policy to develop the principle of economic independence in
Kenya, by means of a protective tariff. Following the abrogation, in
1920, of the tariff limitations imposed by the Treaty of Berlin, 24 the
Economic and Finance Committee recommended that certain protective
duties be imposed in order to encourage infant industries. In a special
session of May, 1922, the Legislative Council adopted a protective duty of
thirty per cent on wheat in order to protect local wheat growing and
milling. 25 Apparently as a result of this duty, imports of foreign wheat
declined from seventy-eight thousand hundredweight to forty-eight thou¬
sand hundredweight a year, while the acreage in wheat increased from
seven thousand eight hundred to twenty-one thousand—an increase in acre¬
age sufficient to cover only half the decrease in imports. Consequently, the
price of wheat and of flour rose. Alarmed at the outcry against the in¬
creased cost of flour, the wheat farmers and millers attempted to arrange
to keep wheat below a fixed maximum price, an attempt which soon came
to an end. 28 The prohibition of the export of wheat was also suggested.
The Economic and Finance Committee investigated the question, at the
request of the government, and in the spring of 1926 reported that for
the time being the protective duties should be maintained. Nevertheless,
the East African Standard declared that “eventually they [the people]
are bound to look the problem in the face and ask why locally grown
wheat and locally milled flour is unable to compete in price with an over¬
seas article which has to bear heavy charges before it reaches East
Africa. . . It went on to say: “We feel that the wheat industry has
been allowed to develop almost haphazardly. . . .” 27

23 The [London] Times, June 26, 1925, p. 16. Cf. Vol. I, p. 515.

24 The Treaty of Saint Germain merely provides that tariffs should be non-
discriminatory.

■“ Minutes of the Proceedings of the Legislative Council (extraordinary session),
May 25, 1922, pp. 2 and 8.

* East African Standard, January 30, 1926.

17 “The Wheat Industry,” ibid., April 19, 1926.

406

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

This same protective principle has animated Kenya in adopting high
duties upon sugar, lumber, and foreign butter. The result has been that
some individuals have invested large sums in expensive sugar machinery,
only to find that the cost of production is much higher in Kenya than in
other parts of the world, and that they can keep above water only with
the aid of protective life buoys. The cost of building has increased greatly
since the imposition of the lumber duty.

The success of Kenya in extending the principle of protection to
Tanganyika and Uganda is discussed in a later chapter. 28

4. The Fear of Revolt

So determined has the European population been in its demands, that
some Englishmen, both in the Colonial Office and out, incline to the
position that the only way in which Kenya can be prevented from getting
its way is by sending out the Guards—an impossible policy since no Brit¬
ishers would shoot down another Britisher for the sake of a black popu¬
lation. Consequently, the Kenya population must be given responsible
government. Those who have this fear underestimate the power of the
administration and overestimate the importance of the Kenya popula¬
tion. If an extremity should arise, the British navy could blockade Kil-
indini harbor with a single ship and stop all mails and trade between
Kenya and Europe, thus reducing the insurgents without firing a shot.
The difficulties of the past have been due to the policy of the Colonial
Office to “trust the man on the spot” whenever the Secretary of State
finds himself in an unpleasant position. Now this is very unfair to the
man on the spot, who is subject to pressure which does not disturb, at
least to such an extent, the more impersonal and distant Colonial Office.

5. Kenya Finances

In considering the question as to whether responsible government
should be given to a European community of twelve thousand people,
there are factors having nothing directly to do with race which must be
taken into account. In the case of Southern Rhodesia, the Colonial
Office laid down the principle that the local population must give evi¬
dence that they could finance a government of their own. This test should
also be applied to Kenya. As a matter of fact, the question of paying its
way has so far been Kenya’s chief worry. Until 1913, it received an

“A number of resolutions have been passed expressing regret that the inter¬
national obligations of the British Government, notably the Treaty of Saint Ger¬
main, prevent Kenya from adopting duties discriminating against non-British
goods—the principle of Imperial Preference.

THE DEMAND FOR SELF-GOVERNMENT

407

annual grant-in-aid from the home government—totalling nearly three
million pounds. In addition, the home government financed the construc¬
tion of the Uganda Railway, expending, to March 31, 1913, a total of
five and a half million pounds. According to the Secretary of State for
the Colonies, “No payment has been made by British East Africa in respect
of these advances. . . 29 Down until 1919, Kenya paid its administrative

deficit out of the profits of this railway. 30

In 1922-23, conditions reached the stage where government expendi¬
tures exceeded exports in value, a situation which led the Governor to
appoint an Economic and Finance Committee which made a number of
recommendations for the reduction of government expenditure. Between
1919 and 1923, the territory accumulated a net deficit of 621,366 pounds. 31
The European population of the colony now literally forced the govern¬
ment to make drastic reductions of expenditures which declined from
2,137,600 pounds in 1923 to 1,861,500 pounds in 1924. In the latter
year, the net revenue exceeded expenditure by 250,000 pounds.

In 1925, it exceeded expenditure by 90,500 pounds. At the end of

1925, the net surplus of the colony stood at 149,723 pounds, while in

1926, conditions continued to improve. Thus Kenya has experienced a
remarkable financial recovery, and it appears that for the time being reve¬
nues have no difficulty in meeting expenditures.

At present the per capita revenue of Kenya is much greater than
the per capita revenue of either Tanganyika or Uganda. Kenya receipts
from customs average about 200,000 pounds more than those of Uganda
and Tanganyika. This difference is probably due to the heavier consump¬
tion of luxuries, particularly spirits, by the large European population
in Kenya. On the other hand, the per capita expenditures and loan obliga¬
tions of Kenya are much heavier than in the two other territories. 32

To provide for the needs of a European population and for other pur¬
poses, Kenya has also been obliged to resort to loans the service on which

28 He added that “no such payment is contemplated under the Acts.” But
cf. Vol. I, p. 408, 61 H. C. Debates, April 23, 1914, col. 1086.

10 Cf. Vol. I, p. 522.

a Colonial Report, Kenya, 1923, p. 10. The revenue including railway net
revenue and the expenditure excluding railway expenditure for a period of five
years is as follows:

Year

Revenue

Expenditure

1917-18.

.... 898,936

1,027,178

1918-19.

— 1,014,783

1,036,785

1919-20.

- 1,139,690

1,438,11s

1920-21.

.. .. 1,942,222

i. 94 o ,397

1921 (nine months).

- 1,291,679

1,661,672

First Interim Report, F.conomic and Finance Committee, October 21, 1922. p. 2.
” Cf. Vol. I, p. 534.

408

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

now takes about a quarter of its revenue, in comparison with services
of Uganda loans something amounting to about two per cent of the
revenue. 33

In order to improve transport facilities to meet certain obligations,
Kenya in 1921 made an unprofitable six cent loan of five million pounds,
secured on the revenue of the Uganda Railway. 34 After paying off past
obligations, only about half of the capital remained available for productive
investment.

In addition to the five million pound loan, the Kenya Government
also received in 1924 a share in a loan of three and a half million pounds
from the Imperial Government, which is interest free until 1929. 36 In¬
terest and sinking fund charges will thereafter amount to two hundred
and ten thousand pounds a year.

Two other loans, one for 3,000,000 pounds, and a second for 2,762,360
pounds, have been authorized but not yet raised. 30 When issued the
interest charges of these two loans will amount to 288,118 pounds. By
1929 the total interest charges on these four loans will thus be more than
863,000 pounds which is about 37 per cent of the Kenya estimated reve¬
nue for 1926 of 2,315,808 pounds, a sum which includes “reimbursements”
from the Uganda Railway of 273,000 pounds. Most of this sum is
earmarked for the service of the 5,000,000 pound loan, about half of which
was expended on harbor and railway purposes.

Kenya is faced with the prospect of even heavier obligations in the
future. In 1926, Mr. Amery, Secretary of State for Colonies, stated that in
1934 the question of repayment of the capital cost of the original Uganda
Railway and of Kenya’s outstanding share of the operations against Ger¬
man East Africa, provisionally set at 1,405,016 pounds, “will come up
for consideration.” If Kenya assumes this burden, it will increase her
debt to the extent of five million pounds, the annual charges on which
would probably amount to three hundred thousand pounds a year. 37

In order to develop British East Africa as a whole, the East Africa
Commission, which visited these territories in 1924, proposed that the
Imperial Government guarantee a transport loan of ten million pounds,
the interest of which it should bear for a period of five years. 38 While

“Cf. Vol. I, p. 534. 34 Ordinances, 1921, p. 122.

3 " Ordinances, 1924, p. 127. Part of this loan was used to construct an exten¬
sion of the Uganda Railway into Uganda.

38 “Colonial Loans,” Statement submitted to Legislative Council at the March,
1927, Session, Colony and Protectorate of Kenya. A summary of the present loan
charges is printed on p. 422, Vol. I.

31 H. C. Debates, July 13, 1926, Vol. col. 223. Part of the cost of the Uganda
Railway would supposedly, however, be assumed by the Uganda Government.

38 After the first five years, it proposed that interest and sinking fund charges
should fall on the transport services in the first instance and in case their revenues

THE DEMAND FOR SELF-GOVERNMENT 409

the home government agreed to the principle of the loan, it stipulated that
the local territories should pay interest from the beginning.

Kenya’s share in this would amount to 3,200,000 pounds, of which
1,800,000 pounds were to be expended in developing Kilindini harbor, and
1,400,000 pounds on further railway construction. 89

These proposals were vigorously opposed by practically all of the
unofficial population of Kenya on three grounds. In the first place,
Europeans naturally believed that, with the increased burden which the
service of these loans would impose upon the budget, more taxes would
be necessary. In the second place, the construction of further railways
and other public works would absorb labor which the farmer sorely needed.
In the third place, the acceptance of an Imperial loan would fasten the
control of the British Treasury upon the colony at a time when it wished
to move toward self-government. In debating this loan in the Legislative
Council in the fall of 1926, Lord Delamere moved that harbor and
railway construction should be financed not out of the Imperial loan, but
out of a loan raised by Kenya herself. Kenya was the only colony in East
Africa constitutionally able to borrow money under the Colonial Stocks
Act. The other territories were protectorates. The Imperial Loan
should be used to build railways which would open up the highland areas
of Tanganyika and link together the other parts of East Africa. When
the Governor assured him that no steps would be taken to use the loan
without consulting the Council, Lord Delamere withdrew the amendment. 40

Although the financial situation of Kenya has vastly improved since
1920-1923, the strain upon the budget will again increase when the in¬
terest on the transport loan of 3,500,000 pounds becomes due, and if the
colony contracts further transport loans, and is obliged to repay the cost
of the Uganda Railway and of the East Africa campaign. As long as
Kenya remains a Crown Colony, the British Treasury stands behind it
to bolster up its credit. As a self-governing country the financial sound-

proved insufficient, on the revenues of the various East African territories. Ten
years from the date of issue the East African transport systems and territories
could begin to repay in addition the amount advanced by way of interest from the
Imperial Exchequer during the first five years. Report, cited, p. 182.

“The Schuster Committee, appointed by the Secretary of State for the Colonies
to advise upon the expenditure of this loan for the different territories concerned,
recommended the expenditure of 1,400,000 pounds upon extensions of the Uganda
Railway through Uganda territory. Cf. Report of the East African Guaranteed
Loan Committee, July, 1926, Cmd. 2701, p. 39.

*° Minutes, East African Standard, Supplement, November 6, 1926.

Major Grogan savagely and inaccurately attacked the financial policy of the
government in a fiery speech. Cf. also the resolution of the Nakuru settlers, East
African Standard, January 26, 1926, p. 39.

The Nairobi Chamber of Commerce also expessed considerable alarm at the
expenditure decided upon by the government under the colonial loan proposals,
ibid., January 16, 1926.

410

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

ness of the colony on international money markets would be much more
difficult to maintain.

Moreover, responsible government means government by men on the
spot, and it is doubtful whether the present population of Kenya, because
of its small size and the absence of a leisure class, can find a sufficient
number of men for the work which responsible government would involve.
Should an elected majority be granted and not responsible government,
it would not be difficult to secure sufficient settlers to take their place on
the Legislative Council. But an elected majority having no final control
over the administration would result only in deadlocks and the endless
difficulties which such a system of divided responsibility entails.

6. Racial Considerations

So much for the question of finance and administration. Racial con¬
siderations remain. Unlike Southern Rhodesia or South Africa, Kenya
has an Indian population outnumbering the whites two to one. The
political difficulties and the tense feelings which arose out of the Indian
demands for elective representation on the Legislative Council 41 would
be repeated and intensified in the case of responsible government. So far,
the experiment of Indian and European members on the same Legislative
Council has not been regarded by the Europeans as a success. It is
doubtful whether Europeans would consent to the presence of several
Indian ministers in a cabinet; and it seems certain that the government
and people of India, not to mention the Indians on the spot, would protest
violently against any scheme which ignored the local Indian population.

Even if the European-Indian problem should be solved, the native ques¬
tion would remain. In demanding responsible government, the twelve
thousand Europeans are demanding not only the right to govern them¬
selves, but the right to govern two and a half million natives. The
Europeans depend for their existence upon native labor, and many of
them wish to acquire native land. Hitherto, the Colonial Office has
served, if imperfectly, as an umpire between the parties. Responsible gov¬
ernment would remove the umpire, and put the native in the complete con¬
trol of the local European population. 4? There are those who believe that
the native question will not be solved in Kenya until full responsibility for

41 Cf. Vol. I, p. 293.

43 During the last election campaign, the chairman of a political meeting asked
if the candidates would “give a definite undertaking’’ that if elected one of the first
things they would apply themselves to would be “the turning out of Wakamba
labour.” One candidate who was already a member of the Legislative Council
replied that he had already used “all the influence” he possessed “to get Wakamba
labour out” East African Standard, February 12, 1927.

THE DEMAND FOR SELF-GOVERNMENT

411

the problem is placed upon the local European population. At present,
Europeans make irresponsible statements which aggravate the situation,
and which they probably would not make, if responsible for the administra¬
tion of the country.

While undoubtedly there is some merit in this argument on the set¬
tlers’ side, experience shows that when a European community acquires
complete control over a primitive people, its policies are liable to be domi¬
nated by what it regards as racial and economic self-interest rather than
by any conceptions of humanitarianism or of the interests of the primitive
people. While many southern slave owners in the United States at¬
tempted to treat their slaves well, they came to believe that slavery was
an institution which, after all, worked to the advantage of the black as
well as of the white, and it was only the disinterested opinion of the
North which brought about a change. The history of Basutoland shows
what happens to a primitive people left to the mercies of an acquisitive
European population on the spot not controlled from without—a con¬
clusion borne out by the history of the two Dutch Republics in South
Africa. 43

The Imperial Government has, in a number of instances, attempted
to satisfy the demand of Europeans in inter-racial communities for self-
government, while at the same time attempting to retain control over na¬
tive affairs. Thus in granting responsible government to Natal, the
Orange Free State, and the Transvaal, the Crown prohibited color bar
legislation. 44

But it is doubtful whether these provisions were effective in controlling
the native policy of the local communities. Moreover, all of them were
abandoned upon the formation of the Union. In Southern Rhodesia, the
Crown was more successful in imposing restrictions upon the native policy
of the Chartered Company. In granting responsible government, it main¬
tained most of these restrictions. But, as we have seen, under the altered
circumstances, their value is doubtful. The adoption of measures estab¬
lishing in Kenya a modified Transkei system, and the placing of this
system under the control of a representative of the Imperial Govern¬
ment 45 would probably be more effective than the Southern Rhodesian
plan. Nevertheless, any plan of removing the natives from the control of
a self-governing European community presents endless difficulties which
are multiplied by the problems created by the presence of an Indian popu¬
lation. If responsible government is vested in any one of these three com¬
munities, the other two are liable to suffer.

The problem of Kenya is fundamentally an economic, and not a
43 Cf. Vol. I, p. 163. 41 Cf. Vol. I, p. 6. 45 Cf. Vol. I, pp. 89, 218.

412

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

political, problem. The territory is in the clutches of a system in which
the economic interest and in some cases the economic existence of two
thousand landowners and farmers is vitally dependent upon native labor.
Most of the natives wish to remain at home, either idling or working for
themselves. But as a result of a “persuasive” labor policy and of confining
natives to reserves which will soon reach the saturation point, the Kenya
Administration has succeeded in bringing under European employment a
proportionately larger number of natives than in any other territory in
Central Africa. Because of the serious social results of a concentrated type
of European industry dependent upon primitive labor coming over long
distances, the French and the British have deliberately kept this system
out of West Africa. In an effort to diminish the results of the system
which is apparently leading to depopulation and social disorganization,
the Belgian Congo has curtailed alienation of land, and has fixed a limit
of ten per cent on the number of men who may be permanently away from
their villages. In an attempt to disentangle almost insoluble problems
which have resulted from the system in South Africa, the Hertzog Govern¬
ment is now trying to establish native communities where natives may live-
by themselves . 46

Nevertheless, the Kenya Government, taking the position that the
“climate” of East Africa makes European settlement possible—an argu¬
ment which entirely overlooks native interests—is encouraging further
European emigration and land alienations which makes the burden upon
the native population greater than ever. While the development of labor-
saving machinery and crops may partially relieve the situation, the opin¬
ion of the Kenya Missionary Council that the curtailment of further
European settlement is imperative until by observation and research the
actual results of these experiments can be determined, would seem to be
sound.

To put itself in line with developments in other white settlement terri¬
tories, the Kenya Government might seriously study the proposals of the
Southern Rhodesian Land Commission giving natives the exclusive right
to purchase land in certain areas outside the reserves—a measure which
might gradually overcome the insufficiency of the Kenya reserves. Like¬
wise it might do well to consider the Transkei system in South Africa
under which the Kenya native reserves might be given a budget of their
own, financed by, say, one-half of the native hut and poll taxes , 47 and

41 Cf. Vol. I, p. 136.

4T The Chief Native Commissioner writes, “Now that the Local Native Councils
have been established it would seem to be more than ever imperative that the
incidence of taxation and its relation to the benefits severally enjoyed by the
communities from which it is collected should be closely examined by an expert

the Demand for self-government 413

supporting, under the control of the Governor and Chief Native Com¬
missioner, a staff of native welfare officers who, in addition to native
commissioners, would devote their whole time to the improvement of
native agriculture, animal husbandry, education, and health. Such reserves,
as in the case of South Africa, might be placed under the rule of executive
proclamation rather than of legislative ordinance.

and impartial body. . . . The incidence of general taxation must be arranged so
that each taxpayer pays his due share towards the overhead costs of Government
which are incurred in the general interest of all sections of the community. There¬
after, let each community levy local cesses to provide the cost of its schools, hospi¬
tals or other local specific services. . . . The various native communities having
discharged their obligations to the State by payment of their tax would then, with
a clear conscience and a sense of citizenship, proceed, through their Local Native
Councils, to levy local rates, to administer their own funds, to construct their own
bridges, buildings and other public works in Native Reserves, to regulate their
own local affairs under appropriate advice and guidance, to subsidise their own
schools and hospitals and thus gradually to erect upon their own patriarchal foun¬
dations a flourishing and progressively expanding system of popular local self-
government. The extent of local services will depend entirely on local rates.
There will be no sense of pauperisation; on the contrary there must be engendered
a sense of responsibility and self-reliance.” Native Affairs Department, Annual
Report, 1925, p. 36. The adoption of some such suggestion would go a long way
to make the Dual Policy a reality.

APPENDICES—KENYA

V. Despatch on Native Labor.

VI. Offences under East Africa Masters and Serv¬
ants Ordinances.

VII. Native Welfare Expenditures on all Races,
Colony of Kenya, 1926

VIII. Colonial Loans.

APPENDIX V

DESPATCH ON NATIVE LABOR

Despatch to the Officer Administering the Government of the
Kenya Colony and Protectorate Relating to Native Labour . 1

Downing Street.

KENYA, No. 1353 - 5 th September, 1921.

Sir,

1. Among the more important matters which I have been able to examine
with Sir Edward Northey during his visit to this country is the native labour
policy in Kenya. This subject has given rise to much discussion in this country,
more especially in connection with the compulsory labour for Government,
provision for which was made in the Native Authority (Amendment) Ordi¬
nance, 1920, and it has become increasingly evident that there is genuine
misgiving in many quarters as to the effect of the present policy.

2. I thought it desirable, therefore, to review the whole question in con¬
sultation with Sir Edward Northey, and I have decided that certain modifica¬
tions should be introduced in the present system, which I have reason to think
will remove the objections entertained. I must, however, say at once that in
taking this action, I am in no way actuated by distrust of the motives of your
Government or the aims of the Administration generally. Nor do I attach
importance to the ill-informed allegations, which are sometimes made, that
the Government is exploiting the natives either for Government work or in
regard to private employment, as I know that this is entirely alien to the spirit
of the Administration as a whole, and that Sir Edward Northey would not
countenance any such action. On the other hand, there is genuine anxiety on
the part of those who have knowledge and experience of the natives and
interest in their welfare as to the effect of recent measures; and I feel sure
that your Government will agree that, if it is practicable to modify any
features in the native labour policy of the Colony which may afford a ground
for criticism against the Government, it is in the interests of all concerned
to effect such modifications, and I know that Sir Edward Northey himself
shares this view of the matter.

3. For the purpose of this despatch it will be convenient to deal separately
with the three main aspects of the question:—

(i) Traditional unpaid labour by natives in a Reserve for the benefit
of the Reserve.

Under Section 7 of the Native Authority Ordinance, 1912, any Head¬
man may from time to time issue orders to be obeyed by natives residing within

1 Cmd. 1509 (1921).

4i7

418

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

the local limits of his jurisdiction for certain purposes. Under Sub-section ( h)
of that Section, the able-bodied men may be required to work in the making
or maintaining of any water-course or other work constructed or to be con¬
structed or maintained for the benefit of the community to which such able-
bodied men belong, provided that no person shall be ordered or required to
work in this way for more than six days in any quarter.

This form of labour, which is traditional among natives in East Africa,
is not, in my opinion, open to criticism, provided that such labour is confined to
males and that the other limitations imposed by the Ordinance are strictly
observed, and I do not propose that any alteration should be made. Sir
Edward Northey has assured me that he will take all necessary steps, by
administrative regulation, to check abuses that may be brought to his notice,
and that he will at once enquire into any specific cases of infringement or
alleged infringement of the Ordinance to which his attention is directed. In
this connection I may observe that it is impossible for vague complaints of a
general nature to be dealt with, and I trust therefore that anyone who desires
to bring any abuse to the notice of Government will not hesitate to supply the
fullest information in order that adequate investigation may be made.

(ii) Voluntary labour for private employers.

The principle that Administrative Officers and Native Chiefs should take
every opportunity of inculcating among the natives habits of industry either
inside or outside the Reserves is obviously right, and not open to criticism.
But beyond taking steps to place at the disposal of natives any information
which they may possess as to where labour is required, and at the disposal of
employers information as to sources of labour available for voluntary recruit¬
ment, the Government officials will in the future take no part in recruiting
labour for private employment.

This decision will, I think, ease the position of the Government officials,
whose duties in this connection will be thus clearly defined.

(iii) Compulsory paid labour for Government.

Under the Native Authority (Amendment) Ordinance, 1920, provision
was made for Headmen to issue orders to be obeyed by natives residing within
the limits of their local jurisdiction for the provision of paid porters for
Government servants on tour and for the Government Transport Department,
and for the provision of paid labour for work on the construction or main¬
tenance of railways and roads wherever situated in the Protectorate (now
Colony and Protectorate of Kenya) and for other work of a public nature
whether of a like kind to the foregoing or not, subject to the provisos that no
person should be required to work in this way for a longer period than 60
days in any one year, or if fully employed in any other occupation, or if so
employed during the preceding 12 months for a period of three months, or if
otherwise exempted under directions issued by the Governor.

NATIVE LABOR

419

I do not propose to examine now the various arguments put forward for
or against this form of labour. Lord Milner agreed to the enactment of the
Native Authority (Amendment) Ordinance, 1920, being satisfied at the time
that the position justified this measure; but it has always been recognised that
recourse should not be had to compulsory labour for Government purposes
unless this was absolutely necessary. I need not enlarge on this point of view,
which is generally accepted, no less in Kenya by Sir Edward Northey and the
Colonial Government than by His Majesty’s Government. But conditions
have to some extent changed, since the Ordinance was framed, and it is
clear from the information with which I have been supplied that the Govern¬
ment has in fact been able to carry out necessary work with only rare recourse
to the powers of compulsion conferred by the Ordinance. I hope and believe
that in the present state of the labour market in Kenya, recourse to compulsory
labour will not be necessary; but it is not certain that this state of affairs
will be permanent, and work essential to the life of the community must
be carried on. While, therefore, in order to leave no room for misconception,
I wish it to be placed on public record that it is the declared policy of the
Government of Kenya to avoid recourse to compulsory labour for Govern
ment purposes, except when this is absolutely necessary for essential services,
I have decided that the legislation which empowers the Government to obtain
compulsory labour shall remain on the statute book, but with the following
amendment: It should be provided that, except in regard to the provision of
paid porters for Government servants on tour or for the transport of urgent
Government stores, the Government must refer to the Secretary of State for
prior authority to utilize the powers of compulsion conferred by the Ordinance
and that such authority will only be given for specified works for a specified
period. Further, the works of a public nature for which compulsory labour
is now permissible and for which in special cases the Secretary of State may
in future authorize compulsory labour should be defined in the amending
Ordinance. I have not attempted to prepare such a definition, as I think
that this ought first to be carefully considered by your Government; but in
any event I wish it to be made clear that works carried out for the Govern¬
ment by a contractor cannot be included except with the express sanction of
the Secretary of State.

(iv) Labour from the Tanganyika Territory.

The arrangements laid down in paragraph 10 of my predecessor’s despatch *
No. 1027 of the 22nd July, 1920, in regard to the recruitment of voluntary
labour in the Tanganyika Territory for Government work in Kenya are not,
I think, open to criticism, and I do not suggest that any modification should be
made.

4. I have to request that you will submit to me, for consideration, as soon
as possible the draft of an amending Ordinance to give effect to the decisions

J No. 1 in [Cmd. 873].

420

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

in regard to compulsory paid labour for Government; but pending the enact¬
ment of the amending Ordinance, you should be guided in your action by these
decisions and refer to me for prior approval for utilizing the powers of com¬
pulsion, except for the two purposes specifically provided for. I should also
be glad to receive, for my information, copies of any circulars which may be
issued by your Government notifying the modifications in policy generally which
I have indicated above.

5. The general principles of policy laid down in this despatch for Kenya will
be extended, so far as they are applicable, to Uganda and Zanzibar, and I am
sending a copy of this despatch with the necessary instructions to the Acting
Governor of Uganda and the Acting High Commissioner for Zanzibar.

6. I propose that this despatch should be published as a Parliamentary
Paper and presented to Parliament at an early date.

I have the honour to be,

. Sir,

Your most obedient, humble servant,
WINSTON S. CHURCHILL.

The Officer Administering

The Government of Kenya.

APPENDIX VI

OFFENSES UNDER BRITISH MASTERS AND SERVANTS
ORDINANCES

EAST AFRICA

In most British Masters and Servants Ordinances in East Africa, it is
customary to classify the offenses of servants into two main groups each with
separate penalties, usually as follows:

Class I. Any servant is liable to a fine not exceeding one month’s wages
and in default of payment to imprisonment not exceeding one
month

(1) if he fails to commence work at the stipulated time in the
contract;

(2) if he absents himself without leave from the place appointed for
work;

(3) if he becomes intoxicated during work;

(4) if he “shall neglect to perform any work which it was his duty
to have performed, or if he shall carelessly or improperly per¬
form any work which from its nature it was his duty under his
contract to have performed carefully and properly”;

(5) if he shall without leave and for his own purposes make use of
any horse, vehicle, or other property belonging to the employer;

(6) if he shall use any abusive, insolent, or insulting language to his
employer;

(7) if he shall refuse to obey any command of his master;

(8) if on entering into a contract of service, he shall give a false
name or address.

Class II. Any servant shall be liable to imprisonment for a term not ex¬
ceeding six months or to a fine of one hundred and fifty shillings

(1) if he wilfully or through drunkenness does any act tending to the
immediate damage of any property placed by his employer in his
charge;

(2) if he refuses or omits to do any lawful act for preserving in
safety any property placed by his employer in his charge;

(3) if, being employed as a herdsman, he shall fail to report to his
employer the death of any animal placed in his charge;

(4) if, being employed in any other capacity, he shall allege the loss
of any property placed in his charge, which is shown to be his
fault;

(5) if he shall without lawful cause depart from his employer’s serv¬
ice with intent not to return thereto.

421

422

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

APPENDIX VII

Native Welfare Expenditures on All Races
COLONY OF KENYA
Year 1926

(Total Expenditures are £2,385,666.)

Amount

(Pounds)

I Education

Education Ordinary . 105,153

Education Extraordinary . 5)470

Total . 110,623

II Agriculture and Forestry

Agricultural Department . 1x3,999

Forest Department . 31,166

Game Department . 16,276

Total . 161,441

III Medical and Sanitation work . * 94.959

Extraordinary . 1,000

Total . * 95.959

Grand Total . 468,023

Source: Colony and Protectorate of Kenya, Draft Estimates of Revenue and
Expenditure for 1926, pp. 28-29.

APPENDIX VIII
COLONIAL LOANS

Summary of Interest and Sinking Fund Charges Being Borne by the Colony
and the Railway in 1927. 1

Interest

Sinking Fund

Colony.

Railway

Colony.

Railway

Railway.

Port.

Railway.

Port.

I. £5,000,000 Loan

44,869

172,509

82,622

9,722

37,377

17,901

II. £3,500,000 Loan

III. £3,000,000 Loan

111,300

26,700

IV. Colonial Loan:—

(i) .

(iij .

(iii) .

T/v ,

£283,809

£109,322

£9,722

£37.377

£17,901

‘From “Colonial Loans,” Statement submitted to Legislative Council at the
Session of March, 1927, Kenya.

SECTION V

TANGANYIKA TERRITORY

CHAPTER 26

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MANDATE

A territory of great natural beauty, the plateau of East Africa is
broken by lofty mountains and great lakes. Mount Kilamanjaro, hav¬
ing an elevation of more than 19,000 feet, is the highest mountain in
Africa; Mount Meru towers 15,000 feet above the sea. On the north
of East Africa lies Lake Victoria Nyanza—a lake even larger than Lake
Michigan; further south lie Lake Tanganyika, upon the shores of which
Stanley found Livingstone, and Lake Nyasa. East Africa before the
World War was the brightest jewel in the German Empire.

1. German Rule

In German days, East Africa had an area of 384,000 square miles,
and a population estimated at about 7,600,000. Nearly half of this popu¬
lation was densely settled in two native kingdoms to the north of Lake
Tanganyika—the kingdom of Ruanda which has a population of two
million and that of Urundi having a population of one million five hun¬
dred thousand. The density per square mile in Ruanda was one hun¬
dred eighty-seven; and in Urundi, one hundred thirty-two. The large
population of Ruanda and Urundi has been significantly attributed to the
“existence of strongly organized states which imposed discipline on the
natives and prevented depopulation by war.” 1 Elsewhere, the native
population was sparse because of sleeping sickness, tribal wars, and the
demands of the government and planters for labor. 2

After establishing order throughout the country which necessitated a
number of native wars, 3 the German Governument proceeded to install a
railway system and to build the harbors necessary for the economic de¬
velopment of the territory. The Central Railway extended from Dar-Es-
Salaam through Tabora to Kigoma—a distance of 1,250 kilometres. By
means of this railway it is now possible to travel from Dar-es-Salaam to
Kigoma where one may cross Lake Tanganyika and enter the Belgian
Congo where he may descend, travelling by river boat and train,
to the West Coast by one route or to Cape Town by another. If one

1 Tanganyika, British Foreign Office Handbook, No. 113, 1920, p. 20.

* Cf. Vol. I, p. 447. 8 Cf. Vol. I, p. 447.

4 2 5

426

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

plans carefully his connections, he may cross from Dar-es-Salaam on
the East Coast to Matadi on the West Coast in nineteen days. The Ger¬
mans also constructed the Usambara railway which ran from Tanga on
the coast to Moshi, which lies at the foot of Kilimanjaro, a distance of
three hundred fifty-four kilometres, a road built to serve the European
settler interests. The Germans had planned to build a railway from
Tabora on the Central Railway to Shingyanga and eventually to Ruanda
and Urundi, and to extend the Usambara railway to Arusha and ulti¬
mately to Lake Victoria Nyanza—plans which the War brought to an
untimely end. To construct these railways, the administration imported
Greek contractors who were obliged to secure their own labor, a fact
which accounts in part for the large number of Greeks in the territory
to-day. To a certain extent the British utilize Greek residents as con¬
tractors to-day. The German Government turned over both of these
lines to private companies to be operated. It nevertheless owned nine-
tenths of the stock in the Central Railway Company.

In other directions, the results of German Administration are notice¬
able. Dar-es-Salaam is without doubt the best laid-out city in East
Africa; and its native village is far superior to the native locations one
finds elsewhere. In many of the cities which it created, the government
erected a number of imposing “Kaiserhof” hotels, some of which are
to-day used for government purposes. The Dar-es-Salaam Kaiserhof,
shorn of its past elegance, has become the New Africa Hotel, owned by
an Indian, but operated by a Greek.

These developments consumed large sums of money which could not
be obtained from current revenue. Consequently, the Tanganyika Gov¬
ernment floated loans which amounted to about 156,000,000 marks and
which were expended mostly for railway construction. The present status
of these loans has created an international problem, to be discussed later. 4
German East Africa was by far the most productive of all the German
colonies. Out of a total colonial trade amounting in value to 263,600,000
marks in 1912, it furnished nearly 82,000,000 marks. 5 Out of a
total native population of twelve million in the German Colonial Empire,
German East Africa had more than seven million, six hundred thousand.®
Twenty-one per cent of the investments in the German Empire were in
East Africa. It was also the beneficiary of more than half of the Ger-

4 Cf. Vol. I, p. 436.

6 Cf. the table in Appendix IX.

e But the 5336 Europeans in East Africa were outnumbered by the European
settlers in German Southwest Africa, numbering 14,830. Die deutschen Schutz-
gebiete in Afrika und der Siidsee, 1913-1913, Amtliche Jahresberichte, Berlin, 1914.
Statistical Part, p. 9.

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MANDATE 427

nan colonial loans. Representatives of the five thousand Europeans in
he territory were allowed to participate in the advisory council ( Gou -
jernementsrat) of the government. 7 It was composed of three officials
ind from five to twelve unofficial members elected by an indirect system
rom three districts. Having only advisory power, the council expressed
m opinion on the draft of the budgets and on laws placed before it.

Each of the more important townships, such as Dar-es-Salaam, had a
nunicipal council ( Bezirksrat) having an unofficial elected majority which
assisted in the administration of local affairs.

The government was presided over by a governor assisted by an official
:alled the first Referent, corresponding to the British chief secretary, and
3V a number of Referents as department heads. 8

2. The East Africa Campaign

Because of the great economic and strategic importance of this terri¬
tory, East Africa played an important part in the World War. Be¬
tween 1914 and 1916, the Germans made spasmodic raids against the
Uganda Railway defended by British troops, while they also attempted to
attack the British port of Mombasa. Meanwhile the British campaign
was being organized; and in 1*916 General Smuts of South Africa was
appointed commander-in-chief. In 1917, he launched an offensive against
the Germans, in which East Africans, Rhodesians, Nigerians, Gold Coast¬
ers, Gambians, Indians, and West Indians participated. Belgian troops
entered the territory from the side of Lake Tanganyika; while Portuguese
troops entered from the south across the Rovuma River. Under the re¬
markable leadership of General von Lettow-Vorbeck, a man of unusual
personality and ability, 9 the German troops put up a sturdier defense than
in any other German colony. In November, 1917, von Lettow was
finally driven across the Rovuma into Portuguese territory. Pressed by
British troops from Nyasaland, von Lettow again entered German East
Africa, but later withdrew to Northern Rhodesia. He escaped capture
until after the signing of the Armistice when, following Germany’s ex¬
example at home, he voluntarily surrendered at Abercorn.

The loyalty of the natives and particularly of the German askaris
(soldiers) to the Germans during the War was remarkable. As far as

7 Cf. Verfugung des Reichskanzlers, betreffend die Bildung von Gouverne-
mentsraten, December 24, 1903. Die Landes-Gesetzgebung des Deutsch-Ostafri-
kanischen Schutzgebiets, 1911, Dar-es-Salaam, Vol. I, p. 103.

8 Deutsches Kolonial-Lexikon, edited by Dr. Heinrich Schnee, Leipzig, 1920,
Vol. I, p. 398.

9 Cf. the praise of Brigadier-General C. P. Fendall, The East Africa Force,
1915-1919, London, 1921, p. 128.

428

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

the asharis were concerned, this was partly due to the privileges which
German officers had allowed them to take with the native population. 10

Rendering marked assistance in the East Africa campaign, the Belgian
troops captured the town of Tabora in September, 1916; thereafter Gen¬
eral Malfeyt, with headquarters at Kigoma, established a Belgian military
administration, extending from Tabora to the lake, and which included
Ruanda and Urundi. 11 At the Paris Peace Conference, the fT Big Four”
at first intended to hand over the whole of German East Africa to the
British. But in view of their conquest and administration of the western
part of the territory, the Belgians would not submit to this arrangement. 12
Apparently they claimed that they should be given East Africa as far
as Tabora and the Portuguese bank of the Congo. After considerable dis¬
cussion, a compromise was finally reached in the Milner-Orts Agreement
which gave to Belgium Ruanda-Urundi, which is now held under a man¬
date similar to the mandate by which the British hold Tanganyika proper.
The Belgians did not, however, evacuate Tabora and Kigoma until March,
1921. In return for the evacuation of this territory, the British, in a
convention, guaranteed to Belgium freedom of transit across the territory
from the Belgian Congo, and granted it concessions at the port of Kigoma
on the lake and at the harbor of Dar-es-Salaam, which are administered
by Belgians. 13 By this means, the copper of the Congo may be evacuated
without interference of British customs officials.

In drawing the boundary between Tanganyika and Ruanda-Urundi,
the authors of the Milner-Orts Agreement ran the line west of the Kagera
River giving to the British a strip of territory thirty kilometers wide
and a hundred kilometers long, called “Kisaka,” which contained about
a hundred thousand people, in order that they could have a right of way
for the proposed Cape-to-Cairo railway. But in drawing this line, the
framers of this agreement were apparently not aware that they cut the
native kingdom of Ruanda in two—part of it falling into British and
part of it into Belgian territory—which caused a great deal of hardship
and ill-will among the natives affected. 14 Following representations of

10 Von Lettow-Vorbeck says, “After the plundering of an enemy camp, which
often yielded rich booty, cigarette smoke rose on all sides.” Von Lettow-Vorbeck,
My Reminiscences of East Africa, London, p. 233. The loyalty of the native
population is also discussed by Governor H. Schnee, Deutsch- 0 stafrika im fVelt-
kriege, Leipsig, 1919, Ch. 8.

“For details, cf. Baron Wahis, “La participation beige a la Conquete du
Cameroun et de l’Afrique orientale allemande,” Congo, 1920, pp. 1-45. Also
P. Daye, Avec les Vainqueurs de Tabora, Paris, 1918.

“Cf. statement of Mr. Louwers, Le Flambeau, quoted by Daye, L’Empire
Colonial Beige, Brussels, 1923, p, 425.

“Convention of March 15, 1921. Cmd. 1327 (1921).

14 Rapport sur Vadministration beige du Ruanda-Urundi, Chambre des Repre-
sentants, 1922-1923, Brussels, p. 6.

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MANDATE 429

missionaries on the spot, the Mandates Commission called the attention of
the League Council to the situation created by the boundary; and the
Council placed the matter before the two governments concerned. 16 After
correspondence between these governments, the council authorized the
British Government to retrocede the Kisaka area to the Belgian mandate. 16
In making this retrocession, Great Britain voluntarily sacrificed a desirable
right of way for the Cape-to-Cairo railway out of consideration for the
interests of a native state. As the writer did not visit Ruanda-Urundi, it
will not be discussed here except to say that probably the most important
international effect of the establishment of the Belgian mandate over the
territory is that the British settlers and planters in Tanganyika are unable
to recruit from what otherwise might prove to be a great reservoir of
labor. 17

In confirming the boundaries of British Tanganyika, the Council also
granted to Portugal the Kionga triangle, a tiny strip between the mouth
of the Rovuma River and Cape Delgado, which Portugal had finally recog¬
nized as belonging to Germany in a Boundary Agreement of 1909. 18
It was now returned out of “gratitude” for Portuguese help in the East
Africa campaign. 19

3. The Establishment of a Civil Administration

The basis of British authority in Tanganyika rests upon several docu¬
ments, the first of which is the Tanganyika Order in Council of 1920
which provides that the territory shall be administered by a Governor, as¬
sisted by an Executive Council. 20 No provision was made at that time for
the establishment of a Legislative Council—an omission which proved a
source of complaint to the European population. This complaint was met
by the publication of a second document, the Tanganyika Legislative
Council Order in Council of March 19, 1926. 21 This Order in Council
provides for a Legislative Council having an official majority of thirteen,
and a maximum of ten unofficial members who, unlike the members of the
Kenya Council, are nominated by the Governor. For the time being,
the government has decided to appoint only seven of these unofficial mem-

18 Minutes of the Second Session, Mandates Commission, p. 97; Official Journal
of the League of Nations, November, 1922, p. 1178; ibid., November, 1923, p. 1273.

“ Cf. Correspondence regarding the modification of the Boundary between
British Mandated Territory and Belgian Mandated Territory in East Africa,
Cmd. 197+ (1923).

” Cf. Vol. II, p. 462.

18 Agreement of November 24, 1909, Landes-Gesetzgebung, p. 18.

'* A severe opinion of the Portuguese officers is given by von Lettow-Vorbeck,
cited, p. 281; and by General Fendall, cited, pp. 119-120.

30 Statutory Rules and Orders, 1920. 21 Ibid., 1926, p. 576.

430

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

bers. All of these members are Englishmen, except two Indians, despite
the fact that only 1,598 out of the 2,447 Europeans in the territory in
1921 were British subjects. 22 The second largest European group, the
Greeks, who number two hundred and seventy-nine, has no members on
the Council. It was understood that the Colonial Office considered the
desirability of Greek representation, but could find no way of avoiding the
necessity of having a member take an oath of allegiance to the British
Crown which a Greek, being an alien, could not do. Although there is no
obligation imposed by the mandate to associate alien Europeans in the
administration of the territory, the inclusion of such representatives on
the Legislative Council would diminish hostile criticism of alien residents,
and their advice would be as helpful .to the local administration as that
of British subjects. The question will grow in importance with the re¬
turn of German settlers to the territory.

The third constitutional document governing the administration of
Tanganyika is a mandate issued not by the British Colonial Office, but by
the Council of the League of Nations. It will be remembered that in
the Treaty of Versailles, article 119, Germany ceded her rights over her
overseas possessions to the Principal Allied and Associated Powers. Upon
the basis of this article, the Supreme Council, at the Paris Conference,
divided up these possessions between the principal powers, excepting Italy
and the United States. In this division, the British secured Tanganyika.
But article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations (the Treaty
of Versailles) imposed certain obligations upon the administration of the
former German colonies which were more precisely defined in mandates
drawn up by the Council of the League of Nations. 23 Briefly speaking,
these obligations require the mandatory power to promote “to the utmost”
the social progress of the inhabitants of the territory; they require the
mandatory power to suppress the slave trade and eventually to emancipate
slaves; to protect natives from abuse in the recruiting of labor; to respect
the rights and interests of the native population in the land; and not to
use the territory for military purposes. As far as outsiders are concerned,
the mandatory must maintain the open door. Each mandatory power must
submit an annual report to the Mandates Commission composed of nine
members appointed by the Council because of their knowledge of the colon¬
ial world—five of these members must come from non-mandatory countries.

23 Cf. Non-native Census, Report, 1921, p. 2. There are also one hundred and
sixty French in the Territory.

“The Tanganyika mandate was confirmed in August, 1922, 1923, Official Jour¬
nal of the League of Nations, 1922, pp. 793, 865. The full text of Article 22 of
the Covenant and the Tanganyika mandate is printed in the appendix, Vol. I, p. 545-

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MANDATE

431

The Mandates Commission investigates the administration of the
indates and reports on such administration to the Council of the League

Nations.

The Tanganyika mandate differs from the other mandates in regard to
: settlement of disputes. Article 13 of the mandate provides that if any
;pute arises between the mandatory and another member of the League
ating to the interpretation of the mandate, such dispute, if it cannot be
tied by negotiations, shall be submitted to the World Court. So far, this
tide corresponds to similar articles in the other mandates. But the
inganyika mandate goes further and says that “States Members of the
:ague of Nations may likewise bring any claims on behalf of their
tionals for infractions of their rights under this mandate before the said
>urt for decision.”

The inclusion of this latter clause might imply that in its absence a
vernment could not take a matter involving the interpretation of the
indate to the World Court, if the action of the mandatory power giving
e to the difference in interpretation affected only the rights of an indi-
lual and not those of a government. This question was raised in the
avrommatis Jerusalem Concessions case, involving the Palestine man-
te. A number of judges of the World Court, to which this dispute
is referred, declared that in the absence of the second clause of the article
md in the Tanganyika mandate from the Palestine mandate, the Court
aid not take jurisdiction over a dispute between the mandatory state
d an individual, M. Mavrommatis; and the fact that the government
gotiated for the individual did not make the controversy one between
vernments. If this interpretation were correct, it would mean that
reign individuals in Tanganyika would have greater protection than in
aer mandated territories, inasmuch as in this mandate, states are ex-
essly granted the right to defend the claim of an individual. But the
ijority of the Court ruled in the Mavrommatis case that despite the
:t that the Palestine mandate omitted the clause in regard to individual
lims, “It is an elementary principle of international law that a State is
titled to protect its subjects, when injured by acts contrary to inter-
tional law committed by another State, from whom they have been
iable to obtain satisfaction through the ordinary channels. By taking up
e case of one of its subjects and by resorting to diplomatic action or
ternational judicial proceedings on his behalf, a State is in reality assert-
g its own rights—its right to ensure, in the person of its subjects, re¬
set for the rules of international law. The question, therefore, whether
e present dispute originates in an injury to a private interest, which in

432

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

point of fact is the case in many international disputes, is irrelevant from
this standpoint.” 24

As a result of this judgment, it would appear that the second clause
in article 13 of the Tanganyika mandate is not of material importance. 26

In view of the fact that the British Empire did not annex Tanganyika,
but held it as a mandate, a great deal of uncertainty among British busi¬
ness men and others arose. For a time, the .Dar-es-Salaam banks de¬
clined to loan money upon the security of real property, which led many
settlers to assume that this was because the British title to the territory
was not secure. It appeared, however, that the banks held up loans, not
for this reason, but because of the fact that Englishmen had provisionally
occupied what was formerly German property for which the British gov¬
ernment had not yet made out definitive titles. As in the Cameroons,
many traders, having heard only vaguely of the general principles of the
mandate system, believed that the British Government could administer
the territory only for a term of years, and that it could be taken away
from the government by the League of Nations. Consequently, a gen¬
eral uneasiness arose which, according to officials and business men, hin¬
dered the investment of capital in the territory. 20

In an effort to calm these fears intensified by Germany’s imminent
entrance into the League, Mr. Amery, the Secretary of State for Colonies,
declared at the East Africa dinner, in June, 1926, that the British man¬
date in Tanganyika was in no sense a temporary tenure or lease from
the League of Nations. It w^as rather what might be called in lawyers’
language, “a servitude, that was to say, an obligation to observe certain
rules of conduct with regard to our administration in that territory. It
was an obligation which might differ in degree, but might not differ in
time, from the obligation which the British had equally taken inter¬
nationally with regard to Kenya and Uganda, 27 and which they had
undertaken at home in the whole conception of trusteeship and administra¬
tion of British dependencies.”

31 Collection of Judgments, No. 2, Series A, 1924, p. 12. The opinions of the
dissenting judges on the Tanganyika argument are found on pp. 60, 61 (Judge
Moore), p. 43 (Lord Finlay), p. 82 (Judge Bustamente), and p. 86 (Judge Oda).

38 Following the decision of the Court in this case, the Mandates Commission
discussed the advisability of recommending that the last paragraph In article 13
of the Tanganyika mandate be deleted so as to make the mandate conform to the
other mandates in this respect; but it finally decided to take no action. Minutes of
the Sixth Session, Permanent Mandates Commission, C. 386, M. 132, 1925 VI,

PP- 55 , 158- . # . _ . . .

Settlers have also inquired if their children born in the territory are British
subjects.

* Apparently he refers to the Act of Berlin, as amended at St. Germain in
1919, in which the powers agreed to the principle of the open door and (in article
11) to the supervision of the improvement of the well-being of the native popula¬

tion. Convention of February 26, and September 10, 1919, Vol. II, p. 889.

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MANDATE 433

A good many legal objections may be made to this statement, which
eed not detain us here. But as later chapters will point out, the obliga-
ons which the British Empire has undertaken in Tanganyika are much
lore precise than those which she has undertaken in any other part of
ifrica, and the interpretation and observance of these obligations do not
epend upon the British Empire alone, but upon machinery established by
le League of Nations.

Nevertheless, if the British Government lives up to these obligations,
lere is no question but that its position in Tanganyika is as secure as any-
here else in Africa—in fact, even more secure, since Tanganyika now
ajoys the special protection of the League.

4. Early Difficulties

A government which takes over the administration of any territory
rom another government, especially at the end of a war, is confronted
•ith innumerable difficulties. It is obliged to install and finance an ad-
linistration, in a territory severely shaken by military exigency, which
lust maintain order and advance development. In the case of Tanganyika,
le British found in 1920 that trade and revenue had fallen to less than
alf of what they were before the War. Germans had been expelled
rom the plantations and commercial enterprises as well as from mission
rations, and these holdings were held together precariously either by the
dministration in the case of the plantations or by missionaries from
tllied countries in the case of the missions.

Sir Horace Byatt, the first Governor of the Territory, had to contend
•ith the problem of rescuing Tanganyika from the slough into which
had been plunged. The necessity of increasing revenue, in addition to
Kenya’s demand for protective duties, led the government to increase the
sn per cent tariff, fixed by the Berlin Act until its amendment in 1919,
d a tariff of twenty and thirty per cent which irritated many merchants.
The Governor’s profits tax irritated the Indians, 28 and his “pro-native”
olicy irritated the settlers, with the result that his administration soon
ecame the object of bitter attacks, particularly from the Dar-es-Salaam
r imes which demanded his resignation. 29

In 1922, the Dar-es-Salaam Chamber of Commerce likewise severely
riticized the Governor for statements made in the 1921 report on Tan-
;anyika to the League of Nations. In a memorandum addressed to the
^eague of Nations Council and the Colonial Office, the Chamber of Com-
aerce declared that the report conveyed an “erroneous impression.” The
* Cf. Vol. I, p. 439.

29 Cf. the editorial, “We Need Another Governor,” March 18, 1922.

434

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

statement that land alienations had made the native community discon¬
tented was “dangerously misleading” and “but fatuous political propaganda
directed against European enterprise.” In concluding, the memorandum
stated “We express the opinion that the report is admirably calculated to
deceive the British public into imagining that despite innumerable diffi¬
culties, everything has been and is being done to assist” the European
residents. 30 It believed that the report was more of a defense of the admin¬
istration than a statement of existing affairs. This complaint thus raises
the same criticism of the mandatory reports as has been raised in the
French mandates. 31 But the fact that the Dar-es-Salaam Chamber of
Commerce submitted a conflicting statement shows that if the residents of
the territory freely exercise their right of petition, a remedy is at hand.

Into the details of the financial recovery of Tanganyika, we need not
go, except to say that between 1921 and 1926 the revenue of Tanganyika
increased by sixty-five per cent and the railway revenue one hundred and
eighteen per cent. The budget was finally balanced in 1926. But in
the preceding years the government was obliged to depend upon imperial
aid to meet a deficit, 32 which up to 1926 amounted to 3,171,891 pounds—
or nearly 600,00 pounds a year. By 1926 interest was being paid on
2,096,060 pounds.

Since 1922 all grants-in-aid have been considered as loans, 33 interest
on which must eventually be paid. This policy stands in contrast to
French policy in the mandated territories of Togo and the Cameroons
where no advances have been made by the home government. 84

The economic condition of Tanganyika in comparison with the condi¬
tion of East Africa before the World War is shown in the table printed
on the next page.

In comparing these figures, it should be remembered that in the Ger¬
man days, Urunda-Ruandi, territory not now included in Tanganyika,

30 Cf. ibid., February 11, 1922; cf. the editorial, “The Administrative Apolo¬
gia,” ibid., February 4, 1922.

31 Cf. Vol. II, p. 372.

“Between 1919 and 1923, there was a deficit in ordinary revenue, which was
met by treasury advances. In the following years, ordinary revenue showed a
surplus over ordinary expenditure, but there was a deficit of extraordinary ex¬
penditure, primarily for railway construction. There was also a deficit in ordinary
railway revenue.

Annual Report by the Treasury for the Financial Year, 1924-1925, p. 3.

83 Mr. Amery, H. C. Deb., July 13, 1926, Vol. X98, Col. 222. The Estimates
carried charges on account of public debt for 1920-1921, 1921-1922, and 1922-1923.
In 1923-1924, 22,341 pounds were thus expended, and in 1924-1925, 3,138 pounds.
But other interest charges were carried under the heading of railways. Report by
His Britannic Majesty’s Government to the Council of the League of Nations on
the Administration of Tanganyika Territory, 1925, p. 45. Hereafter cited as
Report.

34 Cf. Vol. II, p. 284.

436

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

contributed to the revenue and trade of East Africa. Thus Tanganyika,
reduced by three and a half million people to-day, has a larger revenue
and trade than did German East Africa before the World War. This
does not mean, however, that if the War had not occurred, East Africa
under German management would not have shown the same increases.
On the other hand, the European population is now considerably less than
it was before the War.

5. Ex-Enemy Property

The Tanganyika Government was obliged not only to restore the
revenue and trade of the country, but also to liquidate claims which in¬
dividuals had against the German Government and to liquidate ex-enemy
property. The German plantations, totaling about eight hundred and
sixty estates, were for a time held by the government, but under the
direction of a custodian of enemy property, a total of 2,151', 100 acres had
been sold by the end of 1925 for a sum of 1,381,327 pounds. 36 In the
auctions for these holdings, Germans were not allowed to bid as they
were in the British Cameroons. 30 It is understood, nevertheless, that some
Germans purchased property through Greek and Indian “dummies.”
While the majority of these holdings were acquired by Britishers, Greeks
and Indians also made large purchases. About ninety per cent of the
property in Dar-es-Salaam is now in Indian hands. After the settlement
of German claims against the estates, the sums derived from the sale of
the plantations will presumably be credited by the Reparation Commission
against Germany’s reparations’ account.

6. Colonial Loans

While the Germans were thus theoretically compensated for the ex¬
propriation of private property, the German Government received noth¬
ing for public property in mandated areas.

Article 257 of the Treaty of Versailles says: “In the case of the former
German territories, including colonies, protectorates or dependencies, ad¬
ministered by a Mandatory under Article 22 of Part I (League of Na¬
tions) of the present Treaty, neither the territory nor the Mandatory
Power shall be charged with any portion of the debt of the German Em¬
pire or States.

“All property and possessions belonging to the German Empire or to
the German States situated in such territories shall be transferred with
the territories to the Mandatory Power in its capacity as such, and no pay-

" Report, 1925, p. 63.

M Cf. Vol. I, p. 686.

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MANDATE

437

lent shall be made nor any credit given to those Governments in con-
deration of this transfer.”

An important question has arisen under this article in connection with
be German colonial loans which in 1914 amounted to 246,000,000 gold
larks, of which 156,000,000 gold marks were charged to Tanganyika.
The annual interest charges on these loans in Tanganyika amounted to
nore than thirty-four million marks 37 or 1,700,000 pounds, which nearly
quals the 1925-1926 revenue of Tanganyika Territory.

The Tanganyika Government, along with the other mandatory govern-
nents, has interpreted the above article of the Treaty of Versailles to
nean that it is under no obligation to pay interest on the colonial loans, by
neans of which the railways and harbors of Tanganyika have been
milt.

It appears that during the two years following the Armistice, the Ger-
nan budget made provision for the payments of the interest on such loans.
But later, these payments were stopped on the ground that the colonial
oans were a liability which the mandatory governments were obliged to
assume. Article 257 of the Peace Treaty merely provided that the man¬
datory should not be charged with any portion of the “debt of the Ger¬
man Empire or States.” It is the German contention that the debt of
these territories—borne by the colonial budget—is altogether different
from the debt of the German Empire. That there is a juristic difference
between the German Empire and its possessions was shown by an amend¬
ment to the land laws in 1902 which declared that the lands of Tanganyika
belonged, not to the Reich, but to the Treasury ( Fiskus) of the terri¬
tory, 38 and by the fact that the German over-seas territories were pro¬
tectorates ( Schutzgebiete ) and not colonies.

It is understood that in taking over a portion of the German debt in
1921, the French and Polish Governments both declined to assume a por¬
tion of the German colonial loans on the ground that they were not in¬
cluded in the imperial debt. If this interpretation is correct, it follows
that the colonial loans are obligations of the local territory which the man¬
datory power is bound to assume. The assumption of such an obligation
would increase Tanganyika’s annual ordinary expenditures by eighty-five
per cent.

So far, the mandatory governments, whether on the spot or at Geneva,
have studiously avoided any discussion of this question. The entrance of
Germany into the League of Nations is bound to bring it to the fore. It

" Der Reichshaushaltscetat und der Haushaltsetat fur die Schutzgebiete
fiir das Rechnungsjahr 1913, Berlin, 1913, p. 706.

“Cf. Vol. I, p. 487.

438

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

is a question suitable for reference to the Permanent Court of International
Justice.

The fact that although the Allies assumed a portion of the German
debt in territory taken from Germany in Europe, they did not do so in
the mandates may explain why sentiment in Germany is particularly strong
over the colonial question.

7. The Indian Question

Indians entered German East Africa long before the War, as they
did Kenya and Uganda. In fact, many agents of long-established firms in
Zanzibar and independent traders were in East Africa upon the arrival
of the Germans in i8(f>8—buying ivory and other products from Arab
caravans coming out of the interior. With the German occupation, In¬
dian traders entered the interior, and gradually emancipated themselves
from the Zanzibar firms. In 1912, India and East Africa did a business
of about nine million marks; and in order to accommodate this business
the Deutsche Ostafrika Linie operated steamships between Bombay and
Dar-es-Salaam.

While most of the Indians were traders, others were artisans and clerks
working for German employers. Although the Germans excluded sick
and indigent Indians, and although they required a deposit from Indian
immigrants, Indians were generally welcomed to the territory where, in
fact, they were recognized as being indispensable to trade. 39

During the World War and after, the Indian population in Africa
slightly increased—from 8,749 in 1913, to 9,411 in 1921. 40 But after
the War, their economic position in the community greatly changed. With
the compulsory deportation of German traders and planters, the Indians
as British subjects stepped into their shoes. A large percentage of the Ger¬
man property sold by the government was purchased by Indians, includ¬
ing practically all the property of Dar-es-Salaam, where there are only two
European retail firms, the remainder of the business being in Indian hands.
In Tanganyika, as in Kenya, practically all the “bush” trade is in the
hands of Indian ndukas. Indian cashiers and tellers wait on customers
at European banks. In 1924, Indians owned more than two hundred
sixty-six thousand acres of land in Tanganyika, in comparison with three
hundred ninety-six thousand acres held by foreigners and with 1,118,000

88 Cf. the article “Inder,” Lexikon, cited, Vol. II, p. 92.

40 In 1913, there were also 4,101 Arabs, Turks, etc., in East Africa, a number
which increased to 4782 in 1921. In 1921, there were seven hundred and ninety-
eight Goans or Portuguese Indians in Tanganyika, compared with six hundred
and fifty-six before the War.

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MANDATE 439

acres held by British subjects other than Indians. 41 The Indians own thirty
per cent of the capital invested in agriculture.

Moreover, Indian immigration is considerably greater than European
immigration into the territory. Between 1921 and 1925 (inclusive),
8,247 Indians entered the territory in comparison with 5,268 Europeans. 42
Unfortunately, no figures are published as to emigration, but one may as¬
sume that Indians are as permanent residents as Europeans.

The Tanganyika Government has imposed no restrictions upon the
entrance of Indians to the territory, nor upon their acquisition of land. In
the latter respect, Tanganyika policy differs from Kenya policy. The
rights of Indians are protected by the terms of the mandate which guaran¬
tees equality of treatment of nationals of States members of the League
of Nations, which includes India. In other words, the Indians in the Tan-
ganyka mandate have greater privileges and more security than they do in
the British colony of Kenya, or in the British Dominion of South Africa.
In 1921, the Indian Government sent a representative, Sir Benjamin Rob¬
ertson, to Tanganyika to investigate the possibilities of the settlement of
Indian agriculturists in the territory, a suggestion apparently made by
Lord Milner as a quid pro quo for the exclusion of Indian settlers from the
Highlands of Kenya. The East Africa Congress passed a resolution
supporting this proposal, a resolution which was later withdrawn. The
Indian Government likewise came to discountenance the proposal, not only
on the ground that no available land existed in Tanganyika, but also on
the ground that Indians were guaranteed equality of treatment through¬
out the entire territory and that the grant of a special privilege in one
locality might be inconsistent with the terms of the mandate, and might
prejudice the condition of the Indians elsewhere. 48

Despite their strong economic position in the territory, the Indian popu¬
lation represented by an Indian Association of Tanganyika having fifty-
five branches and two local newspapers, have had a number of grievances,
the first of which has been in regard to the profits tax. Before the World
War, the German Government had imposed a trade tax which the
British Government decided to revive in 1923. 44 The Indians raised an
outcry against this tax, the burden of which now fell chiefly upon Indian
shoulders, in contrast to the tax in the pre-war period, when fewer In¬
dians were prosperous enough to pay. They now not only opposed this tax

41 Report, 1924, p. 53. "Compiled from the annual reports.

49 Report by Sir Benjamin Robertson on Settlement of Indian Agriculturists in
Tanganyika. Cmd. 1912 (1921).

44 Profits Tax Ordinance, Ordinances, etc., of Tanganyika Territory (hereafter
cited as Ordinances,) Vol. IV, p. 35. For the German tax, see Ordinance of De¬
cember 7, 1907, Landes-Gesetzgebung, Vol. I, p. 377.

440

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

because of its principle, but because of the provision that the books should
be kept in a European language or Swahili—which thus excluded an
Indian language. With the help of a number of Europeans, the Indian
community organized a boycott, as a result of which they closed most of
the shops of Tanganyika for a period of six weeks—a protest which prob¬
ably hurt the Indians more than the government. They finally opened
their shops in May, 1923, after which the government agreed to appoint
a joint European-Indian committee to inquire into the matter. The gov¬
ernment finally agreed to abolish the profits taxes altogether in favor of
increased trading licenses. 45

8. War Claims

A greater grievance still is in regard to the claims which the Indians
have against the German Government.

In decrees of 1915 and 1916, the German Government in Tanganyika
forbade anyone to possess cash in German East Africa in excess of per¬
sonal and business requirements, and the holders of such cash were obliged
to exchange excess sums for interim three per cent notes, which the Ger¬
man Government agreed to pay six months after the War. Likewise, the
Bank of German East Africa was relieved of the obligation of exchang¬
ing their notes for coin. 46 These claims, together with other claims of
the Indians for damaged property, amounted to twenty million rupees. 47

Following the World War, the Tanganyika Government declared that
these obligations did not fall upon the present regime, but remained with
the German Government. It apparently included these claims in the
same category as the colonial loans. For a time, it was believed that the
German Government would admit liability for these claims. In 1926, it
was allowed to send a mission to Tanganyika to pay salaries of German
native troops contracted during the World War, which amounted to about
a million and a half rupees. 48 No doubt the Germans believed that this
move would revive German sympathies among the natives. But the Ger¬
man Government finally declined to admit the Indian claims on the
ground that they did not rise out of a war emergency. In view of the
refusal of the mandatory governments to assume German colonial loans,
the present attitude of the German Government is entirely natural. But
it leaves the Indian population impoverished to the extent of twenty mil-

45 Report, 1923, p. 13.

49 A translation of these two decrees is printed in the African Comrade, Novem¬
ber 3, 1926.

47 “Rs. 20,000,000 of Indian’s Money in Jeopardy,” ibid., October 3, 1925.

48 General von Lettow-Vorbeck says: ‘‘It was a matter of honour for us to see
that these people, who had fought and worked for us with such devotion, should
receive their rights.” Reminiscences, cited, p. 319.

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MANDATE

441

lion rupees or two million pounds (ten million dollars). Under such
circumstances, the Tanganyika Government might equitably apply the
sums derived from the sale of German plantations to the payment of these
claims which, however, amount to seven hundred thousand pounds more
than the sums so far derived from the liquidation of German property. 49
It should be pointed out also that the Indians are not the only ones to
have suffered from these forced loans.

In the third place, the Indian community, which outnumbers the
European population two to one, has complained over the fact that the
government has appointed only two Indians out of the seven unofficial
members so far on the Legislative Council. This has lead to a large
number of protests from Indian organizations. 60 Apparently having in
mind the difficulties experienced in Kenya with the principle of communal
representation, 61 the Tanganyika Government has laid down the rule
that it will appoint unofficial members, not with the purpose of giving
representation to non-native groups, but with the purpose of naming
those individuals who can best advise the administration. The applica¬
tion of this rule will create many dangers; but they will probably not be¬
come acute until the question of elective representation arises. In contrast
to the Greeks and the Germans, who may enter the territory, the Indians
are British subjects; and any proposal to give them elective representation
less than that accorded to the European community will meet the same op¬
position as it has in Kenya (where the Indians now have five seats, in con¬
trast to the Europeans who have eleven). Unlike the feeling in Kenya, In¬
dian feeling in Tanganyika may vent itself before the Mandates Commis¬
sion of the League of Nations. It might be a desirable experiment, when the
time for elective representation comes, for Tanganyika to adopt the proposal
made by the Wood-Winterton Committee in regard to Kenya, for a common
electoral roll subject to a non-discriminatory educational or property test.

The Tanganyika Indians have likewise complained against the attempts
of the government to convert titles which the Indians held as freeholds
from the Germans, called “Kiwanja” tenure, into leaseholds, for a period
of years fixed by the government. Moreover, railway employees occa-

* According to the 1924 Report (p. 43), "The net proceeds of German estates
are payable into a liquidation fund administered by the Custodian of Enemy
Property who is charged with the payment of certain classes of debts due to, and
of claims by, British nationals resident in the Territory (which should include
Indians). Any surplus is payable to the British Clearing Office for the purpose
of satisfying similar debts and claims due to British nationals resident in the
United Kingdom and British possessions, credit being given to Germany in accord¬
ance with the Treaty of Versailles.’’

“ Cf. Resolution of the Dar-es-Salaam Indian Association and of the Tangan¬
yika Indian Association, African Comrade, October 27, 1926.

" Cf. Vol. I, p. 295.

442

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

sionally subject Indians to discriminatory treatment, which the adminis¬
tration corrects as soon as it is called to its attention. 62

Despite these grievances, the Indian population has fared much better
in Tanganyika than in Kenya—a fact which the Indian Association of
Tanganyika recognized in a memorandum to the East Africa Commis¬
sion in which it protested against any idea of “co-ordinating the policies”
of the two governments. 53 It is doubtful, however, whether the white
settlers taking up land in Tanganyika—a number of whom are coming
from Kenya—will enjoy Indian competitors and neighbors any more than
they have in Kenya. Consequently, they will agitate for segregation.
But the mandatory government must secure to all nationals of States mem¬
bers of the League (which include India) the same rights as are enjoyed
by its own nationals in respect of the acquisition of property, movable and
immovable, and the exercise of their profession or trade “subject only to
the requirements of public order, and on condition of compliance with
the local law." If the British Government believes that the Indian com¬
munity is endangering the welfare of the native, it presumably may re¬
strict its activities. 64 But it is doubtful whether it could on this ground
apply restrictions to Indian farmers which did not apply to Europeans. If
Indian farmers do not treat native labor as well as European farmers, the
remedy is not segregation, but the enforcement of labor legislation.

9. The Return of the Germans

In June, 1925, the British Government removed all restrictions upon
the entrance of Germans, as a result of which one hundred and eighty-
eight German subjects returned to the territory in the following six months.
Inasmuch as Germany is now a member of the League of Nations, Ger¬
man traders and settlers are entitled to exactly the same treatment as
British subjects in the territory. German settlers may either repurchase
former German estates if their present owners care to sell 65 or they may
take up new land from the government as in the Southwest Highlands.
If the provisions of the mandate in this respect are enforced, German
settlers together with settlers from Italy, China, or Japan, who may like-

"Cf. African Comrade, October 12, 1925.

“This memorandum said, “Tanganyika Territory has a special status under
the terms of the mandate which contemplate equality to the nationals of the mem¬
bers of the League of Nations.”

M The representative of the British Government at the Mandates Commission
advanced the idea that a Mandatory Power might restrict immigration of certain
classes which might prejudice native interests provided such a restriction “applied
to all workers of any nationality whatsoever.” Minutes of the Fourth Session,
A. 13, 1924, VI, p. 96.

“In the French mandates Germans are not allowed to purchase such estates
for a term of years.

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MANDATE

443

wise enter, may soon outnumber British settlers. If this development
takes place, British “imperialists,” who now advocate the establishment of
a new Dominion of East Africa, may alter their views. 60

This is no place to discuss the German movement for the return
of the colonies except to say that the material argument for such a return
is that Germany is in need of colonial trade and of a population outlet.
Assuming that these needs exist, it should be pointed out that the mandate
system has been devised (as far as the African mandates are concerned) to
give all comers exactly the same rights as nationals of the colonial power.
Similar provisions for the open door in past treaties have not meant a
great deal, since the interpretation and enforcement of these rights was
vested in the colonial power. The provisions in the mandates are, how¬
ever, subject to the supervision of an international organization—the League
of Nations—and the effectiveness of this supervision will increase with
the appointment of a German as a member of the Mandates Commission—
an appointment which was made by the League Council in September,
I927 . 67

At present, the Tanganyika Government is sincerely attempting to
follow the policy of the open door, as is evidenced from an editorial in the
Tanganyika Times which says, “We are continually in receipt of letters
from British residents of Tanganyika protesting against the government
action in giving to non-Britishers extremely remunerative contracts which
in the opinions of the writers should be given to Britishers. . . . Most of
the grievances with which we are periodically bombarded are against the
Tanganyika Railways and the Public Works Department . . . Our cor¬
respondents state that a non-British applicant, whether he be Belgian,
French, German or Greek, always finds the necessary financial backing
from his compatriots and their banking institutions.” 68

If the Tanganyika Government rigidly enforces the open door, it is
possible that German trade will eventually dominate the territory, even
though under British administration, just as British trade dominated the
French Cameroons following the War; and that German settlers and mis- -
sionaries will outnumber British settlers and missionaries. It will also be
possible for German scientists and doctors to take up the work begun
before the War, and if the British Government finds itself unable to give
financial support to such work, it can impose no obstacles to German hu¬
manitarian societies which by this means wish to further the cause of science
and the principle of trusteeship. If the League of Nations sees to it that

** Cf. Chapt. 30.

,T Minutes of the Forty-sixth Session, September 9, 1927, p. 2.

68 Tanganyika Times, June 26, 1926, p. 6.

444

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

no political obstructions are placed in the way of this development, the
Germans will receive all the advantages of colonization without being
obliged to assume any of the responsibilities. The British Administration
under such a system would continue to pay its way out of local revenue,
but the administration would be, in the true sense of the word, a trustee
for the natives, on the one hand, and for the interests, not only of the
British Empire, but of the whole world, on the other.

CHAPTER 27

NATIVE ADMINISTRATION

Tanganyika resembles other parts of Central Africa in that it is in¬
habited for the most part by the Bantu, a people who usually do not
possess great native states united under powerful chiefs, but who live in
villages governed by democratic councils of elders. In the remote past,
the tranquillity of these Bantu peoples was disturbed by invasions from
the north on the one hand and from the sea and the south on the other.
Several hundred years ago, the Galla and the Wahuma people of Hamitic
extraction swept across East Africa into the regions bordering Lake Vic¬
toria Nyanza, where they established powerful native states which still
remain in Ruanda, Urundi, Uganda, and Bukoka. This conquering
race, now called the Wahimas or Watusis, have intermarried with the
Bantu and adopted the Bantu tongue. But throughout the greater part of
these areas, the chiefs are of Hamitic extraction. 1

I. The Masai

At the end of the 18th century, another Hamitic people, called the
Masai, already mentioned in connection with Kenya, entered East Africa.
Unlike other Hamitic tribes, the Masai did not subjugate the people whom
they conquered, but merely took their stock. They have, consequently,
never established such dynasties as are found in the vicinity of Lake Vic¬
toria. The moral influence of the Masai over other tribes has, however,
been considerable, because of their monotheistic religion, and their military
organization which have both been copied. Nevertheless, the Masai have
lived unto themselves, a warring and wandering people 2 who, despite the
fact that they number only twenty-two thousand, are comparatively diffi¬
cult to administer. Occupying territory which falls across both Kenya and
Tanganyika, the Masai resent boundary restrictions and differences in ad-

*Cf. Hans Meyer, Das Deutsche Kolonialreich, Leipzig, 1909, Vol. I, pp. 70 ff.
Cf. also Deutsches Kolonial-Lexikon, Vol. I, pp. 377 ff. A valuable account of the
Wachagga people is found in The Hon. Charles Dundas, Kilimanjaro and its
People, London, 1924.

1 The standard work on the Masai is by a German author, Professor M. Merker,
Die Masai, Berlin, 1904. A study of the Masai language will be found in A. C.
Hollis, The Masai, Oxford, 1905.

445

446

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

ministration. The German Government, following the example of the
East Africa Protectorate, 3 established a Masai reserve in 1906. This re¬
serve soon proved inadequate, however, because it had been established at a
time when the Masai cattle had been decimated in the rinderpest epidemic
of 1897. 1 ° I 9 H> the German Legislative Council approved an enlarge¬
ment of the reserve, but no steps to this end were taken, owing to the
outbreak of the World War. 4 Meanwhile, the Masai continually tres¬
passed on private land and raided the stock of the farmers around Arusha.
For a time, they were scattered throughout six different districts. But in
1923, the government re-drew boundary lines so that the whole tribe was
put within the district of Arusha, and the Masai reserve enlarged, so
that it now contains 17,500 square miles. Frequent suggestions have been
made that the territory occupied by the Masai should be placed entirely
under either the Kenya or the Tanganyika Government, a move which is
especially desirable in order to restore the political and ethnic unity of
these people. The last Laibon, or high priest, to rule over the united
Masai was Mbatian, who had his capital in Tanganyika Territory on the
west side of Mount Kilimanjaro. Upon his death, in 1891, the Masai
were divided between British and German East Africa, and one of
Mbatian’s sons, Lenana, became Laibon of the British Masai, and an¬
other son, Sendeyo, became the Laibon of the German Masai. 5 Despite
the presence of European authorities, civil war broke out between the two
sections. But in 1902, Sendeyo, harassed by the Germans, agreed to
recognize Lenana as Paramount Chief, 0 and about two thousand Masai
from German territory crossed into British East Africa. It appears, how¬
ever, that at the present time the Masai in both territories look to the
Tanganyika Laibon, who is now Parit, as the real head of their nation.
Sympathy with the idea of uniting these two divisions has been expressed
by the Mandates Commission. At the sixth session, the Commission noted
in its report the difficulties “caused by the present frontier between Kenya
Colony and the mandated territory of Tanganyika.” It stated that it
would “examine any proposal which might be made with a view to reunit¬
ing the Masai tribe, provided that it does not involve any limitation of

3 Cf. Vol. I, p. 312.

4 Die deutschen Schutzgebiete in Afrika und der Siidsee, 1912-1913, p. 2. Cf.
also Report, 1923, p. 13.

'According to tradition, Mbatian told his eldest son, Sendeyo, to come in the
morning to receive the insignia of the succession. But the younger brother,
Lenana, overheard the conversation and rose early and went to his father’s hut.
As Mbatian was nearly blind, he granted the insignia to Lenana by mistake.
When Sendeyo arrived he was very angry and said “I will not be subject to my
brother; I will fight with him till I kill him.” The story is similar to that of
Jacob and Esau. A. C. Hollis, The Masai, cited, p. 327.

'Cf. Report on East Africa Protectorate, Cd. 1626 (1903) p. 7.

NATIVE ADMINISTRATION

447

the control exercised by the League of Nations under the mandate.” 7
Any change in the Tanganyika boundaries would presumably require the
consent of the Council. 8 As the Mandates Commission intimated, it would
recommend a change only on the understanding that the territory
be placed under the same responsibility to the League of Nations as is
Tanganyika proper. Should the Masai in Tanganyika be placed under
Kenya administration, the jurisdiction of the Mandates Commission would
be extended over Kenya native policy in-so-far as it affects the Masai people.
To escape this control, the Kenya Government would probably oppose
unification, or in case it did favor it, it might conceivably consent to a
cession of the Kenya Masai reserve to Tanganyika.

2. The Zulu Invasions

Along the coastal belt, the Bantu inhabitants of East Africa have,
as we have seen, been submerged by the Portuguese, the Indians, and the
Arabs. The intermarriage of the latter with local women has produced
the present race of Swahilis. The Sultan of Zanzibar ruled the coastal
strip through Arab officials called akidas and jutubes.

In the south, the Bantu were also disturbed, as early as the sixteenth
century, by Zulu invaders from across the Zambesi. As a result of defeats
at the hands of the Portuguese, the Zulus soon returned south and did not
reappear in East Africa until the end of the nineteenth century when,
known as the Wangoni, they returned and ruthlessly depopulated the
country in the vicinity of Kilwa. For fifty years, they kept this area in
continual bloodshed. Finally a Bantu tribe, the Wahehe, which by this
time had learned Zulu methods of fighting, defeated the Wangoni. Even
this did not give the country a rest. About 1891, the Wahehes revolted
against the German occupation, and were not suppressed until 1896.®
Nine years later, in 1905, the Maji-Maji rebellion occurred 10 and ravaged
the country for two years before it was suppressed. After a seven years’
respite, the World War broke out, and the East Africa campaign was,
strenuously fought in this area for a period of two or three years. As a
result of three centuries of intermittent bloodshed, southern Tanganyika
has had an evil existence.

These different invasions have inevitably modified the organization
of Bantu society. The coastal strip under Arab influence has become
detribalized and subject to the rule of Mohammedan law. In the north,

7 Report of the Sixth Session, 1925, pp. 121, 176.

*Cf. Vol. I, p. 429, for the Ruanda frontier.

' A. Zimmermann, Geschichte der Deutschen Kolonialpolitik, Berlin, 1914, pp.
194 ff.

Cf. Vol. I, p. 450,

448

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

great native kingdoms having Hamitic chiefs have been superimposed
upon Bantu subjects. In the south, among the Wangoni and the Wahehe,
exotic kings will also be found. In between these areas, one finds sturdy
Bantu tribes, such as the Sukuma and the Nyamwezi, which comprise
about a million people having a tribal organization less broken by alien
influence than elsewhere.

3. German Policy

When the Germans entered this country, they found easily recognized
tribal organizations only in the northwest part of the territory, in Ruanda,
Urundi, and Bukoka. Along the coast and in the south, tribal organiza¬
tion had virtually disappeared. Consequently, the Germans established
over Ruanda, Urundi, and Bukoka “residents” who ruled through native
kings. The remainder of the country they divided into seventeen civil dis¬
tricts, each with a district commissioner ( bezirksamtmann ) in charge 11
and two military districts. The 1913 Estimates provided also for thirteen
assistants who presumably were used in the general administration, and
thirty-five secretaries. Assuming that all of these were engaged in the
administration, a total of about seventy officials governed a territory larger
than Nigeria, and having a population of 7,600,000. The German ad¬
ministration was thus greatly under-staffed, in comparison with the present
British administration which has a staff that, according to the Estimates,
consists of ten provincial commissioners, three deputy provincial commis¬
sioners, and one hundred and thirty-four administrative officers, a total
of one hundred and forty-seven officials for a territory which does not
now include Ruanda-Urundi. 12

Because the administrative service was so grievously understaffed,
the Germans were obliged to rely heavily upon native assistants. While
they employed the chiefs in the large native states of Bukoka, Urundi,
and Ruanda, elsewhere, because of tribal disorganization, they developed
the Arab system of ruling groups of villages by alien native officials,
called akidas and jumbes. The jumbe was usually the head of a single
village; while the akida was the head of a group of villages. It appears
that the Germans employed this system in the greater part of Tanganyika
Each akida would have as many as twenty thousand or thirty thousand

“The Bezirksamtmanner were paid from 8300 to eleven thousand marks each.

“A deduction of about one-third should be made for those on leave; but the
same deductions should be made for the German figures. Local administration
cost the Germans in 1913, 1,139,240 marks, or about 57,000 pounds; provincial
administration cost the British in 1926-1927, 301,470 pounds.

The Germans had, on the other hand, an unusually large number of military
officers, cf. Vol. I, p. 520.

NATIVE ADMINISTRATION

449

eople under him, and would be paid fifty to one hundred marks a month,
'he German administration never defined his powers.

The authority of the German Bezirkshauptmann or commissioner was
refined in an Ordinance of 1891'. In civil matters affecting natives, the
urisdiction of the commissioner was virtually complete. 13 He was assisted
>y a native judge or assessor, to whom he could assign important legal
!uties, especially where Mohammedan law was involved. In controversies
vhere the subject matter exceeded a thousand rupees in value, the native
:ould appeal to the governor.

In addition to fines and imprisonment, 14 the Germans (as do the British
much less frequently) imposed corporal punishment except upon Arabs,
Indians, and women. Sentences of flogging could be administered in two
instalments of a maximum of twenty or twenty-five strokes each. The
second instalment could not follow before the end of two weeks.

Fines in East Africa exceeding two hundred rupees (three hundred in
the Cameroons and Togo) as well as sentences of imprisonment for more
than six months, required the approval of the Governor. The final inflic¬
tion of the death penalty was in his hands alone.

While native officials such as the liwalis ls and jumbes were employed
as assessors, it does not appear that they were granted definite judicial
power.

Natives who entered into relations with employers as servants or
laborers were subject, in case of desertion or failure to work properly,
to disciplinary punishment by the district commissioner and station chiefs
in the interior. This punishment consisted of flogging, subject to the
limitations above; or two weeks’ imprisonment. 16 Natives who violated
their obligations under a labor contract were also subject, at the discretion
of the employer, to three months’ imprisonment, together with corporal
punishment or a fine. 17

As a result of this system, many abuses, it appears, were committed. 18

“For the ordinance of May 14, 1891, and of April 22, 1896, cf. Landes-
Gesetzgebung des Deutsch-0stafrikanischen Schutzgebiets, pp. 196, 199.

“The Germans, like the Belgians and the Portuguese, chained their prisoners.
It is interesting to note an instruction which said that “five years of imprisonment
in chains is rarely survived, and . . . imprisonment in the African climate is more
severe than in Europe, so that one year of imprisonment in chains in Africa is
equal to five times a9 long in Europe. . . .” Five years’ imprisonment in chains
was regarded as equivalent to life. November 9, 1906, ibid., Vol. II, p. 206.

“ Cf. Vol. I, p. 271.

18 Ibid., Vol. I, p. 202. Except for the flogging and chaining of prisoners, these
disciplinary powers are similar to those held by French administrative officials
today. Cf. Vol. I, p. 1016.

"Ibid., p. 327.

^ Cf. Instructions of November 29, 1907, ibid., Vol. II, p. 122. Cf. also Instruc¬
tions of September 13, 1907, which said that corporal punishment was justified only
after thorough investigation of a given case.

450

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

The German Government also 19 obliged the natives to maintain and con¬
struct roads. No time limit was fixed, and the labor was not compensated.
Likewise, the laborers were obliged to feed themselves except when away
from home.

In 1905, the Germans imposed a hut tax of three rupees which proved
so unpopular with the natives that the government authorized a poll tax
in 1912. 20 Because of the unlimited judicial power of the officials, the
wide discretion vested in the native officials such as the jumbes and akidas,
and the labor exactions of the government, which were unlimited by law,
a number of revolts took place. The most serious of these was called the
Maji-Maji rebellion, which occurred in 1905, in southern Tanganyika.
Apparently its underlying causes were the hut tax and forced labor. The
immediate cause of the outbreak was the incitement of native witchdoctors
who said that the German bullets would turn to water if directed against
natives who used their magic. Aroused by a semi-religious fanaticism, the
natives killed a number of Europeans, which caused the Germans to embark
upon a campaign of subjugation which lasted two years, and which led,
directly and indirectly, to the death of between seventy thousand and one
hundred and twenty thousand natives. 21 It does not appear that the
Germans were troubled with further revolts during the remainder of
their occupation.

4. British Policy

For several years, the British Government maintained, for the most
part, the district organization which the Germans had installed, and
governed the country through twenty-two districts. But in 1926, after
making studies into the ethnic organization of the people, they grouped

On May 1, 1912, a deputy in the Reichstag declared: “Our civil and military
administration of justice is simply untenable. . . . With regard to the right of
native justice and administration, there exists an incredible insecurity concerning
the powers of the administrative authorities in this sphere. . . . One judge uses
the German penal code without further ado. ... He uses the penal code without
turning to the right or the left for the primitive conditions of the colonies. An¬
other does not use the penal code at all. Yet another uses something analogous
to it. . . . In short, our criminal proceedings are in a condition which must be
stopped as soon as possible, which leaves the natives entirely without rights. That
is how it happens that the punishment of flogging is used quite differently in
individual colonies, and that in some colonies there is now an immense amount of
flogging, whils’t in others little flogging has been used. It is just the same as to
remands, seizures, carrying out of punishments, and the way of accepting evidence
and defence.” Statement of Dr. Muller, quoted in Handbook of the British Foreign
Office “Treatment of Natives in German Colonies,” No. 114 (1920), p. 18.

“Ordinance of March 22, 1905, Landes-Gesetzgebung, p. 308.

20 Ordinance of March 22, 1905, Landes-Gesetzgebung, Vol. I, p. 364; Ordinance
of August 28, 1912, Lexikon, Vol. I, p. 517.

** Sir Harry Johnston uses the latter figure, in Colonization of Africa, second
edition, Cambridge, 1913, p. 413.

NATIVE ADMINISTRATION

451

hese districts into eleven provinces, each in charge of a provincial com-
nissioner, under whom were stationed district commissioners. In adopting
his form of administration, the government has attempted to make the
listricts coincide with tribal groupings.

Sir Horace Byatt, the first Governor of Tanganyika, accepted the theory
A indirect administration found in other British territories—that is, that
the country should be ruled through its chiefs wherever they could be
round. 22 Acting upon this theory, the administration decided to do away
with the akida system. Since the akida was an alien, he really hindered
(the officials believed) the institutional growth of the people over whom
he was placed. Consequently, the government soon abolished the akida
system in parts of the Mwanza district and in Kondoa Irangi. But chiefly
because of the difficulties in finding out the real rulers, it could not at once
abolish the akida system elsewhere. Along the coast, it appears that tribal
rulers have altogether disappeared. Under such circumstances, the govern¬
ment will probably develop the system by which the akida, who may be
either an Arab or a native, will be responsible to, and even in some cases
elected by, a native council. Some such system of municipal self-govern¬
ment has already been established at the native city of Ujiji on Lake
Tanganyika.

While Sir Horace Byatt theoretically upheld the principle of indirect
rule, it has remained to the second governor, Sir Donald Cameron, formerly
chief secretary of Nigeria, to carry it into effect. At present, it is based
upon the restoration or establishment of (i) traditional authority; (2)
native courts; (3) native treasuries.

5. Traditional Authority

The reasons for installing traditional authority were defined in a
circular issued by the Governor in July, 1925, part of which reads as
follows:

“Everyone, whatever his opinion may be in regard to direct or indirect rule,
will agree, I think, that it is our duty to do everything in our power to develop
the native on lines which will not Westernize him and turn him into a bad
imitation of a European—our whole education policy is directed to that end.
We want to make him a good African and we shall not achieve this if we
destroy all the institutions, all the traditions, all the habits of the people,
super-imposing upon them what we consider to be better administrative
methods, better principles; destroying everything that made our administration
really in touch with the customs and thoughts of the people. We must not,
in fact, destroy the African atmosphere, the African mind, the whole founda-

* Report, 1922, p. 5.

452

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

tions of his race, and we shall certainly do this if we sweep away all his
tribal organizations, and in doing so tear up all the roots that bind him to
the people from whom he has sprung.

“It may be argued that we can achieve our object by continuing the present
practice of using the chiefs as our instruments, as our mouthpieces through
whom the orders of the Government are issued to the people, but with all
the disintegrating influences that are at work to impair the authority of the
chief over his people, e. g., the introduction of the ‘Whiteman’s Court,’ the
periods of absence on work where the orders are the orders of the ‘White-
man,’ above all, the orders of the ‘Whiteman’ to the chief, that authority will
be undermined and will completely disappear as certainly as it is disappearing
in other parts of tropical Africa and in this Territory itself. One pauses to
think when one sees the primitive Wagogo, who are probably not so far ad¬
vanced in the scale of civilization as were the ancient Britons, brought sud¬
denly and sharply in contact with a Western civilization in the market square
of the Dodoma Township where they come to sell their cattle and their ghee.

“I say that if we do nothing to build up the native institutions, using them
in the meantime merely as our instruments as long as it suits us to do so,
they will be shattered and will disappear, and can we not see this around us
already in Tanganyika? Large portions of the Territory are at this moment
being administered by native political agents, often alien in race to the people
on whom we have imposed them, because the tribal organization has been
broken up or is in process of being destroyed.

“With the decay of the tribal organization we shall get a numerous body
of broken and disgruntled chiefs, disaffected, quite naturally, and hostile to
the Administration. The natives will have ceased to be tribesmen and, no
longer attached to their tribal institutions, will have become mere flotsam on
the political sea of Tanganyika. No native will have any share in the
administration of the country, but a class of politically-minded natives will
have arisen in the meantime (this must come with the spread of education,
guard it as we may) and the seed of the agitator will have had a very ripe
and fertile soil prepared for it.

“On the other hand we could employ the other method of trying, while we
endeavored to purge the native system of its abuses, to graft our higher
civilization upon the soundly rooted native stock, stock that had its foundations
in the hearts and minds and thoughts of the people, and therefore on which
we could build more easily, moulding it and establishing it into lines consonant
with modern ideas and higher standards, and yet all the time enlisting the
real force of the spirit of the people, instead of killing all that out and trying
to begin afresh. Under this system the native becomes a living part of the
machinery of government and the cry of the agitator for a large share in the
administration of the country on western lines loses any weight that it might
otherwise possess.

“But, in any event, what is the object of destroying the institutions of

NATIVE ADMINISTRATION

453

the natives? It is quite impossible for us to administer the country directly
through British officers, even if we quadrupled the number we now employ,
and I cannot foresee any future political state in which it would be possible
to do so except under a completely Europeanized system of government in
which the native would express himself through the ballot box. The Advisory
Council of Chiefs is as foreign to native thought as the Legislative Council,
and can, I believe, have no real strength and enduring power for this reason.
No system of administration of their own affairs through themselves and no
vote (expression through the ballot box is inconceivable) must create a
servile race, which, some day, will find other means of expressing itself.
Why then destroy the instrument that we must use? An instrument that we
temper and adjust and endeavor to perfect—it is necessary to think in centuries
and not in mere decades—is surely a more efficient instrument than one which
is thrown on one side to rust. . . .

“It has been said by some people that indirect administration is merely
an easy way of shifting our responsibilities for good government on the
shoulders of others. But this is to take a very narrow view of the question
and ignores the vitally important principles which are involved. So far as I
am concerned personally it would be much the easier path for me if I left
things as I found them, but so convinced am I that the whole future of
Tanganyika is bound up in this question that I should be lamentably lacking
in my duty if I adopted that course. . . 23

To attain the object of the restoration of traditional authority, careful
studies into tribal history and institutions are now being made. While
some missionaries are a little skeptical of the knowledge of administrative
officials, these officials should at least be given credit for their efforts and
their good will. Having learned where the seat of native authority rests,
the administration proceeds to recognize and make use of it. The principle
controlling the appointment of chiefs or sultans, as they have been called
in Tanganyika, has been defined by the Governor as follows:

“The people must be held to be entitled to select their rulers and even
to alter their constitution, since in pre-European days, no Chief or Family
could withstand the united opposition of the tribe. It is to be borne in mind
that when a native ruler is able to maintain himself solely by the power of
the Government he is in the position of a Government servant foisted on
the people against their will. These cases are to be handled with particular
care, however, because opposition may emanate from a few mischief makers,
or it may be due to the fact that an efficient and loyal Chief is unpopular
merely because he does his duty. ... It is important to remember that by
continually deposing and setting up Chiefs we gradually fill the country with
a class of dissatisfied individuals of whom every one will have a following,
and their followers, may number many thousands.” 34

13 Quoted in Report, 1925, pp. 6-8, 10. 34 Circular No. 50 of 1925.

454

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

The Governor also declared:

“At this stage, it is far more important that we should as far as possible
build up the authority of the Chiefs in order that the people of this country
should take a proper place in the political future of Tanganyika than that we
should seek a standard of excellence in the native which in the circumstances,
it is quite unreasonable to expect that we should find. The officer who cannot
recommend Native Courts because contact with European civilization is
detribalizing his people is working on entirely wrong lines. . . . The deposition
or rejection of a Chief on the grounds of mere inability or even indifferent
character means nothing less than that the hereditary or lawful succession
and the personal claims of the Chief are disallowed, the foundation of the
tribal organization is weakened, and the Chiefs become purely Government
Servants, selected according to competency. Rejection or deposition on account
of incompetency is admissible only when the incompetency of a Chief amounts
to grave and abnormal incapacity.”

This statement illustrates the philosophy underlying the type of native
administration of which the Tanganyika administration is a leading expon¬
ent. European standards of efficiency should not be forced upon people
content with native standards unless native standards fall beneath a certain
abnormal minimum in regard to the protection of native life and freedom
from oppression. It is a philosophy which believes that natives should be
immediately given a share in the administration, with the ultimate prospect
of complete local self-government. 25

Chiefs recognized on these principles are given certain definite powers,
as well as an assured income. The first main power relates to the
administration of the tribe. In this respect, the authority of the chief
remains what it was under native law. If he ruled with the aid of a
tribal council, he continues to rule with such a council. His powers are,
however, regulated by the Native Authority Ordinance of 1926. This
ordinance provides that the Governor may recognize native authorities for
any specified area, and that he may direct that any native authority shall
be subordinate to any other native authority. 26 By this means, the respec¬
tive positions of a Paramount Chief in relation to a traditional sub-chief
may be recognized. It is the duty of the native authority to maintain
order and good government among the natives residing in his area, and
to prevent the commission of any offence. 27

Moreover, a native authority under the control of an administrative
official and of his superior native authority may issue orders for eighteen

“The development of this principle in Nigeria is discussed on p. 688, Vol. I.

“The Native Authority Ordinance, No. 18 of 1926, Tanganyika Territory
Gazette (hereafter cited as Gazette), Vol. VII, No. 41, Supplement No. 1.

"The provisions in this respect are similar to those in the Kenya ordinance.
Cf. Vol. I, p. 362.

NATIVE ADMINISTRATION

455

»ain purposes, such as prohibiting or controlling the manufacture and
jnsumption of intoxicating liquors, preventing the pollution of the water
i any stream, restricting migration of natives from or to the area under
ieir authority and requiring any native to cultivate land to such an extent
nd with such crops as will secure an adequate supply of food for the
upport of such native and his dependents. Violation of these orders by
atives within the area of the native authority concerned or interference
vith the exercise of the powers of the native authority may be punished
i-ith a fine of two hundred shillings or imprisonment for two months or
io th.

The native authority also has power under the Ordinance to make
ules, subject to the approval of the Governor, “providing for the peace,
:ood order, and welfare of . . . natives.” Such rules may prescribe the
ees to be paid in respect of any matter for which provision is made in
he rules and may impose as penalties for violating these rules a fine of a
housand shillings or imprisonment for two years or both. The exact
difference between orders and rules is not clear.

Offences under the Native Authority Ordinance may be tried by a
European or by a native court. 28

In the past, many European officers have issued orders in the name
of the native authority after consulting the chief or sultan involved. Thus
the British officials frequently declare a sleeping sickness quarantine in
certain areas and instruct the chiefs to enforce this quarantine, under the
Native Authority Ordinance. But usually these orders are issued in the
name of the chief. For example, the Sultan of Unyamyembe, near Tabora,
issues orders called “Tangazos” written in Swahili upon a typewriter.
Presumably, with the development of the system of indirect administration,
all such orders will be issued not only in the name of, but actually by,
the chiefs. 29 In order to prevent divergent policies and the abuses arising

28 The same courts may punish a native with a fine not exceeding one thousand
shillings or imprisonment for one year or both for holding himself to be a chief,
when he is not recognized by the Governor. Any person conspiring against the
lawful power of.a chief is liable to a fine not exceeding two thousand shillings or
to imprisonment not exceeding one year. But such an offense cannot be tried by a
native court; and no proceedings can be taken without the consent of the Governor.

Native authorities who wilfully neglect to perform their duties under the ordi¬
nance are liable to a fine not exceeding one thousand shillings upon conviction
before a subordinate court of the first class.

“The government has the power to compel tax defaulters to work out their
taxes. But if this is done, the native treasury loses its share of the money. So
the Sultan of Unyamyembe, at the suggestion of the administrative official, issued
a Tangazo telling headmen to see to it that prospective tax defaulters worked on
the railway, at twenty shillings a month, to pay their taxes, rather than wait until
the government obliged them to work out their tax.

Because of the local shortage of grain, one local chief issued a regulation under
the Native Authority Ordinance that no native should brew pombe, a native drink,

456

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

out of such a wide grant of power, the administrative officers are now
obliged to submit to the secretariat at Dar-es-Salaam monthly returns of
orders issued under the Ordinance. 30 The orders cannot, of course, con¬
travene the provisions of any existing law.

By means of these orders and regulations, each native Sultan, who is
usually aided by a tribal council, may thus exercise a type of legislative
power over his people.

6 . Native Courts

The second principle of Tanganyika administration is the principle
of native courts. These courts in pagan areas are invariably composed
of chiefs. Native courts are of two classes, as follows:

A. First Class Courts, having jurisdiction to hear and decide:

I. Civil Cases

(a) in which the amount or subject matter does not exceed in
value six hundred shillings, or

(b) relating to personal status, marriage and divorce under Mo¬
hammedan or native law, or

(c) relating to inheritances which are not governed by the pro¬
visions of the Deceased Natives Estates Ordinance, 1922:
such jurisdiction shall be in addition to any jurisdiction con¬
ferred under the said Ordinance.

II. Criminal Cases, provided always that no punishment other than
imprisonment of either description ‘ for a term not exceeding six
months and a fine not exceeding two hundred shillings and
whipping not exceeding eight strokes shall be inflicted by such
“i.e., with or without hard labor.

without first obtaining the consent of his Mnangwa, a third class chief. But no
Mnangwa should give such permission except in accordance with general instruc¬
tions of his sultan. A later order prohibited the consumption of pombe in certain
sultanates altogether.

Still another order prohibits the cultivation of native hemp; and another pro¬
hibits the burning of standing grass or bush without the permission of the adminis¬
trative officer—an order issued at the request of the director of game preservation
in furtherance of the anti-tsetse campaign.

Thus these orders are similar to the by-laws made by the native authorities on
the Gold Coast, or the Native Court rules in Nigeria. Cf. Vol. I, pp. 689, 799.

80 At the fourth session of the Mandates Commission, a member raised the
question as to whether or not these orders gave to each district officer the initiative
in making legislation. The representative of the British Government assured him
that the officers could merely adapt general laws to local conditions. Minutes of
the Fourth Session, p. 109.

In its report to the Council, the Mandates Commission noted that considerable
latitude was given to officials in the control of native affairs. “With a view to
facilitating its work, the Commission has requested the Representative of the
mandatory Power to insert in subsequent reports such detailed information as will
enable the Commission to estimate the extent to which local administrative officers
avail themselves, particularly in criminal cases, of the latitude allowed them.
Report on the Work of the Fourth Session of the Commission, A. 15, 1924, VI, p. 7.

NATIVE ADMINISTRATION

457

Court, and that in no case where fine has been ordered shall the
imprisonment passed upon the offender in default of payment of
fine together with the original term of imprisonment (if any)
exceed a total of six months. Provided that a sentence of
whipping shall require to be confirmed by the Supervisory Court.

III. Appeals from Native Courts of the Second Class.

B. Second Class Courts, having jurisdiction to hear and decide:

I. Civil Cases

(a) in which the amount or subject matter does not exceed in
value two hundred shillings, or

(b) relating to personal status, marriage and divorce under Mo¬
hammedan or native law, or

II. Criminal Cases, provided always that no punishment other than
imprisonment of either description for a term not exceeding
one month and a fine not exceeding fifty shillings and whipping
not exceeding six strokes shall be inflicted by such Court,
etc.* 1

Neither of these courts, however, has jurisdiction in cases involving
the death penalty or imprisonment for life, cases in connection with civil
or Christian marriages (except where both parties are of the same religion),
witchcraft cases, cognizable offences in townships, and cases in which a
party is not a native. Thus the British system of native courts, in con¬
trast to the German system, has a well-defined jurisdiction in purely native
cases. The jurisdiction of the native courts in Tanganyika is much less,
however, than that of some of the courts in Uganda and Nigeria. 32

Appeals may be taken from a second to a first class native court,
presumably when the first class court is presided over by a Paramount Chief
and the second class court by a chief owing him allegiance. Appeal from
the first class court may also be taken to the administrative officer, who
acts as a “supervisory court.” Moreover, a supervisory court may, of its
own motion, revise any of the proceedings of any native court, and may give
sanction for an appeal to the High Court. Every sentence of imprisonment
passed by a native court must be submitted to a supervisory court for inspec¬
tion, and the supervisory court shall sign the warrant for commitment
before a person sentenced by a native court can be imprisoned. No sentence

"Native Courts Proclamation, 1925, issued under the Courts Ordinance, 1920.
Report, 1924, p. 77.

31 Cf. Index—native courts.

458

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

of whipping may be carried out until it has received the approval of t!
supervisory court. 83

The fees levied in native courts are fixed at five per cent of the amour
involved in civil cases. Originally, fees and fines went into a native cour
fund, which, under the control of the district officer, was applied to th
maintenance of the courts, the payment of judges, and expenditures fo
the benefit of the district. But such funds have now been merged witl
the native treasuries which we shall now discuss.

7. Native Treasuries

In this part of Africa, it has been the custom of each Paramount Chiei
or sultan to collect tribute from his subjects in order to enable him to meet
the obligations to which every such authority is subject. Likewise the
chiefs have exacted unpaid labor obliging their people to work in their fields
and to construct their compounds. It was the German policy to supple¬
ment this customary tribute with a stipend of one to three per cent of
the hut and poll taxes collected with the aid of these chiefs—a system
which the British maintained until April, 1925.

Originally, the chiefs or sultans of Tanganyika used the contributions
of their subjects for tribal purposes; they maintained a war chest, provided
for the poor, and furnished the people coming to tribal assemblies with food.
With the opening up of European markets the situation changed. It now
became possible for the sultans to use the tribute, which usually took the
form of crops, not for the benefit of the people, but as a source of com¬
mercial profit. Consequently, many of them sold these contributions to
European traders and pocketed the revenue. This source of income was
so lucrative that they were tempted to increase their demands for tribute
until—especially following the World War—the people began to cry out
for relief. The sultans justified these exactions on the ground that they
had no other adequate source of revenue, and that these sums really went
for tribal or kingly purposes.

Thus the Sultan of Ugundu had an income in the form of produce
which was valued at about 12,500 shillings a year. Two-fifths of this
sum he distributed as salaries among his sub-chiefs. The sultan spent
about two thousand eight hundred shillings in the support of the twenty-
five members of his household, including "his wives, while he devoted the
balance to the entertainment of visitors and charity. Sultan Saidi of
Tabora in 1922 had an official income of six thousand shillings—his three
per cent from tax collections. Of this sum, he distributed four thousand

33 Cf. Native Court Rules, 1925, Report, 1924, p. 75.

NATIVE ADMINISTRATION

459

lillings as salaries to his thirty-two sub-chiefs. In the same year, he
xpended eight thousand shillings upon the poor and in entertaining visitors,
le made up the deficit from the tribute in the form of grain which
mounted to forty-eight thousand shillings, or about four shillings per
ubject. Likewise, he received unpaid labor estimated to have a value of
16,248 shillings—making a total of 114,648 shillings for the year, or
bout 5,735 pounds—a sum which the Sultan administered entirely on his
•wn responsibility. In addition to meeting these demands, the natives were
•bliged to pay a hut and poll tax to the British Government.

While admitting the necessity of an income for their chiefs many
;::tives said that the tribute system was irregular and therefore liable to
:buse. Moreover, the government believed that constant exactions of free
abor for the chiefs interfered with the economic development of the com-
nunity and that much of this revenue was indirectly due to the European
iccupation of the territory. That is to say, the sultans could not sell their
'rain and procure these sums if it were not for railways and markets
jrovided by Europeans. The legality of these exactions under the man¬
date 34 was also questionable.

These considerations led the Tanganyika Administration in 1924 to
decide to increase the hut and poll tax from six shillings to ten shillings
so that the added revenue could be used to commute, in the forrri of
salaries for the chiefs, tribute in kind and unpaid labor, which should be
abolished. In most cases this did not mean an increased burden upon the
native, since he now merely paid the equivalent of the former tribute to
the government. But upon his arrival, Sir Donald Cameron, bringing
with him the Nigerian tradition, 35 decided that instead of turning over the
whole of the commuted sums to the personal use of the chiefs, part of these
sums should go into native treasuries from which the tribe should profit
as a whole. 30

Consequently, the administration in April, 1925, abolished all tribute
in favor of the principle of native treasuries.

Government officials discussed the whole question of establishing native
treasuries with the chiefs and people at meetings called barazas. In order
to determine what salaries should be paid the chiefs out of the treasuries,
they asked the chiefs to estimate the value of past tribute, and particu¬
larly the share which they had expended upon themselves. Having thus
secured native approval, the administration proposed to organize native
treasuries, one of which will eventually be instituted for each native au¬
thority. Native treasuries are also being organized even in districts where
tribute did not exist.

,4 Cf. Vol. I, p. 468. M Cf. Vol. I, p. 688. M Report, 1925, p. 11.

460

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

To the sultans, these native treasuries are satisfactory since they now
receive a regular instead of an uncertain form of revenue, while they have
actually become more popular with the people, now relieved of the irre¬
gular exactions of the past. To the natives, the treasuries mean not only
a better chiefdom, but expenditures for the common good . 37 About two-
thirds of the funds now in the native treasuries are expended on salaries
for chiefs and sub-chiefs, which usually include the salaries of native judges.
The remainder constitutes a Common Purpose Fund which is used for the
benefit of the community . 38 An early instance of the value of this principle
occurred in the Dodoma district, where the people have for a number of
years suffered from the lack of water, as a result of which their cattle have
periodically died from thirst. Several years ago, the chiefs stated that
they could find water if they were given help in sinking wells, whereupon
the Governor asked them if they would consent to setting aside several
hundred pounds from their treasury. The chiefs at once agreed and at
the end of two months they found and dug twenty-five wells, acting under
European advice, and thus secured a water supply. By such means, the
natives are being taught to help themselves.

The Estimates for each native treasury are drawn up by the native-
authority concerned, with the advice of his tribal council, wherever it
exists . 39 Sometimes the initiative in expenditure comes from the sultan,
and sometimes from the administrative officer who advises him. Having
been drawn up by the native authority and the local administrative officer,
the Estimates go to the provincial commissioner and then to the Governor
for approval. The clerk of the native authority keeps a cash book and also
a vote book which determines how much he may spend each month. The
administrative officer countersigns all checks. In some sultanates, the
monthly salaries of a dozen head-chiefs are paid in a lump sum to the
sultan, who distributes each individual salary upon his own responsibility.
Each payment must be entered in the cash book by the native clerk. In
building native court houses, which are being constructed in each tribal
unit throughout the territory, the administrative officer in many cases

8T In some cases, however, the sultans complain that their salaries are too low.
Thus Sultan Saidi, who received six thousand pounds in tribute, now receives from
the native treasury only one thousand pounds, upon which he must support seventy
wives. The government will probably consent to an increase in his salary.

88 In one budget in the Mwanza district, the gross revenue at ten shillings a
head amounts to 76,400 shillings, 25 per cent of which, or 19,100 shillings, is given
to the native treasury. Of this sum, thirteen thousand shillings go to the salaries
of chiefs and headmen, while about six thousand shillings go into a Reserve and
Common Purpose Fund.

“The Tanganyika Government, following the policy of Nigeria, does not
believe in the establishment of artificial native councils, such as exist in ^outn
Africa, Kenya, and French West Africa.

NATIVE ADMINISTRATION

461

■erely suggests the general plan, but leaves the actual construction to the
titan concerned. As yet, Tanganyika has not considered the desirability
f assigning European engineers or doctors to native treasuries, appar-
ltly because the treasuries are still in an embryonic state. 40

8. Tribal A malgamation

Many of the tribal units in Tanganyika are too small to finance projects
arge enough really to advance communal interests. A community having
nly a few hundred taxpayers cannot purchase the cooperative equipment
r tools which it is possible for a treasury supported by several thousand
axpayers to purchase. This condition now confronts the Mwanza district,
rhere there are four hundred and fifty thousand people belonging to one
ace but divided up into several dozen tribes, each having its own treasury,
f the principle of native treasuries is to succeed, the amalgamation of
mailer tribes into larger groups must be brought about.

Several of these amalgamations are already taking place. In the
•hinyanga sub-district, a very intelligent people, the Wasukuma, are found.
They number about 1*20,500 souls, who until recently were divided up
nto nine independent sultanates, each of which had between three thousand
md eight thousand five hundred members. As long as each sultanate
emained independent of the other, freedom of movement was restricted.
3 ne sultanate in an area infected with tsetse fly could not move into clear
areas under the jurisdiction of another sultan. The Common Purpose
Fund of eight hundred taxpayers could not erect dispensaries, purchase
stock, nor provide for dipping facilities as could a united Common Pur¬
pose Fund. Consequently, the native chiefs, after discussing the matter
with the British authorities, came to see the advantages of consolidating
these different units of the same race. The sultans agreed to elect a
leading sultan as paramount chief of the Wasukuma people, and another
leading sultan as prime minister. The nine sultans were to retain their
titles and courts and form a tribal council, but they were to recognize
the paramountcy of Makwaia bin Mwanda. Before approving the plan,
the British Government insisted that the establishment of this federation
should meet the approval of the people. Upon investigation, it was found
that the natives in one sultanate opposed the federation unless their
Sultan, Wamba, should be made paramount chief. The chief already
selected, Mwanda, said that he would gladly retire in favor of Wamba;
but despite this concession, Wamba’s people—one family was hoping soon
to succeed him—decided that their sultanate should stay out of the
“For the Nigerian system, cf. Vol. I, p. 697.

462

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

federation. At this decision, the remaining chiefs decided to postpone the
selection of a paramount chief. But they nevertheless established a federa¬
tion and a common treasury, having a president and vice-president, periodi¬
cally elected. The budget of the Wasukuma confederation is as follows:

1. Salaries of 8 sultans. 17,220 shillings

2. Allowances to president of the council. 600

3. Clerks (12) . 2,250

4. Councillors (Advisors) 3. 3,720

5. Messengers (45 at 120 a year; 4 at 96). 2,892

6. District headmen (37 at 240; and 6 others) . 5,700

7. Village headmen (29 at 120). 1,740

8. Transport and traveling expenses. 9,460 1

9. Sultanate building and upkeep. 11,200

10. Presents, rewards, and entertainment. 2,300

Total Expenditures . 57,082

Contingencies and reserves . 18,214

1 Includes 7,000s. for motor car and bicycle.

Likewise in the Tabora district, the Wasumbwa people were found by
British officials to be divided into two separate divisions. After discussion,
these people agreed to amalgamate, as did the so-called Wasagali Sultanates.
It appears, however, that in one or two cases, amalgamation was the result
of administrative pressure rather than of popular conviction. The ad¬
ministration has definitely instructed local officials not to urge these unions
against the wishes of the people. The establishment of periodic councils
of chiefs belonging to the same race, such as the Nyamwezi chiefs, would
do something toward developing a solidarity of feeling which might lead
these peoples to seek closer union in the future.

Thus by means of the powers controlled by the Native Authority
Ordinance, of the native courts, and especially of native treasuries, the
British Administration has installed the principle of indirect administration
in Africa. It is a system which is not only training natives to govern
themselves, but which is bringing about the amalgamation of tribal units
into a single government. Tanganyika and Nigeria are the only territories
in Africa where the system is actually being employed. 40 ® While in Nigeria,
the policy has been applied with success only to comparatively large native
states, Tanganyika is endeavoring to apply the policy to small tribal units.
Inasmuch as the small tribal unit exists throughout Africa to a much
greater extent than the large native state, the success of Tanganyika’s
experiment may have consequences of the greatest importance.

40 * For the efforts of the Belgian Congo. Cf. Vol. II, p. 483.

NATIVE ADMINISTRATION

463

9. The School for Sons of Chiefs

If the experiment is to succeed, the natural rulers of the people cannot
emain the most conservative elements in the community, blind to the new
vorld in which they live. If they do not rise to the intellectual level of
ither members of the community, sooner or later the educated class will
•reak down the traditional authority.

Realizing this danger, the Tanganyika Government has established
t Tabora one of the most interesting schools in Africa—a school for sons of
hiefs. The purpose of this school is not only to give the future rulers of
he people a cultural education, but to give them training in the duties
)f citizenship and a conception of their obligations to the community. 41

An effort is made to get boys to enter the school at the age of eight
;r nine. If the mind of a boy is not stimulated before puberty, it is the
universal experience that it is impossible to stimulate it after that age.
The course of instruction covers six years. During the first three years,
he boys receive an ordinary education given in Swahili, which includes the
hree “Rs”. In addition, they study and practice agriculture and hygiene.
In the second three years, they acquire some English, not as a subject, but
ncidentally to courses in other subjects. They are given work in book¬
keeping, in which they employ the forms used by the native courts and
:he native treasuries. The school has a herd of fifty cows and two graded
Dulls with which it demonstrates cattle husbandry. The production of a
native cow is under two quarts of milk a day, but the school shows the
ooys how by improved care a cow will give twelve quarts a day. Like¬
wise it has butter-making machinery of a type simple enough to be intro¬
duced into a native community. The school has a thousand acres of land,
half of which is used for the herd and half for the farm. The boys
work in the gardens at least an hour a day, in addition to studying the
nature of food crops and agricultural subjects. The school has a flock
of White Wyandotte chickens, and maintains simple bee-hives which will
enable the people to secure a greater yield of beeswax and honey than by
native methods. By working in a carpenter shop, the boys learn how to
improve native housing. They are taught the principles and mechanics
of sanitation on the one hand, and of fertilization and irrigation of the
soil on the other. From the beginning, they are given instruction in
singing, especially of native songs. A course in citizenship imparts prin¬
ciples of conduct, including sexual hygiene. They read ./Esop’s Fables
in Swahili. Although the government does not give religious instruction in

“Cf. the Report of the Headmaster, Annual Report of the Education Depart¬
ment, Tanganyika, 1925, Appendix IV.

464

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

the school since nearly half of the boys are Mohammedans, it allows mis¬
sionaries to enter the school for this purpose.

Probably the greatest value of the school is the spirit in which it is
conducted. The students, who number about a hundred, and who include
sixteen reigning sultans 42 are organized into tribes. Each tribe elects its
chief, who invariably is a son of a leading chief. The boys do their work in
tribes, and they live, as far as diet and housing is concerned, in tribal groups
along improved native lines. Cases of discipline come before a school court
modelled after a regular native court. The chief of the tribe on duty
for the day acts as judge; and the other chiefs sit on the council. Before
judgment is made, the judge asks the chief of the tribe of the defendant
what his opinion is;—a procedure which makes it less likely that the chief
will favor his own man. The opinion of the majority is followed, and the
punishment, which must be approved by the European Master, usually con¬
sists of extra duties or of a school caning by a school sergeant major in
front of the whole school.

The school has a store and a bank where boys are urged to put their
spending money sent them by their parents. At the end 9f one term, one
boy bought fifty-six shillings’ worth of school books to take home; and
another wanted to buy an expensive map, costing ten pounds, to show his
people what the outside world looked like! Out of the profits of the store,
the school took a group of the leading students with the best marks to
Dar-es-Salaam, where they were the guests of the Dar-es-Salaam Central
School, in the Christmas holidays of 1925. Many of these boys had never
seen the ocean nor a Europeanized city before.

By means of this school, many of the future rulers of Tanganyika are
receiving not only a literary education, but a simple knowledge of western
science, the application of which will result in the immediate improve¬
ment of the life of their communities. Added to this, they receive a
discipline and a training in character which only the English public school
system can bestow.

Such are the splendid efforts of the British Administration to develop
a civilization in Africa rooted in the native stock. If unaffected by other
factors 43 the future of native policy in Tanganyika looks bright.

IO. Government Labor

Every government in Africa employs a large number of native laborers,
either for administrative or construction purposes. Political officers peri-

43 The “thrones” are in charge of a regent until they become of age.

"The question of land and labor is discussed in Chapter 29.

NATIVE ADMINISTRATION

465

lically go on long safaris 44 into areas penetrated neither by railways nor
>ads; and they must rely for the transport of their belongings, whether
iod, clothes, or tent, upon native carriers, who carry upon their heads
load weighing fifty or sixty pounds. These carriers usually go a journey
f fifteen or twenty miles a day. This system of porterage is described
y the Tankanyika Labor Commissioner as follows:

“. . . Costly, slow, inconvenient, and intensely unpopular with most tribes,

represents a stage of development from which we should escape at the
irliest possible moment. As an illustration of the amount of labor absorbed
i this form of employment may be cited the figures for the station of Kilosa;
uring the year 1924, porterage for Government loads alone accounted for
00,000 working days, i.e., the entire labor force of a considerable plantation,
n addition to this, there were probably even larger numbers engaged by
rivate employers, since the economic development of the country still largely
epends upon head porterage. The above is a good example since it has been
ossible this year to introduce motor transport from Kilosa to Iringa, with the
esult that the former figure has already been largely reduced. Many other
rations, however, present almost equally startling figures; in fact, the numbers
equired for Government transport alone, must be positively colossal for the
vhole Territory. . . . Certain departments are responsible in particular for
uch employment; the King’s African Rifles and the police requiring large
lumbers, while the undertakings of the Public Works Department sometimes
nvolve much porterage. For instance, the periodical relief of the small de-
achment of troops at Songea requires transport equivalent to the work of
too men for two months, at a cost to Government of £600; the necessary
supplies of arms, ammunition, clothing and equipment, also occupy large
lumbers.” “

Military officers sometimes decide to move camp in the midst of the
native planting season, and expect the political officers to provide them
with porters. European traders and native farmers wishing to evacuate
itheir crops likewise require porters. In the Tabora district, natives carry
six or seven thousand tons of crops a hundred miles to the railway station
annually. To quote Major Orde Browne again, . . Many thousands
of tons of grain are exported every year, and it is probably well within the
actual facts to say that this represents an average of three days’ head
carriage for every fifty pounds. Native-grown cotton, again—a valuable
crop—is frequently carried fourteen days’ journey, and even more; all
native produce in fact, involves more or less labor for its transport, fre¬
quently to an extent which prevents further development.” 46

u The Swahili word for journey.

“Report by Major G. St.J. Orde Browne, O.B.E., upon Labour in the Tangan¬
yika Territory, 1926, Colonial No. 19, pp. 36-37.

“ Ibid p. 37.

466

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

This porterage, both for administrative and for private purposes, con¬
stitutes not only an immense waste of time but a frightful physical drain
upon the population. Porters frequently carry loads beyond their physical
capacity. In many cases, they go long distances without adequate nourish¬
ment, and are subjected to over-exposure. Porters, therefore, not only
become susceptible to disease, but they become the instruments by which
disease is carried from one community to another. The remedy for porter¬
age, both administrative and private, is the introduction of transport
facilities, which in Africa must be a task of the government. It is the
objective of the Tanganyika Administration and of every administration
in Africa to cover the territory with a network of railways fed by branch
roads and motor transport, which will, in the course of time, do away
with the necessity for human carriers.

In order to construct such a system of transportation, labor is neces¬
sary. The African native does not, however, understand the benefits
which he would derive from improved transport facilities. The govern¬
ments of Africa are therefore often obliged to conscript labor if this work
is to be carried out.

The Tanganyika Mandate recognizes that compulsory labor for “essen¬
tial public works and services” is justified, but only in return for “adequate
remuneration.” In order to place these exactions under the control of
law, the Tanganyika Native Authority Ordinance of 1926 provides that
the native authority may issue orders 47 conscripting paid labor for essential
public works and services, provided always that no person shall be engaged
for work (1) for a longer period than sixty days in any one year; or
(2) if he has been employed during the year in any other work for a period
of three months. The word “employed” would appear to apply to a native
farmer working for himself, as well as a native wage-earner. 48

Although the Tanganyika Native Authority Ordinance does not define
what is meant by “essential public works and services,” the scope of
this phrase is restricted as follows:

A. Requisition of labor, whether paid or unpaid, for the following
purposes is prohibited: (1) employment in cotton ginneries; (2) trans¬
port of loads of any sort for private persons; (3) cultivation of gardens for
sultans or other native authorities; (4) construction of buildings for sultans.

B. In case voluntary labor is not available, labor may be requisitioned,
provided it is paid for, (1) for building houses needed in the execution
of official duties by government employees, such as quarantine or forest
guards; but this does not apply to housing in government stations; (2)

4T At the direction of an administrative officer, cf. Vol. I, p. 454.

48 For the interpretation in connection with Kenya, cf. Vol. I, p. 372.

NATIVE ADMINISTRATION

467

nsport of loads for native authorities and government employees when
veling on duty; (3) conveyance of letters between native authoritiec
J between them and government officials; (4) construction of school
' ildings proper; (5) clearing tsetse fly bush in native areas for health
rposes; (6) conveyance by canoe of native authorities, witnesses, and
fsoners to an administrative station; (7) building quarantine kraals

segregation camps and erecting, repairing, cleaning, and procuring
aterials for government rest camps, native court houses, and necessary
its; and (8) loading and discharging steamers in emergency. 49

Despite these restrictions, the Ordinance places full discretion upon each
itive authority and the local district commissioner as to the extent to
liich compulsory labor for these purposes should be used. Unlike the
'ganda and Kenya Native Authority Ordinances, the Tanganyika ordi-
ance does not require the previous consent of the Secretary of State before
:bor can be called out under these provisions. 60 It seems strange that the
atives in the two non-mandatory territories should receive greater pro-
ection in this respect than natives in a mandated area. Except for
lorterage, it would appear that the use of such labor, if not sanctioned
iy the Secretary of State, should be controlled exclusively by the Secretariat
it Dar-es-Salaam. 51

The difficulty with any compulsion for public work is that once accus¬
tomed to using it, administrative officials do not make adequate efforts
to secure voluntary labor. The Tanganyika Railway so far has avoided
these difficulties by utilizing private contractors who provide their own
laborers. These contractors are regarded as private employers who are,
therefore, not entitled to government aid 52 Under this system, railway
construction so far has been carried on by voluntary labor. The situation
.is different with the Public Works Department. According to the report
of the Tanganyika Labor Commissioner, 63 “The method of recruiting for
this Department is at present unsatisfactory and is responsible for most of
the compulsory labour which has to be requisitioned for ‘works of public
utility.’ ” Wages for this labor are fixed by a Central Wage Board, and
the figures, consequently, do not, in many cases, correspond with the
market wages where the labor is employed. Natives consequently dislike
working for the government and when obliged to work they do as little

•Ruling of June 10, 1925. " Cf. Vol. I, p. 371.

^Apparently the Colonial Office has adopted a different policy because forced
labor was employed so widely by the Germans before the World War that the
Tanganyika natives have to be educated up to a standard which Kenya and
Uganda natives have already presumably reached.

“For a different ruling in the early days of the Belgian Congo, cf. Vol. II,
P- 5 ° 3 -

Labour in the Tanganyika Territory, cited, p. 58.

468

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

as possible. It is understood that the administration has recently ruled
that compulsion is not to be employed until it is proved that voluntary
labor cannot be obtained at market rates.

Labor is also frequently called out in the midst of the planting season
which makes the government and the work unpopular. The Tanganyika
Government is considering the advisability of placing the recruiting of all
government labor in the hands of the Labor Commissioner—a step already
taken by the Uganda Government—and adopting a wage system which
will correspond more closely to market conditions.

II. Communal Labor

In addition to compulsory paid labor for public works, the administra¬
tions of practically all British Colonies oblige natives to perform from
twenty-four to thirty-two days of unpaid labor a year for communal pur¬
poses, such as the maintenance of local roads. But the Tanganyika man¬
date prohibits compulsory labor even for essential public work and services
except in return for “adequate remuneration.”

Without awaiting a ruling of the Mandates Commission on the ques¬
tion as to whether or not this provision prohibits the exaction of all unpaid
communal labor, the Attorney General of Tanganyika declared 64 that
the “provision of labour for Chiefs without regard to the nature of the
work upon which the labour is employed is contrary to the terms of the
Mandate and no legislation can be enacted to legalize any such custom.
On the other hand, the requisitioning of paid labor for works which are
in their nature essential public works and services” may be exacted, but
“adequate remuneration must be paid.” It would seem that the same
logic would make illegal the maintenance of roads by unpaid labor. The
Tanganyika Native Authority Ordinance (section 8) does not confer upon
headmen the power to call out unpaid labor for communal purposes as
do the Native Authority Ordinances of Uganda and Kenya. Neverthe¬
less the Tanganyika Administration still employs such labor for road
maintenance purposes. 56

This practise does not seem to accord with the obligations of the
mandate.

54 Circular No. 13 of 1925.

06 Cf. the Governor’s Despatch accompanying Orde Browne’s Report on Labour
in Tanganyika, cited.

CHAPTER 28

THE IMPROVEMENT OF NATIVE LIFE

Tanganyika is not only developing the group life of its people by the
leans outlined in the last chapter, but it is improving individual life as
veil. This task falls primarily upon the departmental in contrast to the
olitical officers—upon the medical, the sanitary, the educational, the
gricultural, the veterinary, and the forestry services. To facilitate their
ctivities, and to bring the interior native into contact with the outside
vorld, the Railway, Posts and Telegraphs, and Public Works Depart¬
ments are steadily knitting the territory together. Peace and order are
maintained by the Department of Police and by the King’s African Rifles.

I. The Medical Service

Tanganyika, along with the vast majority of other African territories,
s under-populated. While the territory has an area as large as that of
Nigeria, it has only a fifth of Nigeria’s population, or about four million.
This population is, moreover, unevenly divided. While in one district,
Tanga, the density is 37 per square mile, in four districts (Songea, Kilwa,
iBismarckburg, and Iringa) it is less than four per square mile. 1 Tribal
wars and the tsetse fly are responsible for the fact that the population
lives in unevenly distributed groups. Thus one-third of the Tabora dis¬
trict is uninhabited. 2 The average density of population throughout the
whole of Tanganyika to-day is only eleven per square mile.

While tribal wars and slave expeditions were originally responsible for
this depopulation, German punitive expeditions and the fighting between
Allies and Germans in Tanganyika during the World War constituted
further drains upon the country. Presumably fighting has for the time
being come to an end, and population should therefore begin to increase.
Nevertheless, the native of Tanganyika suffers from disease as do the
natives of other parts of Africa. He is particularly subject to the scourge
of the tsetse fly. Consequently, the Medical Service of the government
is all-important from the standpoint of saving human life and of increas¬
ing the birth-rate. Efforts made toward these ends are not entirely human-

1 Cf. Die deutschen Schutzgebiete, p. 37, statistical part.

'Ibid., part I, p. 9.

469

470 THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

itarian, inasmuch as the territory can never yield its greatest economic
returns until it has a population large enough to develop its resources.

Appropriations for the Medical Service in Tanganyika have increased
from about ninety-one thousand pounds in 1920-21 to one hundred and
ninety-three thousand pounds in 1926-27. While the Estimates call for
forty-nine medical officers, 3 it has been impossible to find a sufficient num¬
ber of officers for this quota. In 1924, there was a shortage of fourteen
medical officers. 4 According to the Estimates figures, there is approxi¬
mately one European doctor for every eighty thousand people in Tan¬
ganyika—a situation much better than that in Nigeria where there is one
doctor for each one hundred and forty thousand people. The government
also employs fifty-one Indian sub-assistant surgeons, while it maintains
forty-six native hospitals with a total of 1650 beds. In 1924, the different
medical stations treated one hundred and sixty-eight thousand new cases;
in 1925, the number was over two hundred and seventy thousand. 6

The Medical Service has set as its goal the following organization
for each administrative district:

a. District medical officers

b. European sanitary superintendents

c. District African sanitary inspectors

d. Venereal disease and Yaws mobile clinics

e. Maternity and child welfare centers under the supervision of European
nursing sisters

f. Qualified dispensers in charge of district dispensaries

g. Tuberculosis sanatoria, at or near the larger towns

h. Mobile clinics for surgical work "

Eventually under this plan, each district in Tanganyika will have a
medical officer in charge of a dispensary or hospital, and a large number
of native dispensers. To realize this program, more doctors will be
required, and it is doubtful if they can be recruited in England. Inas¬
much as Tanganyika is a mandated territory, it would be an act of inter¬
national goodwill, in keeping with the spirit of the mandate, if the British
Government would invite German doctors to enter the Tanganyika
service. 7

Realizing that the prevention of disease is easier than the cure, the
Medical Service has a sanitation division, in charge of a senior sanitation

3 In addition to the director, two deputy directors, a director of the laboratory,
and a venereal disease officer.

4 Annual Medical Report, 1924, p. 2.

6 Reports, 1925, p. 37. For a comparison with Kenya and Uganda cf. Vol. I,
p. 386.

Annual Medical Report, 1924, p. 50.

7 For precedents in regard to Italian and Russian doctors, see the index.

THE IMPROVEMENT OF NATIVE LIFE

471

rficer, which conducts campaigns against epidemics and looks after the
■roblem of sanitation in the towns. To increase the effectiveness of this
ervice, the government is training native sanitary inspectors. The first
ype of inspector receives nine months’ instruction in sanitation and Eng-
ish. His job lies in the towns and consists of inspecting the living
luarters of natives, Indians, and Europeans, to see that they conform to
anitary regulations. Not infrequently, these native guards bring European
.ousewives into court for improper disposal of garbage. Since these duties
equire tact and character—a native in such a job is frequently offered
jribes—the administration is slow in picking out these inspectors. The
•econd type of inspector works in the native villages and therefore need
not know English. After receiving a three months’ course in elementary
sanitation, the government assigns an inspector a group of villages to
patrol. Inspectors may give vaccinations, and may advise the chiefs as
:o sanitation. Their principal work, however, is to detect the beginnings
of epidemics. In this respect, they serve as the eyes and ears of the
European administration. In 1926, one hundred and fifty such inspec¬
tors were in the field. While it appears that Uganda is doing more than
Tanganyika in training native medical despensers, Tanganyika is appar¬
ently leading British Africa in the training of a corps of natives for
purely preventive work. The administration is now discussing the estab¬
lishment of a medical school for native dispensers.

2. Sleeping Sickness

Despite the ravages wrought in man and beast by sleeping sickness, 8
caused by the bite of the tsetse fly, the Tanganyika Medical Service has not
organized special units to combat the disease, such as have been organized
in the Belgian Congo and the French Cameroons.® The campaign against
sleeping sickness is now handled, for the most part, by other departments
whose work is of a preventive, rather than a curative nature.

The tsetse fly is now found in an area which covers between a half and
two-thirds of Tanganyika. Investigation has shown that while the
glossina morsitans breeds in thickets, it does not propagate itself in culti¬
vated ground or in high and thick forests. 10 Consequently, officials have
conceived the idea of destroying the breeding place of the fly as the surest
and easiest way of eliminating it from the country. Under the direction

8 Or trypanosomiasis. 8 Cf. Vol. II, pp. 348, 579.

50 There are two general types of trypanosomes {i.e. the parasites which cause
the disease) the first of which is called glossina morsitans, and the second of which
is called glossina palpalis. The distribution of the glossina palpalis is confined to
a narrow area bordering on rivers and lake shores. Glossina morsitans, which is
not so dependent upon water for its existence, is found throughout East Africa,
while glossina palpalis is found in the Belgian Congo as well as elsewhere.

472

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

of the Game Preservation Department, natives are cutting away or burn¬
ing the bush in vast fly areas, in accordance with a concerted plan. When
the order is given, the flies are driven into fire “traps” by this burning,
and thus meet their death. When an area is cleared, it is either turned
over to grazing or to cultivation, both of which keep down the bush.
Upon entering a fly cleared area, a traveler is stopped by a native guard
wearing a letter “T,” who sees to it that his vehicle does not bring flies
into the area. These clearing methods—which would be impossible in
the Congo on account of dense tropical forests—require an immense amount
of labor even though Tanganyika is a savannah country. But they seem
to be the best hope of eliminating the disease. To carry on this work, the
employment of compulsory labor, in the absence of a voluntary supply,
would appear to be justifiable. 11

3. Veterinary IVork

While the Veterinary Department has participated in the campaign
against the tsetse fly, its other activities have been of more importance to
native welfare, as the inhabitants of Tanganyika own nearly four million
head of cattle and as many sheep and goats. 12 According to the 1926-27
Estimates, Tanganyika supports a staff of sixteen veterinary officers and
twenty-five stock inspectors. In 1925, the European staff traveled an
aggregate of seventy thousand miles in the pursuance of its work (apart
from ordinary train travel). A native staff of a hundred veterinary
guards traveled two hundred and fifty thousand miles. It is estimated
that, except for the livestock in the Kigoma district, practically all live¬
stock in the territory was examined six times by the department during
1924. 13

As a rule, a veterinary officer or stock inspector is assigned to each
administrative district 14 which usually contains from two hundred thou¬
sand to three hundred thousand head of cattle. Under him are a number

11 Compulsory labor for such purposes is authorized by the Native Authority
Ordinance, 1926. The activities of the Game Preservation Department have also
been directed towards saving the lives of natives from the depredations of wild
animals. In Tabora, lions frequently enter the city and take human life. Because
of the provisions of the St. Germain arms convention, natives are unable to obtain
arms of precision without special license, and hence in some cases have no adequate
means of protecting themselves. For a time, the government issued special
licenses to European game-hunters to protect native villages, but the plan proved
unsatisfactory. The present policy is to employ native “cultivation protectors
whose job is to exclude animals from defined areas, either by shooting or by
trapping them. Cf. Report, 1925, p. 23.

u Tanganyika Territory Blue Book, 1924, p. 153.

13 Annual Report of the Department of Veterinary Science and Animal Hus¬
bandry, 1924, p. 1.

14 In some cases, an officer must, however, cover more than one political district.

THE IMPROVEMENT OF NATIVE LIFE

473

»f native veterinary guards, each of whom is responsible for a number of
illages owning from ten thousand to twenty-five thousand head of stock.
These guards, who must know Swahili, undergo a training for at least
line months. They keep a register of the cattle owners under their super¬
vision, and if possible, inspect each owner’s cattle once a week. The
principal object of their work is to detect and eliminate cattle disease, the
nost important of which is rinderpest. As a result of their efforts, and
>f the use of serum and quarantine methods, rinderpest has been eliminated
from all but five administrative districts in the territory. Following
the elimination of this disease in the Iringa district, the number of cattle
doubled in four years. 16

The department is also helping the natives to produce ghee butter
for export by establishing a ghee post in the midst of each community own¬
ing from ten thousand to twenty thousand head of cattle. Here a grass hut
is put up, and a number of caldrons set over holes in the ground in which
the butter is boiled until it turns into ghee. The government advances
the funds to organize these posts, while it vests the control of the coopera¬
tive enterprise in the native council of elders of the community, under
the supervision of a European stock inspector. 18

Likewise, the natives are being taught improved methods of drying
and preparing skins for export. Hides and skins, which form the fourth
largest export, to the value of more than fifty-three thousand pounds and
ghee to the value of nearly eight thousand pounds were exported in 1925. 17
The department also periodically imports stud animals with a view to
improving the quality of native stock.

4. Native Agriculture

The economic welfare of the native is fundamentally dependent upon
agriculture. The promotion of this side of native life is directed by an
agricultural department having about fifteen agricultural officers and one
hundred and eighty native agricultural assistants. Native agricultural
instructors are now being trained at a school at Mpapwa, which is con¬
ducted by the Department of Agriculture (in cooperation with the Educa¬
tion Department). These instructors tour the country, showing the
natives the best methods of cultivation.

The work of this department is largely educational in nature. Through
a monthly journal, Marnbo Leo, published in Swahili, 18 and through various

15 Veterinary Report, cited, p. 5. The Report says, “Never since the inception
of European Administration in this Territory was so much of the country free from
Rinderpest, nor formerly in any single year have such important gains been made.”

“ Ibid., p. 19. v Tanganyika Trade Report, 1925, p. 3.

“This journal also serves the other departments.

474

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

circulars, the department conveys to the natives information in simple
terms. 19 In the sub-districts of Shingyanga, the department a few years ago
established a station for plowing and the training of oxen. With this
as a demonstration center, officials introduced plowing to natives through¬
out the area. Plows are usually so expensive that they are beyond the
means of the single farmer. Consequently, to introduce this method of
agriculture, the government purchased twenty-five such plows and issued
them to native villages, which were originally supposed to pay for them
from the proceeds of communal cotton plantations. 20 While these com¬
munal plantations did not prove to be a success, the natives, nevertheless,
regularly met the payments when due. As a result of this first effort, the
natives plowed about five hundred acres of land, and the local sultans
requested an additional supply of three hundred and twenty plows. In
1925 a total of eighteen hundred and seventy-five acres was under cultiva¬
tion. Presumably plows will be purchased in the future by native treas¬
uries. The department has now opened four plowing schools.

The department has likewise encouraged native coffee production. In
the Bukoba district, natives grew large quantities of coffee before the
World War. 21 The export production of robusta coffee, largely from
this district, increased from 2562 tons in 1923 to 3535 tons in 1924, and
to 4150 tons in 1925 in contrast to 5880 tons of Arabic coffee exported
by the European farmers of Kenya. 22 Likewise the natives produce seventy-
five out of the fifteen hundred and fifty tons of Arabic or high quality coffee
produced in the European districts of Arusha, Moshi, and Usambara. 23
In the Moshi district, the cultivation of Arabica coffee amidst areas occu¬
pied by European planters is carefully controlled by a district agricultural
officer, under whom are a coffee officer and five trained African instruc¬
tors. The government limits the number of trees each native farmer may
plant to one thousand. In order to supply such trees, it has established
thirteen nurseries. Under this system, the number of native planters has
increased from six hundred to nearly seven thousand; and the number
of trees planted increased from one hundred and seventy-eight thousand
in 1922 to seven hundred and fourteen thousand in 1*924 and to one

19 Cf. Leaflet No. 1, “Instructions for Growing and Selling Cotton,” part of
which says, “When you are clearing the ground for your farm, put all the grass
and weeds on one side so that you may bury them later on to make food for the
plants that you will grow in the farm. Do not burn the grass and weeds.” These
Leaflets are in Swahili and in English.

20 Report, Department of Agriculture, 1924, p. 5.

21 Lexikon, Vol. I, p. 389.

22 Cf. Agricultural Census of the Colony and Protectorate of Kenya, i9 2 5>
table on p. 44.

23 In some cases, this native coffee brought a higher price than European grown
coffee.

THE IMPROVEMENT OF NATIVE LIFE

475

million two hundred and twenty-six thousand in 1925. 24 These planters
have organized themselves into the Kilimanjaro Native Planters Associa¬
tion, to which members contribute a shilling a year. The funds of this
association are controlled by the coffee officer. The association issues sug¬
gestions on how to prepare and market the crop, and hopes to work out
some plans of grading and marketing coffee upon a cooperative basis. 25
In the past, the government definitely encouraged native coffee production
along with European coffee production. But as a result of the com¬
bined protests of the Kenya and Tanganyika European coffee growers,
and other causes, the government has withdrawn this encouragement;
in fact, it now discourages this type of production. 20

The agricultural department has likewise encouraged native produc¬
tion of cotton, as did the Germans before the World War. In 1924, the
department distributed more than a thousand tons of cotton seed to
natives. The Tanganyika cotton rules contain provisions similar to those
in the Uganda rules in regard to the destruction of cotton stalks and the
planting of only government seed. 27 Ginnery sites are limited. 28 In order
to improve the quality and price of native cotton, the department in 1922
established an auction system in districts where production had just
started. Native producers sorted their cotton into three different qualities
and brought it to certain markets. On certain days, cotton buyers would
bid for the right to purchase the whole crop of the district. By this means,
it was believed that the native secured protection against unfair weighing,
and that he would be certain to be paid in cash. In some cases, because of
the competition of bidders, the natives also received a higher price than in
districts where the the open market prevailed. On the other hand, some
natives believed that the winner of the bid profited at the expense of the
producer when market prices later increased. Traders also opposed the
plan because it limited competition. With the growth of cotton cultiva¬
tion, it became impossible for the agricultural officers adequately to super¬
vise the auction system. For these various reasons, it was abandoned.
In a few districts, administrative officers now hold auctions for the sale
of other crops. According to the annual report of the department, the
brokers’ reports “show the general superiority of the native grown cotton
over that raised on non-native estates; and indicate that unless consider¬
ably more care is taken to sort the latter into its different qualities and

* Report, 1925, p. 53.

Ci. East African Standard, March 20, 1926, p. 37.

“ This question is discussed in Vol. I, p. 493.

^Cotton Rules, 1922, Laws of Tanganyika, Vol. Ill, p. 136.

“The danger of monopoly under this system was discussed in an editorial in
the Tanganyika Times, August 21, 1926.

476

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

sell it and ship it as such, the good name that Tanganyika cotton has
already come to bear will be damaged.” 29 The production of cotton lint
increased from about 2,900,000 pounds in 1922 to 7,500,000 pounds in
1924, an increase of sixty-four per cent. While sisal is the largest export,
cotton comes second, constituting 14.3 per cent of the total export. Offi¬
cials believe that if they exerted the pressure hitherto applied in Uganda,
the cotton production of Tanganyika would soon exceed that of Uganda.

A crop of practically the same importance as cotton is the ground¬
nut. 30 As the cultivation of this crop is more simple and more firmly
established than that of coffee or cotton, the government has not given
this crop so much concern. Little attention appears to be paid to the
quality of the groundnut crop. Recently the Dar-es-Salaam Chamber
of Commerce made representations in regard to the adulteration of this
and other products. 31 The introduction of a system of inspection such as
exists in Sierra Leone or the French colonies is deserving of consideration. 32

In many parts of Africa, the rewards of native agriculture are thrown
away by improvident borrowing from European traders. Many .colonies
have attempted to bring this borrowing to an end by making debts of
natives to non-natives nonenforcible in the courts. The League of Na¬
tions Mandate contains a provision obligating the mandatory power to
prevent usury. To carry this obligation into effect, the Tanganyika Gov¬
ernment enacted in 1923 the Credit to Natives (Restriction) Ordinance,
which refused redress in the courts to any creditor unless the transaction
had been previously approved by an administrative officer. Strangely
enough, this ordinance has made the British Government unpopular along
the coast where before the World War native traders received large ad¬
vances from German trading houses. The Tanganyika ordinance does
not prohibit legitimate borrowing; it is aimed merely to protect illiterate
natives against unscrupulous traders.

The greatest reproach against the agricultural policy of the Tanganyika
Government is the fact that it allowed the Agricultural Institute at Amani,
probably the leading scientific institute in the tropics, established by the
Germans in 1902, to fall into decline. The East Africa Commission re¬
ported : “In spite of the efforts of successive Secretaries of State for the
Colonies, this world-famous research institution is, for all practical pur¬
poses, lying derelict, its laboratories unoccupied, its costly apparatus dis¬
mantled, the living quarters deteriorating, the magnificent and priceless
collection of books and scientific records and specimens unused. Instead
of supplying the five terrtories in particular, and the scientific world in

” Agricultural Report, 1924-25, cited, p. 7. 10 The English word for peanut.

31 Tanganyika Times, May 29, 1926. “Cf. Vol. I, p. 871, Vol. II, P- 47

THE IMPROVEMENT OF NATIVE LIFE

477

general, with contributions to their knowledge of tropical plants, soils, and
insects, of the greatest scientific and economic importance, its only output
at present consists of penny packets of seeds.” 33

The institute is now being reopened, and its maintenance is being jointly
borne by the East African territories. 34

Hitherto it appears that the government Department of Agriculture has
devoted more of its energies to native than to European agriculture—a
policy which it has justified on the ground of greater need. The Euro¬
pean planters, numbering about a thousand, know how to take care of
themselves. 35

At the present time, it is estimated that native exports amount to
fifty-one per cent of the total exports of the territory. The exports of
European settlers constitute the remaining forty-nine per cent. The lead¬
ing export, sisal, is produced entirely by Europeans. If the value of sisal
is removed from the total “European exports,” the European agricultural
production in 1925 would amount to 567,881 pounds, in comparison with
native production valued at 1,293,417 pounds. At the present time,
Europeans produce all the sisal and plantation rubber of the territory,
thirty-seven per cent of the cotton, and thirty-three per cent of the coffee.
Natives are entirely responsible for the production of hides and skins,
groundnuts, beeswax, simsim, rice, and ghee, of sixty-three per cent of the
cotton, and sixty-seven per cent of the coffee. 36

Except for sisal, native agriculture for the time being dominates the
Tanganyika export trade, in contrast to the pre-war condition when
European exports predominated, largely because of plantation rubber, the
•export of which has now greatly declined. 37

5. Education and Missions

In the long run, the success of the departments of public health and
agriculture will depend upon the general educational progress of the people

” Report of the East Africa Commission, Cmd. 2387, p. 85.

S4 Cf. the Resolution in favor of a Central Research Staff, 1926, Summary of
Proceedings, Conference of Governors of the East African Dependencies, 1926,

P-

‘‘■'The German Government, on the contrary, appears to have aided Euro¬
pean more than native agriculture. In 1910, the value of European agricul¬
tural products in East Africa was 7,340,000 marks, or 3,980,000 marks more than
that of native products; while in the Cameroons, the value of European agricul¬
tural products was 2,880,000 marks, or 330,000 marks more than that of native
products. Lexikon, Vol. Ill, p. 60.

38 Paper by the Agricultural Director of Tanganyika at the Pan-African Con¬
ference on Agriculture, East African Standard, August 28, 1926.

"Rubber exports are now, however, starting to revive. Nearly fifty thousand
tons of Cerea rubber were exported in 1925.

478

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

—a fact which the Germans realized. In German East Africa, the gov¬
ernment maintained eighty-nine schools, having a total attendance of
sixty-one hundred students 38 and a staff of thirteen German teachers.
The Estimates also provided for an inspector of schools. Christian mis¬
sionary societies, led by the Berliner Missions-Gesellschaft and the Leip-
ziger Missions-Gesellschaft among the Protestants, and the White Fathers
and Benedictines among the Catholics, maintained a total of eighteen
hundred schools having an enrollment of 108,500.

The value of the German system was estimated by the British Gov¬
ernment in its report for 1921 as follows: “The results of their system
are to-day evident in the large number of natives scattered throughout the
country who are able to read and write, and it must be admitted that
the degree of usefulness to the administration of the natives of the Tan¬
ganyika Territory is in advance of that which one has been accustomed
to associate with British African Protectorates. Whereas the British
official may often have had to risk the mutilation of his instructions to a
chief by having to send them verbally, the late German system has made
it possible to communicate in writing with every Akida and village head¬
man, and in turn to receive from him reports written in Swahili.” 39

Immediately following the World War, the financial difficulties which
the Tanganyika Government encountered along with other African terri¬
tories restricted expenditures on educational matters to a bare minimum. In
1920-21, educational appropriations amounted only to 3106 pounds. Edu¬
cational progress in the beginning was also slow because of the refusal
of the first Governor, Sir Horace Byatt, to cooperate with mission schools
through the usual system of grants-in-aid. Between 1920 and 1925, the
administration directed its attention merely to the establishment of gov¬
ernment schools. Missionary education was also impaired by the com¬
pulsory withdrawal of the German missionaries during the War which
created a gap that was only partially filled by Allied societies. The num¬
ber of missionaries declined from about five hundred and ninety in 1*914
to about one hundred and fifty in 1924.

Following the establishment of the Imperial Committee on Education,
and the arrival of a new Governor, Sir Donald Cameron, the educational
policy of the government was changed in favor of complete cooperation
with missionary enterprises. In October, 1925, an important conference

“Table IV, Die deutschen Schutzgebiete, p. 63. The government also main¬
tained schools for European children at Dar-es-Salaam and two other places, at¬
tended by seventy-seven children in all.

30 Report, 1921, p. 41. While it thus appears that the language of instruction
was Swahili, the Germans in the budget of 1913 appropriated twenty thousand
marks for the extension of the German language in the territory.

THE IMPROVEMENT OF NATIVE LIFE

479

between government and missions was held at Dar-es-Salaam. 40 The
onference decided that Swahili should be used as the medium of instruc¬
tion in the elementary native schools in place of the local vernacular. It
was believed that Swahili was an African language so widely used—it is
estimated that nearly twenty million natives throughout East Africa can
understand this language—that the educational system should promote
its development. 41 The conference also recommended that educational
committees having government and missionary representatives and a sys¬
tem of grants-in-aid be established. Following the conference, the govern¬
ment proceeded to organize a Central Advisory Committee on Education
composed of representatives of government departments more particularly
concerned with the training of Africans, six missionaries, two representa¬
tives of the commercial and planting interests, and two Africans. This
central committee is assisted by provincial committees having a similar
composition. It is hoped that each mission will appoint a specially quali¬
fied educator on its staff to take charge of its educational work. The
government will contribute three hundred pounds a year toward the salary
of each such educator.

Missions so far have been paying native teachers in some cases as low
as six shillings a month, a salary which does not attract the best type of
native. 42 Government grants-in-aid will make the increase of these
salaries possible. The government plans to appoint a European official,
connected with each central or secondary school, who shall devote most of
his time to the inspection of mission schools.

In addition to assisting missionary education, the government has
established six secondary schools. These schools are in charge of Euro-

40 It was attended by seventeen government representatives, eighteen mission¬
aries representing eight Catholic and ten Protestant societies, and fifteen other
Europeans. In his opening address, the Governor said: “Contrary to the usual
British Colonial policy, the Administration was unwilling to enlist the help of the
great Missionary Societies in the task of educating the children of the Territory.
The policy of the government in that respect has been revised. We want your full
assistance and cooperation.” Report of Proceedings, Conference between Govern¬
ment and Missions, 1925, p. 3.

41 “Among the indigenous population of East and Central Africa, there are very
likely 155 tribes in which it [Swahili] is used, or largely understood. It will be
generally agreed that if these many variations can be standardised, and a uniform
dialect produced, a great advance will be made in the evangelization, education,
and even administration of these peoples numbering from 17 to 20 millions, with
at the present time one hundred to a hundred and twenty-five indigenous languages
or dialects.” W. J. W. Roome, ibid., p. 170.

There are twenty different dialects in Swahili, and the Bible or parts of the
Bible have been translated into six different Swahili dialects. Much of the time
of the Dar-es-Salaam Conference was spent in preparing the way for the stand¬
ardization of these different dialects so as to produce eventually a unified language.

A strong minority of the missionaries believed, however, that the local ver¬
nacular should be used. Ibid., p. 22.

“ Annual Report of the Education Department, 1925, p. 13.

480

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

peans and instruction is given in English. They are fed by government
and mission village schools which take students through the lower standards.

Following the example of other British territories, the government is
adapting the program of instruction to native needs. Likewise, it is
encouraging the spirit of African “nationality” in the students, and in¬
creasing a respect for what is worth while in African institutions. The
report of the Department of Education says:

“The very obvious happiness of the children in their schools, while pri¬
marily attributable to the influence of the members of the European Staff,
is also very largely due to the British policy of indirect rule, a delegated
authority which is growing with surprisingly encouraging results actually in
the schools themselves. There can be no doubt that African psychology is
adapted to control by Tribal Chiefs and loyalty to this authority is still very
strong in the more unsophisticated tribes, and though weakened by the process
of detribalisation which has for long been going on in the more developed
districts is still inherent in every true African. The intense attachment
still of some of the people to their Chief would undoubtedly cause surprise
to those who have not had experience of Africa. . . . Looked at . . . from
the ethical point of view, there is something very fine in this tribal loyalty
and it is by appeal to this natural instinct of the African that we hope not only
to perfect a system of school discipline appreciable by the African while
possessing the spirit of the British Public School, but also one which will
be the training ground for the greater work which is to be accomplished
in the British ideal of re-creating the authority over the people by their
natural Chiefs and leaders, but with order replacing chaos and an en¬
lightened administration of justice substituted for superstition, bribery, and
witchcraft.

“The School ‘Baraza’ or Bench of Chiefs, otherwise prefects or monitors, 41
will be one of the strongest influences in the development of that sense of
justice which alone can make possible the full realization of the British ideal
to delegate authority to those who by heredity ought to possess it and exercise
it. . . . It is but natural that these school courts still need supervision which
they always get, but it is interesting in listening to their work to notice that
communal offenses are dealt with very much more severely than they would
be by members of the European Staff, and I think that it will be generally
admitted, by those best fitted to know, that it is this communal sense of the
African that must be fostered and encouraged on the right lines, if we are
to succeed in establishing for the Negro Races of Africa their place in the
civilized peoples of the world.” **

Such is the spirit which animates the educational policy and in fact
the other activities of the Tanganyika Government.

43 A tribal system of student self-government.

44 Annual Report of the Education Department, 1925, p. 8.

THE IMPROVEMENT OF NATIVE LIFE

481

A start has also been made, with the same goal in view, in technical
education. In addition to the industrial work given by the educational
department, different branches of the administration train native personnel
to perform work hitherto done by Europeans or Asiatics. About twenty
natives are sub-postmasters in complete charge of smaller stations through¬
out the territory; they handle their own accounts under the control of the
local political officer. The Department of Posts and Telegraphs conducts
a telegraph school where native telegraphers are being successfully trained.
Less progress has been made with native telephone operators, largely be¬
cause of their difficulties with spoken English. As a result of this type
of education, the Posts and Telegraphs Department reduced its European
staff from ninety-six in 1920 to sixty-nine in 1925, and its Asiatic clerical
staff from fifty to forty-two, in favor of natives. 45 The Tanganyika
Railway maintains an extremely interesting apprentice school at the railway
shops at Tabora, where natives are being trained to become fitters and
mechanics. A native is responsible for the operation of the electric light
plant which supplies the city of Tabora.

The school population and attendance is shown in the following table:

SCHOOL ATTENDANCE

Children of school age (one-fifth of population). 806,000

Average attendance at Government Schools. 4,436

Average attendance at Mission Schools (approximate). 93,000

Total average attendance at Government and Mission Schools. 97,436

Total percentage of children of school age in ave age attendance at

Government and Mission Schools. 12.15 1

‘The number of students on the rolls of the schools is larger than the average
attendance. Thus the number of children on the rolls of Government Schools in
1925 was 5745, or .72 per cent of the children of school age, and the approximate
number of children on the rolls of Mission Schools was 155,100, or 19.4 per cent of
the children of school age. The total number of children on the rolls of both
Government and Mission Schools was, therefore, 160,846. Annual Report of the
Education Department, 1925, p. 67.

While the number of government schools is now seven less than in the
German days, the number in attendance in government schools is about
the same as in 1914. 40

In order to carry on these various educational activities, the Tanganyika
Estimates for 1926-27 provide for twenty-nine European headmasters and
assistant masters, nine European industrial instructors, thirty-five African

* See statement, Report of Proceedings, Conference between Government and
Missions, p. 67.

44 The total number in government secondary and elementary schools in 1914
was 6100; at the present time, the number enrolled is 5745, excluding, of course,
Ruanda-Urundi.

482

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

industrial instructors, and two hundred African teachers. This layout
is remarkable considering the fact that in 1922 there were only four
Europeans on the staff. Despite the increased provisions in the Estimates
the educational department has not been able to recruit the men for which
these provisions call. Thus the goodwill of the government is obstructed
by a shortage of personnel in both educational and medical work—a
shortage which is apparently due to the greater comfort of living at
home than in Africa. In this respect, the missionary societies, able to
appeal to a religious motive, have an advantage. But they too are now
experiencing .difficulty in filling their educational posts.

Curiously enough, increased wealth has hindered educational progress
in some parts of the territory as the following quotation from the annual
report of a headmaster of the Bukoba School, located in a rich coffee dis¬
trict, shows:

“After the experience of six months in the district, I am of opinion that
the people cannot be said to have a really urgent desire for education, and
that if they felt themselves at liberty to follow their own inclinations, many
would at once withdraw their children from the schools. The main reasons for
this indifference and even hostility to education are that the Wahaya are
really an ignorant and backward people, although they have acquired a
veneer of civilization in outward matters, such as dress. The cause of this
is to be found in the very high prices which they have been receiving for their
coffee during the past three years (a crop which entails, I suppose, less labour
and attention on the part of the grower than any other) and in this particular
district nearly all the labour required is done by the women. They have in
consequence found themselves able to purchase such outward signs of civiliza¬
tion as European clothes, bicycles, and so on, while their inward development
has advanced very little beyond what it was several years ago before coffee-
growing was encouraged. Their only idea, therefore, is to continue to make
money by extending their coffee plantations, and [sic] consider it a waste
of time for their children to go to school when they might be engaged in the
far more profitable occupation of coffee-growing thereby incidentally giving
the head of the family more leisure for his beer drinking and other social
pursuits.” 47

This condition may only be remedied by a further application of the
right kind of educational ideals.

The progress of the government in the last four years in promoting
native welfare is shown in the following tables. The second table shows
that more than twenty-four per cent of the ordinary expenditures of the
Tanganyika government go to the definite improvement of native life.

47 Annual Report of the Education Department, 1925, p. 45.

THE IMPROVEMENT OF NATIVE LIFE

483

Tanganyika Expenditure on Native Welfare from 1923-24 to 1926-27

Year

Medical

Work

Education

Agriculture

Game Pres¬
ervation

Veterinary

1923-24

9>»340

11,024

21,869

7.461

30,434

1924-25

106,126

15.724

27,107

10,390

33,326

1925-26

147.703

28,491

30,273

21,375

39,055

1926-27

190,616

58.897

42,239

40,840

45.85, 1

’These figures are cited by the Governor in his address to the Tanganyika
Legislative Council; Tanganyika Times, December n, 1926, p. 12B.

This proportion is higher than the proportion expended on native welfare
in either Kenya or Uganda. 48

Tanganyika Expenditures on Native Welfare, 1926-27 1

Expenditures

Education.

66,347

1.609

Agriculture, Veterinary, and Forestry
Agriculture .

42,619

2.41

3-595

Veterinary .

47 , 3 oi

2.68

Forestry .

17,670

1.00

Game Preservation .

40,496

2.29

Total.

148,086

8.38

Medical and Sanitary work.

n.83

4.680

Special .

ImtM

.09

Total.

193,066

11.92

Total .

407,499 a

24.06

9.884

‘“Total Expenditures” do not include ordinary and extraordinary expenditures
on railways, which were £543,371 and £1,224,208 respectively. The total expendi¬
tures, excluding these two items, were £1,767,579.

* These figures do not quite agree with those for 1926-1927 in the preceding
table. It appears that this difference is due to the fact that in this second table, we
have been obliged to use the Draft instead of the Final Estimate figures. Cf.
Draft Estimates for 1926-1927, p. 5.

6. Missionary Spheres of Influence
It was the policy of the German Government to define spheres of influ¬
ence between Catholics and Protestant missionary bodies. Even this policy
" Cf. Vol. I, P . 384.

484

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

did not altogether eliminate conflicts as disputes arose over the limit
of their respective spheres. 49 During the War, these spheres lapsed
and Catholic organizations took up work in what were previously Protes¬
tant spheres. At the suggestion of the British authorities, it appears
that following the War, the Protestant societies agreed to the re-establish¬
ment of spheres, but that the Catholics declined, taking the view that the
whole world should be their parish. In discussing this question, the
annual report on Tanganyika to the Mandates Commission for 1922 stated
that “the principle of spheres of influence is ultimately to the clear advan¬
tage of Christianity as a whole, no less than to that of pagan populations.” 50

While the report recognized that spheres of influence could be imposed
only when necessary for the maintenance of order, it believed it was wiser
for the government “to exercise a moderate and reasonable control at
the outset rather than to wait until confusion and dissension render the
ultimate imposition of the principle of spheres unavoidable.”

This proposal attracted the attention of the Mandates Commission
which after a discussion, adopted a long resolution, part of which declared:
“Any regulations . . . arising out of the necessity for the maintenance of
order will, if such order be genuinely endangered, be free from criticism,
even should such regulations have the effect of restricting, in some measure,
the free exercise of religion.” According to the report of the Mandates
Commission, “On the other hand, any regulations on this subject which were
to go beyond what is required for the maintenance of order, any measure
of a vexatious nature or such as might have the effect of restricting the
activities of the missions of any particular religious denomination, would be
contrary to the terms of the mandate.” 51

Since the Tanganyika report had intimated that the maintenance of
order was not “genuinely endangered,” the local administration at once
dropped the idea of establishing spheres of influence. A number of people
in Tanganyika believed that this interpretation was due to the fact that
Catholic members dominated the commission.

Mission work in Tanganyika is difficult because of the strength of
Mohammedanism, which is a heritage from the Arab days. But Islam
so far has confined itself largely to the coastal strip and to such towns
as Tabora, which were originally founded by the Arabs as slave entrepots.
Before the World War, it was estimated that there were about three
hundred thousand Mohammedans in the territory. The German report
for 1913 declared, however, that the Moslems were making progress only

46 Die deutschen Schutzgebiete, p. 19.

00 Paragraph 25, Report, 1922.

61 Repori on the Work of the Third Session of the Commission, A. 46, 1923, VI,

i THE IMPROVEMENT OF NATIVE LIFE 485

n the coast districts. 52 To prevent the spread of the religion, the German
jovernment encouraged the natives to breed pigs. Officials and mission¬
aries have from time to time opposed the teaching of Swahili on the ground
hat its use would facilitate the propaganda of Mohammedanism. But
apparently the weight of opinion is against this theory. 53

With the exception of the work of the Central Universities Mission,
the activity of mission societies in Tanganyika is not as impressive as else¬
where in East Africa. In 1925, the government authorized the return of
the German missionaries, and the Allied Protestant societies which tem¬
porarily took over their work have now withdrawn. The return of the
Germans may bring new vigor to this field. It is strange to find that
there is no strong American mission body in the territory. The establish¬
ment in Tanganyika of a work such as the American Presbyterians are per¬
forming in the Cameroons would be a worth while American contribu¬
tion to the mandate principle.

“ Die deutschen Schutzgebiete, p. 19.

"Cf. the remarks of Mr. W. J. W. Roume of the British and Foreign Bible
Society, Report of the Proceedings, Conference between Government and Missions,

p. 21.

CHAPTER 29

WHITE SETTLEMENT IN TANGANYIKA

Tanganyika, like Kenya, has its Lowlands and its Highlands. Be¬
hind a coastal plain, having a width of from ten to forty miles, a plateau
gradually rises until it covers the greater part of the territory. The altitude
of this plateau ranges from four thousand to eight thousand feet, and rises
to even greater heights in mountainous areas. Tanganyika’s climate varies
according to this altitude. The coastal strip, having a yearly average tem¬
perature of seventy-eight degrees, is warm and damp. The interior has a
drier climate with great daily variations in temperature. It is only in
regions having an elevation of more than five thousand feet that a semi-
temperate climate may be said to exist. These regions are found on the
slopes of Kilimanjaro and Meru, in the Usambura Highlands, and on the
Ufipa Plateau in the mountain areas of southwestern Tanganyika, located
in the Iringa and Rungwe districts. The last annual report of the govern¬
ment says that these districts “enjoy a bracing climate and alone can be
considered healthy for Europeans,” but that “prolonged residence in these
altitudes is apt to produce nervous strain even though physical fitness is
maintained.” 1

Certain areas of Tanganyika are therefore suitable for white settle¬
ment—areas the actual extent of which are as yet unknown. It seems
probable, however, that Tanganyika can support a settler population as
large as, if not larger than, Kenya. The next few years will determine
whether the Tanganyika Government will control the alienation of land
and the recruiting of labor in these areas any more effectively, from the
standpoint of the native, than has the Government of South Africa or of
Kenya.

I. German Plantation Policy

The German Government, originally at least, encouraged white settle¬
ment and alienated more than half a million hectares of land, most of
which was placed under rubber, sisal, coffee, and cotton cultivation. In
1913, sisal and rubber were the leading exports. Practically all of the
land alienated by the German Government was, owing to the transport
situation, confined to the northeast Highlands. About twenty per cent
1 Report, 1925, p. 74.

486

WHITE SETTLEMENT IN TANGANYIKA

487

if the land alienated was actually under cultivation. 2 The great majority
if settlers operating these estates were Germans. The total number of
•ettlers was eight hundred and eighty-two.

These land alienations of the German Government were controlled
by an imperial decree of 1895 which declared that all land in East Africa
was Crown land (Herrenloses Kronland ), subject to the rights of private
and juristic persons or of chiefs and native communities. 3 In taking posses¬
sion of Crown land in the vicinity of native communities, areas should be
reserved which would secure to the natives land enough for cultivation,
taking into consideration future population increases. The determination
of these reserves was placed in the hands of a Landkommission appointed
by the governor, which included among its members the akida and jumbc
of the land concerned. 4 The Landkommission was, under a local ordinance,
obliged to reserve for the natives four times the amount of suitable land
under cultivation. It was, however, authorized to offer the natives a certain
sum for withdrawing from their land. 6

Under these provisions, land commissions marked out one and seventy-
five reserves, totalling seven hundred and fifty-six square miles in the north¬
east Highlands. The remainder of the land in this vicinity the govern¬
ment alienated to German settlers, either under freehold or lease, title to
which was registered in the German Grundbuch. Despite the establish¬
ment of these reserves upon the four-times-the-cultivated-area principle, it
appears that the native population in the vicinity of Mount Kilamanjaro
was deprived of land necessary for its existence. Following the World
War, the British Government acquired ex-enemy plantations in this area
to the extent of about fifty square miles, which it deliberately turned back
to the natives to relieve this shortage. It also announced that no further
alienations to Europeans in the area would be made. 6

2. The Tanganyika Land Ordinance

Immediately following the Armistice the Tanganyika Government re¬
stricted land alienation, pending the enactment of land legislation and the
development of communications. The first Step in overcoming these ob¬
stacles was the enactment of a Land Ordinance in 1923, which was mod-

1 Die deutschen Schutzgebiete, p. 82, Part II. In Kenya to-day the percentage
is only nine per cent.

3 Imperial Decree of November 26, 1895, Landes-Gezetzgebung, p. 212. By an
amendment of 1902, it was declared that the property ( Eigentum) belonged, not
to the Reich but to the treasury of the territory (Schutzgebietsfiskus) , p. 225.

‘Ordinance of April 29, 1900, Landes-Gesetzgebung, p. 219.

‘Ordinance of December 4, 1896, ibid., p. 218.

6 Gazette, cited, 1923, p. 198.

488 THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

elled after the ordinance controlling land tenure in northern Nigeria. The
preamble of this ordinance declared:

“Whereas it is expedient that the existing customary rights of the lands
of the Tanganyika Territory to use and enjoy the land of the Territory and
the natural fruits thereof in sufficient quantity to enable them to provide for
the sustenance of themselves, their families and their posterity should be
assured, protected and preserved;

“And whereas, it is expedient that the existing customs with regard to
the use and occupation of land should as far as possible be preserved;

“And whereas it is expedient that the right and obligation of the Govern¬
ment in regard to the whole of the land within the Territory and also the
rights and obligations of cultivators or other persons claiming to have an
interest in such lands shall be defined by law. . .

The text declared: . . . “The whole of the lands of the Territory,
whether occupied or unoccupied ... are hereby declared to be public
land . . . 7 under the control and subject to the disposition of the Governor,
and shall be held and administered for the use and common benefit, direct
or indirect, of the natives of the Territory, and no title to the occupation of
and use of any such lands, shall be valid without the consent of the
Governor.”

In the exercise of these powers the Governor “shall have regard to the
native laws and customs existing in the district” concerned. Limited only
by this provision, the Governor may grant leases or, as they are called here,
“titles of occupancy,” for not more than ninety-nine years, subject to a
rental which may be revised at intervals of thirty-three years, and for
areas not exceeding five thousand acres except with the approval of the
Secretary of State. While such titles may be granted to natives, they are
not obliged to take out certificates of occupancy nor to pay rent.

Likewise the government has enacted legislation, in pursuance of the
mandate, controlling transfers of property from a native to a non-native. 8

In placing all land at the disposal of the government, the Tanganyika
Administration is adhering, in a somewhat different form, to the Crown

7 This presumably excludes land held under title from the German Government,
although the Ordinance is not explicit on the subject.

8 The Law of Property and Conveyancing of 1923, Laws, Vol. IV, p. 5, sec. n
(1), provides that a disposition of and belonging to a native in favor of a non¬
native or conferring on a non-native any rights over the land of a native, shall
not be operative unless it is in writing and unless and until it is approved by the
governor. The Land Ordinance of 1923 applies this rule to rights of occupancy.
“Disposition” includes mortgages, leases and sub-leases. In approving a mort¬
gage to a non-native, the Governor may declare that his approval shall not be
required to the foreclosure of the mortgage or to a sale to a non-native upon the
foreclosure of a mortgage. A final decree for foreclosure in favor of a non¬
native requires, in the absence of the above declaration, the approval of the
Governor before it may become operative.

WHITE SETTLEMENT IN TANGANYIKA

489

and policy followed throughout East Africa and supported by the Rhode-
ian decision of the Privy Council in 1918.°

But under the mandate, the Tanganyika Government is obliged to
arry out this article: “In the framing of laws relating to the holding or
ransfer of land, the Mandatory shall take into consideration native laws
ind customs, and shall respect the rights and safeguard the interests of the
lative population.” 10

Now the Crown land policy which ignores the difference between native
ind public land in itself does not conform to these provisions. Hence
:hc Tanganyika Government was obliged to resort to another formula
which it found in the northern Nigerian system. It may be assumed
(hat the Tanganyika Government is as thoroughly devoted to native in¬
terests as the Nigerian Government. Nevertheless, there is a vital differ¬
ence between the two territories which the Tanganyika land ordinance
overlooks. Under both ordinances, the Governor has virtually complete
freedom in granting leases of land to Europeans. But the demand for
such leases on account of differences in climate is much greater in Tan¬
ganyika than in Nigeria, and the Governor of Tanganyika will be, there¬
fore, subject to pressure for the alienation of land which does not exist in
Nigeria. I Tanganyika, the power of the Governor in regard to aliena¬
tions is subject only to the restrictions that he will have regard to the
native laws and customs as in the districts concerned. 11 The Tanganyika
ordinance lays down no method by which the nature of these customs are
to be ascertained. When a European wishes to acquire land in Tanganyika,
the Governor instructs the administrative official in the district concerned
to report as to the effect such an alienation would have upon native in¬
terests and rights. The sole responsibility is vested by the law in the
Governor, and if his administrative official is ignorant of native law the
Governor may alienate native land, and the native occupier has no redress.
The law, moreover, merely says that the Governor shall have “regard
for native customs.” From the standpoint of the natives, the Tanganyika
land law therefore contains fewer precise guarantees than did the German
land law which provided for the establishment of reserves four times as
large as the land under cultivation. Provisions similar to those contained
in the German ordinance were inserted in the Kenya land legislation of
1897 and 1902, but they were not respected because of the pressure of
settlers; neither were the precise provisions in the German land law for

°Cf. Vol. I, p. 209. 10 Article 6. Mandate approved July 20, 1922.

11 Unlike the Nigerian Ordinance, the Tanganyika Ordinance does not oblige
the Governor to take account of the needs of the native population. In practice,
however, it appears that the Tanganyika Administration does not consider the
needs as well as the customs of the natives.

490

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

East Africa always respected. In 1921, Sir Horace Byatt, Governor of
Tanganyika, as well as leading Indian residents expressed the opinion that
no land was available in the territory for the settlement of Indian agricul¬
turists without infringing upon native land rights. 12 In 1926 the new
Governor, Sir Donald Cameron, expressing an opposite opinion, said that
such vacant land actually existed which was suitable for European settle¬
ment. Inasmuch as Sir Donald Cameron is the first Governor actually to
investigate the interior of the territory, his opinion on the matter is
undoubtedly correct. But another Governor may be more ignorant or more
careless of native interests. Nevertheless, under the existing land law, he
has complete power; the rights of the native are subject to no judicial
guarantee.

The Tanganyika Land Ordinance, as it stands at present, accepts the
principle of protecting native rights in the land, as prescribed in the
Mandate, but it does not establish a procedure which will insure that
the principle will be applied. If it is impracticable to install the system
of land tenure which prevails on the Gold Coast or in southern Nigeria, the
Tanganyika Government might profitably follow the idea suggested by the
Nyasaland Land Commission (which is being worked out in Uganda), 13
of delimiting certain areas of the land as European reserves to which future
alienations should be restricted. 14

3. The Fight over White Settlement

The policy of the Tanganyika Government, unlike the policy of Kenya,
is controlled by Article 22 of the Treaty of Versailles, which says that “to
those colonies and territories which as a consequence of the late war have
ceased to be under the sovereignty of the States which formerly governed
them and which are inhabited by peoples not yet able to stand by
themselves under the strenuous conditions of the modern world, there
should be applied the principle that the well-being and development of such
peoples form a sacred trust of civilization . . .” and by the Tanganyika
Mandate (Article 3) which also says that the mandatory “shall under¬
take to promote to the utmost the material and moral well-being and
the social progress of its inhabitants.” In other words, the policy of the
mandatory government should not primarily be directed to the economic
development of the territory for the benefit of Europeans, but to the de¬
velopment of the native population. In the Bondelzwarts affair, the
chairman of the Mandates Commission said that the trusteeship principle

u Cmd. 1312, cited, p. 2. 18 Cf. Vol. I, pp. 251, 601.

14 The relation of these alienations to the labor supply is discussed in Vol. I, p. 507-

WHITE SETTLEMENT IN TANGANYIKA

491

‘involves the adoption of an attitude toward the various interests and
idministrative practices very different from the former [attitude].” He
ontinued: “First in importance come the interests of the natives; secondly,
he interests of the whites. The interests of the whites should only be
onsidered in relation to the direct or indirect exercise of protection over the
natives.” 15

The majority of the Mandates Commission 18 declared in the same
affair that even the educated classes in Southwest Africa regarded the
natives “as existing chiefly for the purpose of labor for whites” and that
formerly the policy followed “was primarily designed to develop the
country in the interests of the European colonists only.” But, the Com¬
mission declared, “Southwest Africa is now a mandated territory.” 17

It appears from these statements that the Tanganyika Government is
obliged to promote “to the utmost” the welfare of its inhabitants, which
presumably mean the natives. Between 1920 and 1925, the Tanganyika
Government apparently interpreted this to mean that Tanganyika should
be a native state. When home on leave, the Governor of Tanganyika,
Sir Horace Byatt, was reported to have declared that the “future of the
country lay in developing native cultivation only.” 18 The same sentiment
was expressed by a Conference of Administrative Officers, held in Dar-es-
Salaam in 1924, which unanimously passed a resolution as follows: “That
this conference is unable to reconcile the policies of non-native and native
development since expansion in the latter direction must gravely reduce the
labor supply for non-native estates as it has in Uganda. In view hereof
this Conference entertains doubts as to the advisability of alienating more
land for non-native development. It is furthermore the opinion of this
Conference that in fairness to non-natives they should not be left in doubt
as to the policy of the Government in this respect, and that a frank declara¬
tion and warning are desirable.” Approval of this policy in respect to
Kenya also came from members of the House of Commons, notably Mr.
Ormsby-Gore 19 who said Kenya Colony “should be regarded primarily as
an African country,” and that “we should be there for the Africans just as
we are in Nigeria. . . .” He further stated: “I personally regret the history
of that Colony and would like to have seen the development of Kenya

“‘‘Report on the Bondelzwarts Rebellion,” Annexes to the Minutes of the Third
Session, Permanent Mandates Commission, p. 296.

18 The Chairman would presumably have been included in the number approv¬
ing the resolution, but he was obliged to be absent from the meeting on account
of illness.

,T Ibid., p. 293.

18 Dar-es-Salaam Times, June 3, 1922.

“At this time he was not Under-Secretary for the Colonies.

492

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

and of East Africa proceeding on precisely the same lines as the develop¬
ment of the Gold Coast and Nigeria. . . 20

Administrative regulations made it difficult for European employers in
Tanganyika to secure recruited labor. Contracts were limited to a period
of six months, which included the time required for going to and coming
home from work. Some district commissioners also prohibited recruiting
in their areas during the planting season. Administrative officers were
accused of urging natives to stay at home rather than go out to work for
farmers. 21 The agricultural department promoted native agriculture when
it came into conflict with European production; this was especially true in
the case of native coffee cultivation in the Arusha area, a territory inhabited
by European farmers.

This policy, however, met the opposition of the European settlers in
Tanganyika represented by the local press and supported by the white
settlement school in Kenya. The Dar-es-Salaam Times which later became
the Tanganyika Times declared that the idea of making Tanganyika a
black man’s country was the “outcome of a fanatical negro-philism, without
rhyme or reason.” Development of Tanganyika “by means of white
settlement of the land” was the only remedy to the financial depression. 22
In a later issue it declared “you will always find that the majority are
happier when working for an employer who will look after them, see that
their bellies are well-filled, and that they have some money regularly at the
end of the month with which to purchase their little luxuries.” Again,
“How could the welfare of the Natives be better advanced than by encour¬
aging European capital and industry here?” 23

More recently, it declared that the questionnaires sent out by the Man¬
dates Commission were a “farce.” Italy would not answer any such
questionnaires in regard to territories taken by her from Austria. “Why,
then, should not Great Britain have the moral courage to say that what we
have we will hold.” 24

In fact this organ, doubtless fearing that the Mandates Commission
might interfere with European colonization, was opposed to the mandates
system altogether. It would be “much more honest if the Allied Powers
were to drop the mandate pretence and the other pretence that Germany’s

20 H. C. Deb., July 4, 1922, Vol. 156, col. 254.

21 Cf. Dar-es-Salaam Times, July xi, 1925. M

22 Ibid., editorial, “A Policy to Avoid,” June 31, 1920; “A Black Man’s Country,’

April 30, 1921. On January 27, 1923, it declared that Mr. Ormsby-Gore, who had
become Under-Secretary for the Colonies, was an “ultra-negrophile, to such an
extent that he becomes anti-European.” This was before Mr. Ormsby-Gore's visit
to East Africa.

23 Editorials, ibid., December 1, 1923 and March 24, 1923.

u Tanganyika Times, September n, 1926.

WHITE SETTLEMENT IN TANGANYIKA

493

Colonies were taken from her because she lost. Why not, then, tell her so in
plain language and drop pretence and hypocrisy f It would be far better
ind would put an end to the matter, at least until Germany felt she was
nt enough to attempt to re-take them. By no other method will they ever
return to her.” 26

In commenting on the return of the Governor to England, the Times
-aid: “If His Excellency can exert his influence to have the status of
Mandate which applies to this Territory altered to that of Crown Colony,
:ie will have done the country an invaluable service.” 20

4. Protests Against Native Coffee

Equally vigorous protests against the government policy of native cof¬
fee-growing came from the settlers in the Kilimanjaro region, who urged
that native coffee-growers would not care properly for their plants which
would consequently infect European estates. Moreover, they believed that
natives would steal European coffee. They urged the adoption of the
policy followed in Kenya: the prohibition of native coffee-growing in
European areas. 27 Believing that their interests would be better served if
they belonged to Kenya colony, a group of. farmers in the district passed
a resolution in 1923 asking that Kilimanjaro be transferred from Tangan¬
yika to Kenya. The Convention of Associations of Kenya responded to this
sentiment by a resolution which noted “with great satisfaction that the
residents of the Arusha and Moshi Districts of Tanganyika propose that the
area concerned should be brought under Kenya,” a proposal which had its
“wholehearted support, particularly in view of the fact that it would (a)
provide compensation to the Colony for the loss of Jubaland, 28 (b) restore
the homogeneity of the Masai and Kissi tribes, (c) result in the more
economic layout of rail development; and (d) bring the settlers in the
Highland areas of Tanganyika under an administration calculated to en¬
courage their material development.” It appears that sentiment in Kenya
favored the annexation of this area in the hope of securing an increased
labor supply. Recruiting in Tanganyika for outside territories is prohibited
except on special license which is not generally given. This “demand”
for annexation to Kenya on the part of the Moshi-Arusha settlers later
turned out to have originated with agents of Lord Delamere living in the
area. It does not appear that there is any real sentiment 29 in favor of

* Ibid., September 11, 1926.

28 Ibid., editorial, “Sir Donald Cameron,” April 9, 1927, p. 9.

*Cf. Vol. I, p. 271. *Cf. Vol. I, p. 393.

26 Cf. Report of the East Africa Commission, p. 123. The Commission says
“the natives were strongly opposed” to annexation.

494 THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

this change which, if carried out, would require the consent of the Council
of the League of Nations. 30

In their opposition to native coffee-growing, the special committee of
the Kilimanjaro Planters’ Association appealed to the Kenya Coffee Plant¬
ers’ Union, saying that the Tanganyika Government was “pushing native
coffee to such an extent that everything else, at least in the Moshi district,
is taking second place, particularly European industry, as far as the Gov¬
ernment is concerned.” In reply, the Council of the Kenya Union passed
a resolution supporting the views of the Tanganyika Association in which
it declared that “there is a direct danger to the coffee industry in Kenya
from the present policy of the Tanganyika Government in regard to the
coffee industry.” 31

Apparently as a result of this campaign, the Tanganyika Government
modified its policy. Its last report to the League Council says: “The
active encouragement of this cultivation by District Officers ceased some
time ago and it is considered now that it is advisable to discourage rather
than to encourage the extension of coffee cultivation by natives at Moshi
and Arusha. The crop is a precarious one and at present the native is too
much dependent on it. Moreover it will be necessary to introduce regula¬
tions to prevent the introduction of disease into those coffee areas, and it
is very doubtful whether the native will himself be able to carry them
out.” 82

It is probable that this policy does not meet the approval of some
Tanganyika agricultural officers who point out that in the past, native-
grown coffee has produced higher prices than European-grown coffee in
these two areas. The above statement does not mention the presence of
European coffee-growers who wish to secure the labor of natives who now
grow coffee, and who have been agitating for this change in policy. 33

5 - Settlement in the Southern Highlands
Apparently as the result of the campaign for white settlement in
Tanganyika, supported, if indeed it has not been engineered by the Kenya
colonists, the new Governor, Sir Donald Cameron, altered the policy of

80 Cf. Vol. I, p. 430. n East African Standard, December 12, 1925, p. 4 -

33 Report, 1925, p. 53.

33 At a meeting with the Arusha planters, the Governor, Sir Donald Cameron,
said that he desired to “discourage natives from growing coffee” but that the
native had a perfect right to grow coffee if he wished to do so, and if he so
decided he, [the Governor] thought that the native should be assisted by advice to
grow it in the best way possible so as not to be a menace to his neighbor. “I have
no right to forbid any native from growing coffee in the same way as I have not
the right to stop you from growing coffee.” He would consider, however, the
question of segregating the native coffee area. Tanganyika Times, September 18,
1926, p. 7.

WHITE SETTLEMENT IN TANGANYIKA

495

iis “pro-native” predecessor to the extent of supporting the policy of white
ettlement in the southern part of Tanganyika and elsewhere. In 1924,
he government alienated in the Morogoro, Rungwe, Dodoma, Arusha,
nd Tabora districts a total of nearly seventeen thousand acres. 34

By the end of 1925, the total amount of land alienated by the Tan-
:anyika Government amounted to nearly 1,800,000 acres, compared with
*.680,000 acres alienated by the Government of Kenya. The present
European population of Tanganyika is about four thousand, compared with
2,500 in Kenya. If the Tanganyika Government proceeds with a pro¬
gram of land alienation, its settler population will probably reach that of
venya in the course of a few years.

Following the Conference of East African Governors, Sir Donald
Cameron made a speech in Dar-es-Salaam supporting the principle of white
ettlement on land “useless to the native” and within the reach of transport
acilities. This speech was followed a few months later by a notice in the
Gazette that about forty thousand acres of land would be offered for sale
n the Iringa district. In his address at the first session of the Tanganyika
legislative Council, the Governor stated that “non-native settlement should
>e encouraged wherever the climate is suitable and adequate areas are
.vailable without depriving the native population of sufficient land for its
.wn use, provided always that transport facilities are available to evacuate
he produce.” 35 The two restrictions imposed by the government upon
and alienation for white settlement are: (1) that the land alienated
hall not encroach upon land occupied or needed by natives; (2) that
and shall be alienated only in those areas from which products can
<e evacuated, i.e., where transport facilities exist. This latter restriction
ogether with the restrictions imposed by the Tanganyika Land Ordinance
vill tend to prevent the acquisition of land merely for speculative purposes.
3 ut while the administration has taken steps to protect the interests of the
territory against speculation and the interests of the native in the land, it
das taken no steps to protect native society against the labor drain which
he unrestricted alienation of land will impose. Adopting an attitude of
aissez faire, the government considers it a matter of indifference whether a
lative travels five hundred miles to work for a European or whether he
vorks at home.

The areas where the government intends to alienate land are located in
he districts of Iringa and Rungwe. The population density of the Iringa
Jistrict is 1.3 per square mile; while that of Rungwe is 6.5, figures which
nclude women and children. 38 These districts are thus evidently sparsely

“Report, 1924, p. 53. *“ Tanganyika Times, December u, 1926, p. 18.

Report, 1920, p. 38.

496

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

populated; and, according to the administration, vast areas are uninhabited
altogether. Under these circumstances, the Tanganyika Administration
believes that the alienation of such areas to white settlers would not injure
the rights nor the interests of the native population of the country. As we
have seen, the machinery for determining whether or not proposed aliena¬
tions injure native rights has not so far been established. Even if one
assumes that the government will alienate no land the ownership or use
of which is claimed or needed by a native, it would not necessarily follow
that such alienations would conform to the trusteeship principle, for reasons
connected with the question of labor, which will now be discussed.

6. Native Labor

Under the German regime, the settlers in the Kilimanjaro area and
elsewhere relied exclusively upon natives for their labor supply. Planta¬
tion labor increased from about eighty thousand in 1912 to nearly ninety-
two thousand in 1913. 37 The total number of natives under some form of
employment for 1913 was about 172,10c). 38 Wages for this labor varied
from between 3 to 4^2 rupees a month in the remote district of Bismarck-
burg to between 12 and 15 rupees in Morogoro. Wages on the Tangan¬
yika Railway were from eight to thirteen rupees. It does not appear that
wages have increased since the World War.

Considering the available male population of Tanganyika as nine hun¬
dred thousand, 30 somewhat less than a fifth of the men were under Euro¬
pean employment in 1913, in comparison with nearly two-fifths in Kenya
to-day. The German Government nevertheless believed that this figure
should not be increased as evidenced by the fact that the German authorities
attempted to slow down European production by restricting the alienation
of further land and by encouraging native production. 40

The European plantations, which were the largest employers of labor,

ST The figure was actually much larger, because some estates did not submit
returns. Die deutschen Schutzgebiete, 1913, p. 20. It appears that before 1900, a
German company imported Chinese labor—an experiment which, however, failed.

38 From 13,000 to 16,000 were engaged on railway construction; about 3,000 were
in mining; 5,000 were under government employment; 6,000 served in the police
and military establishments; about 10,000 were in the employ of European mer¬
chants and the missions; about 15,000 were carriers for native merchants; about
9,000 were domestic servants and about 10,000 more were employed by native,
Arab, and Indian traders.

88 One-fifth of an estimated population of 4,500,000. Recruiting in Ruanda and
Urundi was prohibited by an ordinance of December 18, 1909. . . .

40 Report, 1920, p. 35. Several years before the War, German officials visited
Uganda to study native methods of production. As a result of their study the
administration introduced native commercial crops along the southern shores 0
Lake Victoria. Address of Sir Humphrey Leggett, “African Industries,” June i 7 »
1922, reprinted in Dar-es-Salaam Times.

WHITE SETTLEMENT IN T.ING.1NYIK.I

497

ould not find an adequate supply in the immediate vicinity. Consequently
hey were obliged to employ professional recruiters who secured labor from
listant and relatively heavily populated areas, in many cases by means of
payments to chiefs. Thousands of laborers employed in the Usambura
irea came from the Tabora district. Many Europeans in Tanga and
Pangani relied, as they do to-day, upon labor coming from Tukuyu and
>ongea, a distance of six or seven hundred miles which the native covered
>y foot. At least twenty-five thousand alien laborers were and are em-
jloyed in Tanga alone. The best workers in Tanganyika, such as the
Myamwezi tribe, are also the best agriculturists, and have the most highly
leveloped tribal society. But instead of encouraging the growth of their
natural qualities, the government assisted the European plantations to
entice away as many men as possible. 41 In 1913, the German Government
:ssued regulations which put recruiting under severe control. They limited
:he number of recruiters, punished systematic deception of natives, and
prohibited the recruiting of women and children. The term of engagement
was increased, however, from one hundred and eighty to two hundred and
forty working days. 42 European planters complained that they could not
secure sufficient labor under these restrictions. If a laborer, having signed
a contract, did not work twenty days a month he was liable to punishment.
This provision was apparently designed to correct the practice whereby
many employers had obliged a laborer to work only a few days a week.

In order to supervise labor conditions, the government Estimates pro¬
vided for five district commissioners who acted as labor inspectors. They
signed recruiting permits, vised contracts, inspected working conditions,
and exercised disciplinary powers. Like other administrative officials, they
could administer flogging up to twenty-five strokes to natives under em¬
ployment who were negligent in performing their work. 43 It appears that
the exercise of these powers was frequently brutal, and otherwise abused.

During the World War—which caused the German plantations to
shut down—native labor became disorganized and indisciplined. But
after the sale of the ex-German plantations, the recruiting of labor re¬
commenced with full force. For some reason the Tanganyika Govern¬
ment neglected to enact a Masters and Servants Ordinance until 1924.

41 In instructions to administrative officers in October, 1907, which came at the
end of the Maji-Maji rebellion, Governor von Rechenberg said: “Natives living
in plantation areas should be obliged to work in principle for plantations against
their will only in exceptional cases. ... In the future, administrative officers
should take note of this, but this does not prevent them from making known to
the jumbe and akidas in a general way and without any compulsion the wish of
the government that their people participate in labor.” Landes-Gesetzgebung,
Part II, p. 294.

0 Verordnung, February 5, 1913. Lexikon, Vol. I, p. 77.

45 Cf. Vol. I, p. 449.

498

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

In the meantime, the government made no provision for labor inspection,
and established little control over recruiting. 44

7. The Labor Law

On January 1, 1924, a Masters and Native Servants Ordinance finally
went into effect. Like those in other British territories, this ordinance
requires recruiters or “labor agents” to secure a permit from the administra¬
tive officer in the district concerned to recruit labor; contracts, if entered
into, must be attested by an administrative official; the employer is obliged
to provide food, housing and medical care for his employees as defined ty
government regulations; compensation not to exceed the amount of two
years’ wages must be paid for accidents unless caused by negligence. The
maximum period of a labor contract is fixed for two years, which is twice
the period allowed under the German law. A contract of service to be
performed outside the district in which the servant is engaged shall not be
binding upon the servant unless it is in writing, and attested by an official
certifying that the native understands that “he is liable to criminal prose¬
cution for breach of the contract.” No contract shall be attested unless it
accurately specifies the terms of employment.

Until the government issues regulations defining what provision em¬
ployers must make in regard to housing, clothing, food, and medical care,
one cannot say that Tanganyika labor is receiving the protection given
labor elsewhere in Africa. In the absence of such regulations and of a
corps of labor inspectors, Tanganyika labor receives virtually no protection
at all. The 1926-27 Estimates provide, however, for five labor officers.

It appears that in the last several years, the condition of plantation
labor in some parts of Tanganyika has been distinctly bad. The Medical
Department 45 reports that in a typical case: “On arrival at the plantations
the laborers were turned on to build any sort of shelter, and within a day
or two were put to work. The Diet issued was deficient in quality and
variety, and there was no adequate arrangement for Hospital accommoda¬
tion, medical attention, water supplies, kitchens, latrines, etc. As a
consequence, dysentery, bowel troubles and deaths ensued, and the propor¬
tion rendered unfit was large.” In an attempt to remedy this situation,
the Medical Department issued a memorandum for planters in regard to
the care of native laborers, which had of course no legal weight. 46

In 1926, a special Labor Commissioner reported: “The condition of the

44 In 1920, a government notice laid down certain conditions for the employment
of natives by Europeans; but as it had no legal force, it was not obeyed.

46 Annual Medical Report, 1924, p. 38.

48 Memorandum dealing with the Care of Native Labour on Plantations, Dar-es-
Salaam, 1925.

WHITE SETTLEMENT IN TANGANYIKA

499

accommodation for labor on most estates leaves much to be desired. . . .

decided improvement is nevertheless beginning to show itself, and many
•states are making praiseworthy efforts to introduce better accommodation;
.nfortunately, the standard was in the past so low, that managers in very
nany cases quite fail to realize their shortcomings; a great advance is
equired before we can regard the position as at all satisfactory.” 47

Child labor exists to a certain extent on the European coffee estates in
Tanganyika as in Kenya. The work of these children usually consists in
:he collecting of insect pests and light weeding and picking; and as the
work is not heavy and is in the open air, employers do not believe it is
physically harmful. Administrative officials, however, have believed other¬
wise. In 1920, they attempted to issue regulations prohibiting the em¬
ployment of such children. 48 But these regulations did not have the force
of law, and the European settlers declined to obey them. Even though the
work may be physically unobjectionable, the employment of children at an
early age hinders their education, the opportunities for which otherwise
are constantly increasing, and it makes them undisciplined. 49

Having gone to the trouble of recruiting labor, or of paying for the
recruiting of labor, an employer naturally insists that his laborers work
regularly and well, and that they work to the end of their contract. But
especially when labor is recruited under various forms of pressure, the
native does as little work as possible, and he commits many other minor
offences and nuisances which are irritating to the employer. The Germans
attempted to remedy this situation by authorizing administrators to inflict
corporal punishment. While the British vest similar powers in the hands
of administrators, they are usually miles away from the place of employ¬
ment and employers are constantly tempted to take the law into their own
hands. The Tanganyika Labor Commissioner says, “So great is this diffi¬
culty of dealing with minor offences, that the practice of illegal punish¬
ments is undoubtedly widespread.” This punishment usually takes the
form of a thrashing or a fine. 60

In an attempt to remedy this state of affairs, the Commissioner recom¬
mended that employers should be authorized to inflict fines up to five
shillings per employee in any one month for infractions of plantation
regulations, subject to appeal to an official. The Governor, however, did
not believe that employers should be empowered to adjudicate offences

47 Report by Major Orde Browne, Labour in the Tanganyika Territory, para.
I2S «

Notices of February 4, 1920, and October 27, 1921, discussed in Dar-es-Salaam
Times, July 26, 1924.

'For the same type of employment in Kenya, cf. Vol. I, p. 353.

u Labour in the Tanganyika Territory, cited, paras. 136, 248.

500 THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

against themselves. But the question was different in regard to offences
against sanitary regulations; and he agreed that employers should be allowed
to inflict fines of five shillings a month for breaches of sanitary regula¬
tions. 51 However justifiable in theory this power may be, the difficulty of
limiting it to sanitary abuses will be much greater than if the power did not
exist at all. Under the guise of punishing the violation of a sanitary regula¬
tion, the employer may impose fines for anything which meets his displeasure
—and the native has small redress. The experience of a similar system in
the Belgian Congo illustrates the dangers involved. 52

8. Desertion

Under the Tanganyika Masters and Servants Ordinance (sec. 33)
desertion is a criminal offence cognizable to the police. The ordinance is
therefore more severe than the Masters and Servants Ordinance in Kenya. 83
A native deserter is liable to a fine not exceeding one hundred shillings or to
imprisonment for six months or both. This provision is more severe than
that in the Masters and Servants Ordinance in Nigeria or similar legislation
in French territory, where desertion is punishable by imprisonment only in
case the deserter fails to pay the fine. Neither paying a fine nor serving a
term of imprisonment shall have the effect of cancelling a deserter’s contract
of service. This means that after serving his sentence, a native can be
compelled to return to his employer—also a provision of great severity
which is not found, for example, in the labor legislation of Sierra Leone. 84

Still more astonishing is section 31’ of the Tanganyika ordinance which
provides that the court may order any male person, if he appears to be
under the age of sixteen “and to require punishment in the way of dis¬
cipline,” and is liable to punishment under the ordinance, “to be detained
for one day in any suitable place of detention, and to be corporally
punished,” in accordance with the Whipping Regulations. Thus a native
boy who is guilty of “neglect of duty” or of “desertion” may be whipped
to the extent of twelve strokes. 55

Both English and American courts decline to enjoin an employee from
breaking his contract of employment by means of a penal sanction (which

“ Para. 39, Governor’s Despatch, ibid., cited. M Cf. Vol. II, p. 555 -

53 But Kenya has a registration system which Tanganyika will probably adopt
in a modified form.

154 The Manual Labor Regulation, Cap. 120, Laws of Sierra Leone, sec. 7 says
that any servant who refuses to perform his work “shall be liable, on summary
conviction, to a fine not exceeding two pounds, and, in default of payment to
imprisonment with hard labor for a term not exceeding one month, and in addition
to such fine, shall forfeit all claim to wages or remuneration.” Note that in
Tanganyika as in Kenya and Uganda the courts may impose a fine of one hundred
shillings or imprisonment for six months.

"Whipping Regulations of 1915, Ordinances, Vol. I, p. 11.

WHITE SETTLEMENT IN TANGANYIKA

501

he Tanganyika Ordinance embodies). The American courts take the
position that to compel a man to work against his wishes, despite the fact
hat he has signed an agreement for such employment, is to force upon him
nvoluntary servitude prescribed by the 13th amendment to the Constitu-
ion of the United States. Under European law, the only recourse of the
•mployer is to sue the employee for damages. 56

While the terms of the mandate do not explicitly prohibit “involuntary
:ervitude” as does the 13th amendment to the Constitution of the United
States, they do prohibit “all forms of forced or compulsory labour.” Pos-
•ibly there is a difference between compulsory labor—i.e., labor which a
>erson is obliged initially to undertake against his will—and involuntary
servitude, where, after voluntarily signing a contract agreeing to work for
.1 definite period, a person later wishes to terminate his employment before
•he completion of the period stipulated in the agreement. But in view
of the broad scope of the mandate, and of the very great danger that
natives do not understand the terms of the contract which they sign, 57 or
are indirectly obliged to sign such a contract against their will, it seems
that this interpretation is too restrictive, and that “involuntary servitude”
.is a form of forced labor which is prohibited by the terms of the mandate.
If this interpretation is correct, labor laws which make desertion a criminal
offence do not conform to the obligations of the mandate.

Notwithstanding these provisions, the Tanganyika Government says
that “it is difficult to trace deserting natives so that, in practice, the native
is free to break his contract when he pleases as the chances for his arrest
and conviction are slight.” 68

But instead of repealing the penal sanctions of the ordinance, the
government is now taking steps to make the enforcement of such sanctions
more effective. The Labor Commissioner, in his report of 1926, recom¬
mended the appointment of labor officers with power to punish labor
offenses on the spot. He proposed that employers should be allowed to
appoint as proxy a responsible employee—presumably a native—to appear
in cases where native laborers are being prosecuted under the Masters and
Servants Ordinance. In order to trace deserters, and to provide for
the identification of every native in the territory, he also recommended

M Cf. Bailey v. Alabama, 219 U. S. 219; Stocker v. Brockelbank, 3 Macnagnton
and Gordon, 250 (1851).

® T The writer has seen administrative officers in Tanganyika and elsewhere
attest these labor contracts with a view to making sure that the natives understand
the terms. The invariable practice is to line up twenty or thirty natives and hur¬
riedly read over the terms of the contract, and ask those who understand what they
mean to hold up their hands. Naturally, each man holds up his hand. This
attesting process is not, therefore, a protection of much importance. For the
similar opinion of South African officials, cf. Vol. I, p. 35.

■“Reply to the League of Nations Questionnaire, Report, 1925, p. 87.

502

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

that every native should be obliged to carry a tax ticket while outside of
his own district. 50

While such a system would be less irksome than the pass system of
South Africa or the “kipandi” system of Kenya, it nevertheless subjects
the native to a form of restriction which does not exist in purely native
states, such as Uganda, Nigeria, or the Gold Coast. Moreover, as the
Labor Commissioner points out, the tax ticket will not be as effective as a
method of detecting desertion or “crimping” 00 as the South Africa or
Kenya system. Consequently, Tanganyika settlers, moved by the same
impulses as settlers in other parts of South and East Africa, will probably
demand more drastic measures of keeping laborers on the job—a demand
which will grow with the increase in the number of settlers.

Recruiting methods for the plantations in Tanganyika are similar to
those in Kenya. There is no central recruiting bureau as there is in
Southern Rhodesia, South Africa, and the Belgian Congo. 61

There are, however, a large number of recruiters who roam throughout
the territory urging natives to sign labor contracts. A number of old
German recruiters have returned and have in some cases succeeded in taking
labor away from railway construction work—labor which so far has been
voluntarily recruited. Among the Wanyamezi, at least, recruiters no
longer dare to bribe chiefs for men because the native has been educated
by experience, by administrative officers, and by missionaries so that he
knows that he cannot be obliged to work against his consent. What
effect the new labor policy of the Tanganyika Government may have upon
this situation will be discussed later.

9. Social Results of Recruiting

In view of the under-population of Tanganyika and of the concentra¬
tion of European estates in the Kilimanjaro region and along the Central
Railway, the labor for these estates must be recruited from long distances,
involving, in some cases, walks of five hundred miles. In the past,
recruiters have paid little attention to the physical needs of laborers in
making these journeys. Exposed to cold and under-nourished, and
exhausted by the long distances they have been obliged to cover, many
natives become ill upon arriving at the place of employment. The Tan-

" Labour in the Tanganyika Territory, para. 210.

*° “Crimping” is the practice of decoying away labor by one employer from
another. By this means, an unscrupulous employer may gain labor at the expense
of his neighbor who has gone to the trouble of recruiting it. It is usually carried
out “by plausible and well-paid native employees, who are sent to give glowing
accounts of conditions on their employer’s estate.” Labour in the Tanganyika
Territory, para. 77.

81 Cf. Vol. I, pp. 31, 224, Vol. II, p. 535.

WHITE SETTLEMENT IN TANGANYIKA

503

;anyika Medical Department has stated: “The death rate is higher in
large compounds than in small ones, irrespective of more efficient sanitary
organization, and the explanation lies in a variety of reasons. Small com¬
pounds are usually filled by local natives who are accustomed to the local
conditions of climate and food, and who, moreover, possess some immunity
to the local diseases. The circumstances are, however, entirely changed
when there is an influx of large numbers of men who frequently come from
areas as distant as four hundred to five hundred miles, arrive in a fatigued
condition, and find themselves in surroundings and conditions totally
different to what they were accustomed to. . . 62

The Tanganyika Labor Commissioner describes the journey of the
native laborer to a plantation as follows:

“To an unsophisticated and inexperienced African, this journey must
represent a really formidable enterprise, requiring some considerable courage
when undertaken for the first time. He must depend upon the advice of a
friend for all particulars about the roads and districts to be traversed, he
has no experience of the sort of provision to be made for maintenance on the
way, he has no idea what may become of him should he fall sick on the road,
he must leave his family and property for a considerable period, he must
go among strangers and work at an unfamiliar task for an employer of whom
he knows nothing beyond the recommendation of a friend. Should he have
entered into a contract with a labour agent, he is at any rate relieved of
responsibility for his food and welfare en route, but against this, he is haunted
by the fear that he may have fallen into a trap in agreeing to a contract
which restricts his right to return home whenever he feels inclined. Under
such circumstances it is not to be wondered at that he is reluctant to brave
the unknown; rather, it is highly astonishing that many thousands of natives
should embark upon such an enterprise every year. . . . The native perforce
takes with him as provisions such articles as are adapted to travelling, . . .
fresh vegetables or meat he cannot carry, and can seldom obtain on the way.
The scarcity of utensils, and the extra weight to be carried, reduce cooking
appliances to a minimum, so that even such food as is available is badly and
insufficiently cooked, while the daily march also militates against proper
preparation of meals. In consequence, the labourer arrives at the place of
employment after an exhausting journey on an inadequate and deficient diet;
he is, in fact, quite unfit for any heavy work, and is ripe for scurvy and beri¬
beri. ... It is obvious that the movements of thousands of previously
untravelled natives must bring them into contact with numerous diseases which
they have not encountered before, and against which they have therefore had
no opportunity of acquiring the partial immunity that sometimes seems to occur
in the case of more exposed tribes. While malaria and some other ailments
may be considered as fairly evenly distributed throughout the Territory,

m Memorandum dealing with the Care of Native Labour on Plantations.

504

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

certain diseases, such as hookworm and spirillum fever, are much more limited
in occurrence; there seems to be little doubt that the present system, or lack
of system, is steadily spreading such afflictions through previously uninfected
tribes, owing to the return home of laborers from areas of incidence. . . .
In addition to the question of health, there are also economic and moral evils
to be considered. The constant stream of travellers through certain towns
has created a definite parasitic class, of which the ‘three card’ manipulator is
about the most respectable; these people prey upon the ignorance and credulity
of the unsophisticated native, in every sort of way; it is little exaggeration
to say that they go far to deprive him of most of the reward of his toil. The
seeker for work offers little attraction for this class; he is merely the subject
for extortionate bargains in food or work; the returning labourer, however,
has money or goods of which he can be fleeced; and a horde of male and
female harpies throw themselves into the task with enthusiasm and enterprise;
the principal towns on the labour routes are all more or less infested with
such creatures, who vary from regular jailbirds to the half-instructed, but
quite uneducated, product of some ill-managed school. Small wonder that
the returned worker has too often little but an infection of disease to show
for his efforts!” 08

To improve the conditions under which laborers travel, the government
is now establishing rest camps and improving communication facilities.
Nevertheless, many of the evils of this type of migratory labor are inherent
in the system, as proved by the fact that despite the most energetic and
humane efforts of recruiting organizations in the Congo, in South Africa,
and in Rhodesia, they still exist. 64

Even if the physical conditions under which labor is recruited are
improved, the social effects of this ebb and flow of a migratory labor supply
would remain. The first of these effects is “detribalization” which is,
according to the Tanganyika Labor Commissioner, “an evil which looms
largely in the vision of many administrative officers.” He continues:

“It is also the basic idea which makes many native headmen reluctant
to allow their people to go to work. In its worst form it is illustrated by
the man who has gone away from his own village and settled among the
strangers, probably in a town; there he has forgotten the salutary restrictions
which tribal custom imposed, and has failed to acquire any rules of conduct to
replace them; such a man is obviously likely to become demoralized and
fall into crime. If this is so with the man, it is even more so with the

63 Labour in the Tanganyika Territory, pp. 51 ff. On the other hand, the employ¬
ment on a European estate has tided natives over the occasional famine periods to
which African tribes are subject; but these famines would be overcome by a prop¬
erly organized system of native production. Under the Native Foodstuffs Ordi¬
nance, the government may require natives to cultivate crops of foodstuffs to
prevent famine.

M Cf. Index—Recruited Labor.

WHITE SETTLEMENT IN TANGANYIKA

505

woman; freed from the many restraints of tribal life, she lacks any standard,
and usually becomes utterly immoral. . . .

“The presence of women on a plantation presents a difficult problem. In
view of the distances to be travelled, and the hardships of the journey, it is
scarcely to be expected that natives will bring their wives with them when
coming to work; there is also a strong prejudice among most tribes against
taking their women from their own villages. ... It is unfortunate that this
should be so, for there are many advantages in the presence of women with
their husbands. The man is happier, his food is better prepared, his hut is
kept cleaner, and he is leading a more normal life; from the employer’s point
of view, the labourer is more contented and therefore likely to stay longer.

“The welfare of the tribe is also affected by the wife remaining at home;
while she is thereby sheltered from the dangers of foreign adventure, there
is always a risk that the returning husband will discover that she has been
unfaithful, with consequent disruption of the family. Alarm on this account,
aroused by omens or dreams is indeed a not uncommon cause for desertion
by labourers. Another contingency is the return of the husband infected with
venereal disease, possibly rendered worse through being masked by some
violent and dangerous native remedy; this is a common cause of contamination
in up-country tribes, as headmen will frequently aver.

“In any case, the prolonged absence of the husband has in some form or
another a deleterious effect upon the tribal birth rate, already unfortunately
low in many sections.” *"

From other sources, the writer was told that as a result of emigration
to labor centers, the birth rate of the otherwise prolific Wanyamwezi had
been curtailed. It is probable that the efforts of the Tanganyika Govern¬
ment in bringing about the growth of the native population will fail if the
migratory tendencies of this population increase.

IO. The Labor Supply

At the present time, the number of laborers on European plantations is
estimated as follows:

Contracted laborers, outside of their own district. 9,155

Non-contract laborers “ “ “ “ “ .. 25,700

Laborers employed in their own districts. 92,500

Total . *27,355®

It is not clear from the report whether or not these laborers are all
employed on European plantations. But such is the interpretation given
by the Governor to these figures. 67 If this interpretation is correct, it
means that the Tanganyika plantations to-day employ forty thousand na-
® Labour in the Tanganyika Territory, pp. 73-74.

® Ibid., p. 105. m Ibid., p. 18.

506

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

tives more than before the War. Large as the present number in Tangan¬
yika is, it is less than half the percentage under employment in Kenya.
Kenya’s success is partly due to the fact that she has confined her native
population in relatively over-crowded reserves from which it is easy to
reach labor centers. In Tanganyika there are, except for the Masai and
Kilimanjaro areas, no reserves, and the natives are not subject to the
pressure which thus exists in Kenya. 08

Partly because of the absence in the past of this pressure, planters in
southern and central Tanganyika are complaining of a labor shortage.
A number of them, in talking to the writer, stated that unless they pro¬
cured government aid, they would have to close down their estates. Al¬
though the district of Tanga needs forty thousand men, it has only twenty-
five thousand on hand. In its 1925 report to the League of Nations, the
Tanganyika Government—which is naturally inclined to minimize such
difficulties—said:

“Labour requirements by private individuals increased during the year
owing to the extension and development of plantations. While in some cases
the shortage was acute the position as a whole cannot be said to have been
really serious, except in the Tanga district where the shortage was the worst
in the history of the local sisal industry. Contract labour was obtainable in
totally insufficient numbers while the labour which used to make its way
down to the Coast from the western and south-western districts in search
of work only appeared in small quantities. The closure of certain districts to
recruiting owing to sleeping sickness, competition from the Lupa Gold fields,
from the Tabora-Shinyanga railway extension and from plantations on the
central line, increased economic native development throughout the Territory,
and a very ill-advised diversion of labour to the temporarily lucrative task of
rubber tapping were all factors which led to a serious shortage of labour for
sisal plantations on the Coast.” "

While improved treatment of labor, a better system of recruiting and
transport, the adoption of machinery and other labor saving devices, and
the cultivation of crops which require a minimum number of men may
ease the situation, it is doubtful whether these measures can permanently
relieve a shortage which will, on the contrary, be aggravated by the opening
of new mines and farms, and by the increased production of native crops,
which will be the result of agricultural education and the opening of new
communications. The Tanganyika Labor Commissioner says:

“The crux of the labour position lies in the fact that the demand is, and
is likely to remain, in excess of the supply; while proper organization and

“The railways of Tanganyika grant especially cheap rates to recruited labor
as do the railways of Kenya.

“Report, 1925, p. 26.

WHITE SETTLEMENT IN TANGANYIKA 507

reater economy in use may be expected to do much to improve the present
tuation, the almost universal tendency for enterprises to expand to the
mit of their labour supply will ensure the prompt absorption of all labour
ffering, apart from the creation of new fields of employment. . . . The
rux of the matter lies in the rate of development; the enterprises now in the
auntry would almost all expand up to the limit of their labour supplies and
is mainly shortage that restricts them. If therefore rapid and ill-considered
evelopment takes place in other and newer directions, there will certainly
rise an acute shortage of labour at any rate for a while; more cautious and
ar-sighted progress should on the contrary enable a steady advance to be
nade without jeopardizing existing interests.” TO

In other words, European enterprise in Tanganyika is experiencing the
ame phenomena it has experienced in South Africa, Southern Rhodesia,
Cenya, and the Belgian Congo.

The labor factor is of much more immediate importance to the native
nhabitants of Tanganyika than the land factor. And it is from the point
if view of labor that the proposal of the government to open up the Iringa
ind Rungwe districts to European settlement should be considered. If a
European farmer, located on uninhabited land, provided his own labor
upply, his presence would not affect native life in the territory one way
>r another. But no European farmer in East Africa furnishes his own
abor; he relies upon that of the black. If he should take up land in the
[ringa district, he would be obliged to rely upon recruited labor because
)f the fact that that district is depopulated. While the situation in the
Rungwe district is more favorable from the labor standpoint, sooner or
ater European agriculture, once it is allowed to enter the territory, will
jutrun the local supply, and it will be obliged to scour the country for
recruits. In other words, this policy of land alienation, wholly apart from
the question of its effect upon the rights of the native in the land, will
intensify an existing labor shortage, and thus increase the evils of the re¬
cruiting system.

Confronted by the fears of a shortage, European and Indian settlers,
who have invested savings in these plantations, naturally demand that the
government come to their aid. In the spring of 1924, the Planters’ Asso¬
ciation of Tanga submitted a memorandum to the government on the
Masters and Servants Ordinance, asking that government officials be given
the power to make natives ‘‘available for work unless in possession of other
visible means.” Kilimanjaro planters have urged that natives should be
obliged to work so many months out of the year unless they produce crops of
a certain commercial value. The Tanganyika Times recurrently argues,

10 Labour in the Tanganyika Territory, p. 98.

508

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

at least in veiled terms, for a system of compulsory labor. 71 As the labor
shortage grows with the augmentation of European enterprise, the demand
for pressure will inevitably increase—and it will be a demand which the
local administration will find it extremely difficult to resist. Having in¬
vested heavily of their capital and their time, settlers will not confront
bankruptcy brought on by a labor shortage with complacency. The ex¬
perience of Kenya shows that it is easier to limit the number of settlers
who take up land than to resist their pressure for labor once they have been
admitted.

11. Labor " Pressure”

Although the first Governor of Tanganyika was pledged to the idea of
native development even to the detriment of competing European enterprise,
the present Governor has felt it necessary to modify this position. In a de¬
spatch to the Secretary of State, accompanied by the report of the Labor
Commissioner, he declared: “So far, the attitude of the Government has
been one of neutrality as between the competing claims of peasant cultiva¬
tion and labour for the plantations.” 72

This attitude of “neutrality” implies that in making a choice between
the two systems, the native is a free man and that he will follow his own
interests. This conception of the economic man, acting only according to
the dictates of reason, and the idea of equality between the employer and
a single employee has long since been overthrown in Europe where the
State has come to the aid of the laborer and of the small farmer in their
dealings with powerful groups of capital. The reasoning which has led
to the rejection of the laissez-faire doctrine in Europe applies with much
greater force to Africa—to the dealings between primitive and white peo¬
ples. The native has the weakness of a child. He is easily ensnared by the
enticements of Europeans wishing to acquire his labor and his land. Even
if he does understand the nature of the contract which he signs, he seldom
thinks of the consequences of employment five hundred miles from his
home, to himself or to the group to which he belongs. It is difficult to see
how a government, animated by the trusteeship principle, can follow an
attitude of “neutrality” in these matters, and live up to its obligations.
It must come to the aid of the native in his relation to the European
employer, and just as it insists that the employer must conform to certain
standards of employment out of consideration for the welfare of the native,
it should insist for the same reasons upon limiting the extent of such
employment.

The Tanganyika Governor goes on to say: “there is strong reason for

n Cf. editorial “The Tanganyika Planters,” Tanganyika Times, December n,
1926. 7a Labour in the Tanganyika Territory, p. 12.

WHITE SETTLEMENT IN TANGANYIKA

509

elieving that, if departure is made from this policy [of neutrality] in the
irection of active inducement of the native by the administrative officer
o take up cultivation on his own account throughout the Territory, ex-
ansion of non-native cultivation must cease.” The Governor does not,
pparently, wish this to happen because the territory will “get a bad
ame and capital will be driven away.” The Governor has doubtless
orgotten that on the west coast of Africa, capital, in the form of trading
irms, has appeared in abundance to market the products of peasant farmers,
n view of the fact that in other mandates and colonies, administrative
fficers are doing their best to encourage the native farm system, this
tatement on the part of the Tanganyika Administration, disapproving
uch a policy, is disquieting.

But the Tanganyika Administration has gone even further in this policy
if so-called “neutrality.” In the Conference of East African Governors,
leld at Nairobi in the winter of 1925-26, the Government of Tanganyika
ubscribed to a declaration, discussed in greater detail in the next chapter 73
o the effect that the government would virtually oblige natives to work
:ither for themselves or for European employers. If natives are unable to
ell their own products because of the absence of transport facilities—a
ondition which exists in vast areas—they will be “given to understand”
hat they must seek European employment, no matter at what distance
rom their homes. In a circular on Agriculture and Labor, August 5, 1926,
:he Governor expressly stated, among other things: “In localities in which
:he native cannot grow economic crops owing to lack of transport facilities,
Administrative Officers can best serve the State by exhorting the natives,
through their chiefs, to adopt some form of active work, pointing out that
situated as they are they can only do so profitably by engaging to work for
the Government or on the farms which are seeking their labour.” 74

Under the provisions of the mandate, Tanganyika is allowed to impose
compulsory labor only for “essential public works and services.” Com¬
pulsory labor is no less compulsory because it is indirect. The Temporary
Slavery Commission of the League has said that “forms of direct or indirect
compulsion the primary object of which is to force natives into private
employment are abuses,” and also that “indirect or ‘moral* pressure, if
exercised by officials to secure labour for private employment, may, in view
of the authority of such officials over the minds of natives, be in effect
tantamount to compulsion and calls therefore for prudence on the part of
the Administration.’* 75

”Cf. Vol. I, p. 526.

u The full text of this circular is printed as an appendix to this section, Vol. I,p. 550.

” Report of the Commission to the Council of the League of Nations, A. 19,
1925, VI paras. 115, 116.

510

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

It seems clear that all forms of pressure are prohibited by the mandate,
and that the Tanganyika Government, if it thus obliges natives to work
under certain conditions for European employers, will violate the most
fundamental clause of the mandate—the prohibition of compulsory labor . 70

In the development of native self-government, education, and in agri¬
cultural, veterinary, and medical work, the Tanganyika Government is
making splendid efforts to further the progress of the African native. But
as the experience of Nigeria, the Gold Coast, Uganda, Portuguese East
Africa, and the Transkei shows, it is impossible to bring about an increase
in the native population and build up a native society, when a large propor¬
tion of the people are nomadic in nature, obliged to spend periodic sojourns
in European labor centers . 77 It is probable that if they do not increase,
the settlers now in Tanganyika can find an adequate labor supply without
seriously disturbing native life. But if the government adopts a policy of
land alienation—thus increasing the demand for labor—and if it vigor¬
ously applies the “East African” labor doctrine to which it has subscribed,
its efforts in building up a native institutional life will be doomed to
failure. It is significant that the German Government in East Africa be¬
fore the War, realizing the effect of extensive European development,
restricted the alienation of land in order to reduce the demand for labor.
It is significant that the Belgian Congo is imposing similar restrictions
to-day. In contrast to the policies of these territories, the Tanganyika
Government, which unlike the German and Belgian Governments is sub¬
ject to specific obligations imposed by the Treaty of Versailles to advance
the welfare of the native, is employing a land and labor policy which will
accentuate, rather than restrict, the evils which the uncontrolled intro¬
duction of European industry into Africa involves. The result will not
be increased economic gain to the British Empire or to the European world.
A9 other sections will show, the native peasant farmer is, in the long run
and provided he is given the proper kind of government aid, as productive
as or even more productive than the European landlord working with a
system of colored wage earners.

70 While the Governor does not object to administrative advice, he does object
to the use of taxation as a method of promoting a labor supply. He says: “To my
mind, it is of vital importance in a country like this that no attempt should be made
to force the native to work for others by imposing taxation which he cannot earn
the means to pay unless he leaves his district to work on the non-native plantations,
and I have steadfastly refused to increase the tax in the districts in which the
natives cannot augment their earnings by working for themselves or on such
Government works, if any, as may offer. Coercion of labour by pressure of
direct taxation is little, if anything removed from coercion of labour by force;
the latter is the more honest course.” Labour in the Tanganyika Territory, p. 10.

17 The death rate of labor recruited great distances from labor centers in both
the Gold Coast and South Africa is much higher than the death rate of locally
recruited labor. Cf. Vol. I, pp. 33, 827.

CHAPTER 30

A DOMINION OF EAST AFRICA

Throughout the history of the British Empire, a centripetal process
has been at work which has drawn together smaller units into larger
wholes. Such has been the history of the American colonies which after
acquiring their independence came together in the United States; such
has been the history of the states of Canada, of Australia, and of the
colonies of South Africa. But as long as Germany occupied British East
Africa—a territory wedged squarely between the British possessions of
East Africa, of Nyasaland, and Northern Rhodesia—the dream of a
similar process bringing together the territories of British East Africa into
a new Dominion of the Empire could scarcely be realized. Despite these
obstacles Mr. L. S. Amery, who is now Secretary of State for the Colonies,
wrote an article as early as 1909 advocating the establishment of some such
federation under a single High Commissioner, having lieutenant-governors
for each territory, and improved communications and scientific agencies. 1

1 . Federation Schemes

The solemn responsibility of public office has not apparently dimmed
this dream. For at the East Africa dinner in June, 1926, Mr. Amery
said that the “conception of East Africa as an entity of its own” had “made
steady progress during the last year” and that “the ideal of a united East
Africa” was “steadily growing.” 2

With the outbreak of the World War and the East African campaign,
speculation as to the possibilities of a British East Africa became
numerous. It was assumed by many English writers that German territory
in this part of the world which housed resources probably equal to those of
Kenya and Uganda combined would pass to the Union Jack. Several
writers proposed that, having secured German East Africa, the British
Government should establish a federation of territories stretching from
the Zambesi to the Sudan; and some of them believed that in order to
revive its historic past, Zanzibar should be the capital. 3 Other writers

‘Reprinted in Union and Strength, Ch. XIV, London, 1912.

* The [London] Times, June 12, 1926, p. 13, col. 4.

3 Sir Harry Johnston, “The Political Geography of Africa before and after the
War." . Geographical Journal, Vol. 45, 1915, p. 286. He had in mind, however, a
federation primarily given over to native interests. Rev. A. Hetherwick, “Nyasa¬
land Today and Tomorrow,” Journal of the African Society, Vol. 17, 1917, p. 19
511

512

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

would locate the capital at Nairobi, or on the slopes of Kilimanjaro or
even on Lake Kivu, in territory which during the War some Englishmen
believed would fall to the Empire but which is now part of the Belgian
Congo. One writer proposed that a High Commissioner or Governor-
General and Council be appointed to preside over the existing territories
which should retain their governors and their legislative councils, but the
boundaries of which should be modified to conform to tribal needs. Asso¬
ciated with the Governor-General should be a Secretary of Native Affairs
and heads of departments who should advise as to policy in each of the
territories with a view to coordinating the interests of East Africa as a
whole. 4

At least one East Africa Governor has expressed the wish that con¬
federation should be established “within reasonable distance.” 5

Approving this plan in 1927 the Tanganyika Times declared: “Every
day of his life the settler is made to feel the prick of control from London
exercised by men whose only knowledge of our Territory and its problems
has been gained from text books augmented by an occasional flying visit
. . . [and] who display an extraordinary unanimity in the belief that their
countrymen in Africa are unfitted to govern the subject races resident
therein. They are tenacious in that belief and the only thing, apparently,
that will shake them out of it is an ultimatum from the East African
Territories to the effect that they are determined to band themselves to¬
gether into an East African Federation or a United States of East Africa,
and insist upon a form of Government similar to that of South Africa.” 6 It
asked that a convention, similar to that which preceded the Act of Union
in South Africa in 1910, be called.

The advantages urged in favor of the federation of East Africa are
the elimination of duplication in administration and of competition in such
matters as railway policy, so as to promote the greatest economic develop¬
ment of the territories. Federation would also facilitate the flow of native
labor from one area to another. But perhaps the greatest urge back of the
movement is the imperial ambition of adding another star to the cluster of
Dominions which now shine forth in the Imperial Firmament. This am¬
bition seems more firmly implanted in the Conservative Party than else¬
where.

When one speaks of a Dominion, he means a self-governing territory
which in turn presupposes white settlement. The European occupation of

4 Africanus, “A Central African Confederation," ibid., Vol. 17, p. 276.

6 Sir R. T. Cornydon, Governor of Kenya, “Problems of Eastern Africa,” ibid.,
Vol. 2i, 1922, p. 177.

* Tanganyika Times, January 22, 1927, “Kenya and Co-ordination,” p. 16.

A DOMINION OF EAST AFRICA 513

‘ st Africa is therefore a necessary preliminary to the realization of the
>minion ideal. Throughout all of the five territories now comprising
itish East Africa, an interior plateau will be found, parts of which have
en found suitable for white settlement. In Kenya, two thousand families
ve already settled; Northern Rhodesia has five hundred, Nyasaland two
indred and fifty, Tanganyika three hundred, and Uganda one hundred,
lese families are endeavoring to make a living out of the soil as do the
jropean farmers in Australia and New Zealand, except that they depend
)on native labor. The extent to which alien peoples have invaded East
frica may be seen from the following table:

LAND ALIENATION IN EAST AFRICA

Territory

Total Area
(Sq. Miles)

Land

Alienated

Europeans
(Sq.Miles)

PorUt.ATlON

European

Indian

Native

All Others

enya .

245,060

12,000

11,002

2 4 , 77 *

2,560,983

9,753

o. Rhodesia ..

291,000

19,000 '

4,182

201 ’

1,000,000

yasaland ....

39 . 3 I 5

6,192

*,+2*

6*3

1,173,838

anganyika . ..

373 . 49 +

2,782

2 >447

10,950

4,106,055

4 , 04 *

gaoda .

110.300

*34

*. 45 *

7.229

3,136,769

Total.

1,059,169

40,108

20,503

47.905

»». 977,64s

9,753

o. Rhodesia ..

* 50,353

48,489

33 , 8.0

3,634

862,319

•o. Africa -

473.0S9

4 2 9 >* 7 +

1,610,774

*70,934

4 . 953,743

558,476

1 Part of this territory is subject to Dative reserves not yet delimited.
‘Includes Asiatic and colored.

According to these figures, the area and native population of East
\frica is more than twice that of South Africa. At the present time,
he European population of East Africa is, however, only one-eightieth of
he population of South Africa. The land alienated to Europeans in East
Africa is about one-sixteenth of the land alienated to Europeans in South
Africa. The territories of East Africa have a European population of
aboht two-thirds that of Southern Rhodesia. East Africa has alienated
nearly as much as Southern Rhodesia. While the Indian population is
decisively outnumbered by the Europeans in both South Africa and South¬
ern Rhodesia, it outnumbers the whites two to one in East Africa.

In considering the possibilities of establishing a federation of East
Africa, the native problem cannot be overlooked. European enterprise not
only demands native labor, but it also demands land which in some cases
the natives need. Will the establishment of an East Africa Dominion

514

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

bring with it the almost insoluble native problems which now confron
South Africa? Or will it be possible to devise a system which, whil
satisfying the demand of the white communities for unity, self-governmeir
and the basis of an economic existence, will give the natives the same oppor
tunities for development which they are receiving elsewhere on the con
tinent? Before attempting to answer these questions, we shall first discus;
the efforts now being made to bring about a federation of, and to promote
white settlement in these territories.

The first step in this movement toward federation has been the demand
of the settlers in these territories, particularly in Kenya, 7 for self-govern¬
ment. At the Tukuyu Conference of East Africa settlers, a resolution was
passed to the effect.that “direct control over the East African territories
is too great and is in some cases increasing and ought to be diminished."
At the Livingstone conference, a resolution was passed stating that the
intervention of the Colonial Office “in the decisions of the local Legisla¬
tures should be confined as far as possible to questions of Imperial Policy.”

2. The Policy of Coordination

The second step has been the movement to coordinate the different
policies throughout the East African territories. Thus in 1*922, the three
territories of Tanganyika, Uganda, and Kenya held a tariff conference in
which they agreed to correlate tariff policies. A Customs Union already
exists between Kenya and Uganda. In addition to controlling the customs
of Uganda, Nairobi officials direct the post office serving both terri¬
tories. An East African Medical Service has been created, and a single
East African currency is used. The King’s African Rifles is a military
force which moves from one territory to another wherever it may be needed.
An East Africa loan of ten million pounds has been guaranteed by the
Imperial Parliament. A Joint East Africa Board binds together business
houses in the different territories.

In its report, the East Africa Commission rejected the idea of a federa¬
tion of East Africa imposed from without, partly because of the lack of
communications. It did, however, suggest that regular periodic conferences
of responsible heads of departments as well as of governors should be held.
Carrying this idea into effect, a number of departmental conferences are
now held such as the recent conference at Nairobi (January, 1926) of
agricultural and veterinary officers, and a recent conference of legal
experts from the different East African territories. Advisers have been
appointed to the veterinary services of two or more governments.

Before the 1927 elections in Kenya, seven elected members of the
7 Cf. Vol. I, p. 399.

A DOMINION OF EAST AFRICA

515

'legislative Council, in an election manifesto, proclaimed “a scheme of
oordination of the Northern East Africa Territories,” which should
ventually embrace the Rhodesias and Nyasaland. This plan should be
onditioned upon an elected majority in the Legislative Councils concerned
.nd upon the understanding that each State should remain a separate en¬
tity and shoul 4 have complete control over its own finances. The various
.olonies would be coordinated under a High Commissioner whose seat
•hould be at Nairobi. 8

The first step in this direction was taken in January, 1926, when the
Governors of Kenya, Northern Rhodesia, Nyasaland, Uganda, and Tan¬
ganyika, the British Resident for Zanzibar, and the Civil Secretary of the
'Sudan Government attended the first Conference of Governors of the East
African Dependencies, convened by the Secretary of State for the Colonies.
After discussing policies common to the territories, the Conference resolved
:hat Nairobi should be the meeting place of all full conferences which
■ihould apparently be held annually and the site of the Secretariat which
should be organized. A permanent Secretary to these conferences would
be appointed who should also act as Secretary to the High Commissioner for
the Uganda Railway.® The Secretariat should include an Assistant Secre¬
tary whose salary would be paid by the Uganda Railway, and a statistician.
The cost of the conference Secretariat was estimated to be eight thousand
pounds, and it would be divided between the different territories. 10

3. The Eastern Africa White Paper

Taking advantage of the presence of a number of East Africa Gover¬
nors at the Colonial Office Conference, held in London in May, 1927, the
British government discussed the whole matter of the federation of East
Africa. As a result of these discussions it presented to parliament a White
Paper concerning “Future Policy in regard to Eastern Africa.” 11 After
summarizing recent developments pointing toward the necessity for closer
union, the Paper stated that the claim of European and other settle¬
ments in East Africa “to share progressively in the responsibilities of gov¬
ernment cannot be ignored. These responsibilities, however, cannot be
limited to the representation of their own community interests; and if
clashes between these interests and those of the vast native populations

East African Standard, January 1, 1927, p. 35.

VA position held by the Governor of Kenya.

Kenya and the Kenya-Uganda Railway each would pay *% 2 of the total.
Uganda and Tanganyika %2, Zanzibar, Northern Rhodesia, and the Sudan %2
each. Summary of Proceedings, Conference of Governors of the East African
Dependencies, 1926, p. 30.

11 Cmd. 2904 (1927).

516

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

are to be avoided, their share in the trusteeship for the progress and
welfare of the natives must be developed.” The White Paper also states
that steps should be taken to create machinery for native self-government.
An investigation as to how closer union between the territories could be
brought about, and whether it was possible to provide for increasing asso-
ciation of the immigrant communities in the responsibilities of govern¬
ment and for native representation, was necessary.

“In the event of investigations proving that some, at any rate, of the
East African territories are ripe for the creation of a federal Constitution,
consequential changes may be required in the powers and composition of
the existing Legislatures. In any such changes it will be essential to
maintain the principle that the administration of the East and Central
African territories is based on the exercise by His Majesty’s Government
of a trust on behalf of the African population, and that, while they may
now be prepared to associate with themselves in that trust the members
of the resident immigrant communities, they are still under an' obligation
to ensure that the principles of this trusteeship will be observed.” These
responsibilities were “of the very gravest character.” It would be a
“fatal error” to take any decisive step “before being sure that it would
be received with good will by those whose co-operation will be necessary
for its success.” Financial considerations could not, moreover, be ignored.

Nevertheless, the British government announced that “some form
of closer union between the territories of Central and Eastern Africa ap¬
pears desirable, more particularly in regard to the development of trans¬
port and communications, customs tariffs and customs administration,
scientific research and defence.” To determine the extent to which this
union should take place, the Secretary of State would send a commission
to East and Central Africa, with the following terms of reference:

(1) to make recommendations as to whether more effective coopera¬
tion between the different Governments could be secured;

(2) to consider which territories could be brought within any such
closer union, provided that the measures adopted do not infringe the pro¬
visions of the Tanganyika mandate;

(3) to make recommendations in regard to the powers and compo¬
sition of the various Legislative Councils (a) as the result of the estab¬
lishment of any Federal Council, (b) so as to associate more closely in
the responsibilities and trusteeship of Government the immigrant commu¬
nities domiciled in the country, (c) so as to ultimately secure more direct
representation of native interests;

(4) to suggest how the Dual Policy could best be progressively applied
in the political as well as the economic sphere;

A DOMINION OF EAST AFRICA

517

(5) to make recommendations as to improvements in internal com-
unications;

(6) to report particularly on the financial aspects of these pro-
sals.

In closing, the Paper stated that the Government adhered to the prin-
pies of the White Paper of 1923 both in regard to the rights of Indians
id also as regards the “Imperial duty” of safeguarding the interests and
rogress of the native population as trustees for their welfare “until such
.tie as they can take part more fully in their own Government and in
ie common affairs of all races inhabiting the territories.” Why the
iovernment should add this qualifying clause to its obligation is not
ear. Moreover, the Government wished to associate more closely in
lis “high and honourable task of Trusteeship” the colonists of the coun-
y. It would seem by this statement that the Government has committed
self to the principle of responsible or semi-responsible government for
ie whites and Indians in East Africa. Much will depend upon the report
f this Commission which, composed of Sir Hilton Young, Mr. J. H. Old-
am. and Sir Morgan Schuster, sailed for East Africa in December,
927.

Whatever the advantages of federation may be from the technical
:andpoint, the principle will be vigorously opposed by the native and
ndian population of Uganda, Tanganyika, and Zanzibar out of fear
hat they would become subject to the regime which now applies in Kenya. 12
These fears were officially voiced by the Indian government at the time
rhen British administration in Tanganyika was established. It declared
hat “in view of recent events, we may perhaps be pardoned if we regard
vith grave misgiving the possibility of administrative union with the adja-
ent territory of Kenya Colony. If there is no political equality, we fear
Eat even the guarantee of economic equality may prove to be illusory.
Experience elsewhere has shown how easy it is to subvert nominal equality

“In a petition to the East Africa Commission, the Kabaka and ministers of
^Uganda protested against the idea of federation as follows: “Our Honoured
friends, you are quite aware that our Customs, Manners are totally different to
hose obtaining in the neighboring countries and that the Kabaka and the Native
Parliament (Lukiko) are empowered to administer all Natives as already stated.
\gain, ... we are being alarmed as to how the proposed amalgamation if it comes
ibout will affect us, because a great deal of state matters that are at present being
iealt with by the Native Government will come under the administration of the
Governor-General’s Council in which case our Country will be burdened with
all sorts of taxes, Native Registration approved by the Governor-General’s
Council. . . . Before we close this petition we have to mention that although the
proposed amalgamation may not necessarily affect our Agreement, we being a Pro¬
tected Nation, do not wish to be under a Governor-General and administrating the
Federated Colonies. . . .”

518

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

by administrative action.” 13 On the other hand, the settlers do not wish
federation until they are given responsible government. 14

Despite the fact that it has not as yet attained this end, Kenya has
attempted to influence the policy of surrounding territories for two reasons:
first to advance the financial and economic position of Kenya, and second
to extend the Kenya doctrine of white settlement throughout the whole of
East Africa. The manner in which it has used its present position to
further these aims will now be described.

4. Protective Tariffs

In order to promote its economic position, the Kenya Government has
induced Tanganyika and Uganda to follow its tariff policy, which contains
a number of protectionist items upon such articles as wheat, timber, sugar,
and butter, the protection of which is being encouraged in Kenya for
“nationalistic” reasons. 15

In September, 1921, Tanganyika enacted a new tariff embodying these
protective duties, despite the fact that they did not benefit producers in
Tanganyika who were non-existent. This led the citizens of Dar-es-
Salaam to hold a mass meeting at which they declared that such a tariff
injured native interests and was therefore contrary to the text of the
Mandate. They moved that this protest should be transmitted to the
Council of the League of Nations and to the Colonial Office. 16 The ex¬
planation of Kenya’s desire to have Tanganyika and Uganda adopt these
protective duties lay in the fact that free trade had been instituted in local
produce between the three territories, which meant that with the exclusion
of foreign competition from Tanganyika and Uganda, Kenya producers
would have a monopoly not only of the Kenya market but of the neighbor¬
ing territories as well. The impositions of these protective duties increased
the prices of sugar, timber, and other protective materials in Tanganyika. 17
Despite these duties, Kenya soon proved unable to supply Tanganyika
with butter, which led the Tanganyika Government to abolish the protec¬
tive rates on this article. Notwithstanding greater transport charges, Tan¬
ganyika now imports butter from South Africa more cheaply than it did
from Kenya. Some uneasiness about this state of affairs was evidenced
in a resolution passed at the Conference of East Africa Governors, 19 2 ^>

13 By political equality it had in mind the position of Indians on the Legislative
Council in Kenya. Cmd. 1312, cited, p. 7.

14 Cf. Vol. I, p. 403.

15 Cf. Vol. I, p. 405. 18 Dar-es-Salaam Times, September 1, I9* 1 *

17 The protective timber duties created, according to the Dar-es-Salaam Times,
an “abnormally high cost of building materials in this country.” Its criticism 1*
reprinted in the East African Standard, December 26, 1926.

A DOMINION OF EAST AFRICA

519

the effect that a conference of experts should consider the question of
port duties on building materials; and that it would be advisable to admit
leat imports under certain circumstances on license at a ten per cent
port duty. The question of import duties on bacon and cheese should also
considered. 18

Although the text of the Mandate authorizes the establishment of a
stoms union with neighboring territories, and although the duties enacted
East Africa do not violate the open door, nevertheless the enactment by
anganyika of protective duties for the benefit of artificial industries in
:nya, at the expense of the European, Indian, and native population of
anganyika, would appear to violate the spirit of the Mandate provisions.

5. The "K. A. R."

A somewhat similar situation has existed in regard to the King’s
Jrican Rifles—the military' organization of East Africa. Like its sister
ganization, the West African Frontier Force, the “K. A. R.” exists to
otect all of the East African territories against rebellion or attack. 19
At present, it is composed of five battalions, having a total of about
e thousand men of which the Third is stationed in Kenya, 20 the Fourth
Uganda, the First in Nyasaland, and the Second and Sixth in Tangan-
ka.

According to the Mandate, the Tanganyika Government may not
•rganize any native military force in the territory except for local police
irposes and for the defense of the territory.” In order to comply with
is provision, the government has locally recruited the Sixth battalion of
■e ‘‘K. A. R.”, which because of the Mandate may be used only within the
rritory. This battalion is stationed at Dar-es-Salaam. But the Tan-
myika Government also supports the Second Battalion which has been
.cruited in Nyasaland and which contains only Nyasaland natives. This
ittalion may be sent anywhere in East Africa. Thus in 1922, these
oops were sent to Somaliland and in 1924, transportation was arranged to
:ke them to Jubaland. But instead of being stationed in Nyasaland where

“ Summary of the Proceedings, Conference of Governors of the East African
ependencies, p. 23. The conference said that “in the absence of any permanent
ustoms Union,” it was “necessary for each territory to retain its fiscal authority,”
it that it was desirable for “as uniform a Tariff as possible to be maintained
f agreement.” The conference expressed its regret that the Mandatory system did
at “allow of any system of Imperial Preference being developed in the East
.frican territories.”

“This force is under the Colonial, and not the War Office, subject to an
ispector-General, officered by men seconded or loaned for a period of years from
leir regular regiments. The troops and most of the non-commissioned officers are
fricans.

80 The Fifth battalion, formerly stationed in Kenya, is now disbanded.

520

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

it originated, this battalion has been moved by the Colonial Office into Tan¬
ganyika Territory—at Tabora—where it must be paid out of Tanganyika
funds. While Tanganyika’s military expenditures have declined from about
190,237 pounds in 1921-22 to 153,339 pounds in 1926-27, they are only
a little less than the German military expenditures for 1914 (180,750
pounds) upon a territory which included Ruanda-Urundi. At present
the local budget must bear this expense, which before the World War
was carried by the German Imperial Government. 21 At present the cost
for maintaining a military unit is as high in Tanganyika as in any other
part of Africa. 22

It thus appears that Tanganyika money is being used to defend other
parts of East Africa. The only possible defense for this state of affairs
would be that the Nyasaland battalion is needed in Tanganyika to preserve
order. If this were true—and there is no evidence that it is—Tanganyika
should increase the number of companies recruited from local natives.
The military policy in the French mandates is much more consistent with
the mandate principle than this Tanganyika policy. 28

6. Railway Policy

Likewise Tanganyika has been urged to modify its railway policy to
satisfy external considerations. At the present time, the Kenya transporta¬
tion system depends upon the Uganda Railway, a railway which until the
last year or so extended only to Kisumu, a port on Lake Victoria Nyanza.
This railway has been fed, however, by Uganda and Tanganyika produce
brought to Kisumu by motor or by boat. The natives of the Mwanza
district in Tanganyika at the southern end of the lake have thus shipped
their produce, consisting largely of coffee, to Europe via Mombasa instead
of via Dar-es-Salaam. But this means of transport has proved costly, and
the Uganda Railway has paid more attention to the needs of European than
of native produce. In an effort to improve the outlet for the Mwanza
district, the Tanganyika Government continued the construction of a
branch railway started by the Germans before the War, connecting
Mwanza and the Shinyanga sub-district with the Central Railway. The

21 Reichshaushaltsetat, cited, p. 706.

In 1913-13, the size of the German police force was 1840 men, maintained at »
cost of 323,940 marks. Die deutschen Schutzgebiete, p. 3.

In 1925, the British police force contained 1822 native men, at a total cost of
about 114,000 pounds. Report, 1925, p. 41.

In 1912-13, the Germans maintained, in addition to the police, eleven companies
of troops (Schutztruppe) composed of about 2500 native soldiers and 261 European
officers, etc. Deutsches Kolonial-Lexikon, Vol. I, p. 401.

At present, the British maintain two battalions of the King’s African Rines,
composed of 1605 native soldiers and 68 European officers.

M Cf. Vol. II, p. 498. 33 Cf. Vol. II, p. 281.

A DOMINION OF EAST AFRICA

521

anganyika Government also installed a system of motor transport between
abora and Mwanza. This policy threatened to injure the revenue of
e Uganda Railway—a fact which led Sir Edward Grigg, the Governor
Kenya, to prepare a memorandum on railway construction in which he
d that because of the participation of Kenya in the Tanganyika military
mpaign, Kenya was entitled to “be heard on common questions such as
llroad development even outside her own frontiers.” 24 He objected par-
ularly to the construction of the Mwanza-Shinyanga line. He was strong
ough to make this view prevail upon the Conference of Governors which
solved:

“That, in the interests of the East African territories generally, it is de-
able to take all possible measures to avoid competition in railway and port
velopment and in railway rates and port dues between British railway and
rt systems.

“That the suggested Mwanza-Shinyanga Railway would be competitive
th the Kenya-Uganda Railway,” and accordingly supported the view that
he Lake Victoria basin should, for the present, be served by one railway
•tern only.” aB

Needless to say, the Government of Tanganyika dissented from this
solution on the ground that this branch was essential to the welfare of
e most heavily populated areas of Tanganyika—a position which the
jlonial Office supported.

Despite this dissent, Kenya’s pressure had some effect in that it led
anganyika, following the conference, to increase its railway rates so that
!2 cost of transporting goods from the Mwanza area to the East Coast
a the Uganda line became less expensive than via motor transport and
e Central Railway to Dar-es-Salaam. Before the Conference of Gover¬
ns, the transportation of cotton piece goods from Mombasa to Mwanza
a rail and boat cost six hundred and fifty-one shillings a ton in comparison
five hundred and fourteen shillings a ton between Mwanza, Tabora,
id Dar-es-Salaam. Following the conference, the Tanganyika Govern-
ent increased the tariff on cotton transport to eight hundred and thirty-
< shillings a ton. 26

The effect of this increase was naturally to divert cotton trade from
anganyika to Kenya merchants, which led to the protest of the Dar-es-
ilaam Chamber of Commerce. The effect on the native was to increase
« price of cotton goods for the benefit of the Uganda Railway. Although

M Memorandum on Railway Development, December, 1926, p. 2.

* Summary of the Proceedings, Conference of Governors of the East African
ependencies, p. 8.

** See the complaints, “The Railway Rates,” Tanganyika Times, August 21, 1926.

522

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

the government justified these increases on the ground that the railw;
needed greater revenue, the conjunction of Kenya’s demand for a transpo
monopoly and this act implied that one was the cause and the other tl
result.

Kenya has also exploited Uganda by means of the Uganda Railwa
which until recently has been completely under Kenya’s control. Whil
the railway is entirely within Kenya’s territory, it was built for Uganda
as the name implies, and Uganda is dependent upon it for the export of it-
cotton. Nevertheless, Kenya appropriated the entire profits of the railwat
to meet a deficit in her budget for a number of years. At the same time
she granted cheap rates to European farmers in Kenya, which were offse-
by high rates on Uganda produce. This state of affairs was made the
object of a protest by a commission in Uganda in 1*920 which said:

“But the whole of the revenue accruing from the line is placed to the
credit of the East Africa Protectorate [now Kenya] and is available for ex¬
penditure on general services. In 1913-14 the proceeds amounted to 49 per cent
of the total revenue of the Protectorate, and in 1917-18 to 48 per cent. The
rates at any time are high, but in 1918 a surcharge was imposed for the express
purpose of raising additional funds wherewith to meet the increasing expendi¬
ture on departmental schedules, and this surcharge was continued in the
following year. In 1919 a supercharge was imposed at a week’s notice in
addition to the surcharge, which entailed a further increase of 40 per cent
on goods traffic between the Lake ports and the Coast. This supercharge was
suspended after a few weeks in consequence of protests made to the Secretary
of State for the Colonies.

“Both the surcharge and the supercharge constitute a direct tax en
Uganda produce for the benefit of East Africa, but the fact remains that this
Protectorate was not consulted prior to their introduction and that all
representations to the Government of the East Africa Protectorate have been
of no avail. As matters stand, East Africa has the power to exploit her
neighbor indefinitely for her own interests, and there can be no commercial
security until this intolerable burden is removed. Unless this is •done, the
recommendations which we shall make in the course of this report will be
of little value. No real developments can take place so long as Uganda is
deprived unjustly of the fruits of her labours.””

As a result of these complaints, an Order in Council was issued in 1925
transferring the control of the railway from the Kenya Government to a
High Commissioner for Transport and a Railway Advisory Council.
While the High Commissioner is the Governor of Kenya, the Council
included two official and two unofficial representatives of each territory.
The senior official member from Kenya is chairman. The revenue and

27 Report of the Uganda Development Commission, 1920, p. 10.

A DOMINION OF EAST AFRICA

523

penditure of the railway and other transport services are now separated
om general Kenya revenue and paid into a Railway and Harbor Fund. 28
s a result of this system, the railway has been removed from politics and
ganda given some control. Already railway rates on cotton have been
iwered and large expenditures are being made on railway extension in
ganda. It is too soon, however, to determine the effectiveness of the re-
;rm.

These instances of the tariff, the King’s African Rifles, and the
ganda Railway under which Tanganyika and Uganda have been obliged
pay the way of other territories illustrate the type of danger which
light be increased should a federation of East Africa be established.

7. Kenya’s Missionary Spirit

Moreover, Kenya has determined to propagate the policies of white set-
ement beyond her own boundaries throughout East Africa. She does
is not only because of a missionary spirit, but also because of a belief that
iless these policies are adopted throughout East Africa, white settlement
Kenya cannot survive. There is a fear, subconscious at least, that if the
itives of Tanganyika and Uganda do not become subject to the same obli-
itions and restrictions as the natives of Kenya, the comparison will become

• invidious and apparent that the Kenya native, encouraged by his black
iighbors, will eventually make the position of the Kenya settler untenable,
he motto of the Delamere party is: “In union there is strength.”

These sentiments have been frankly expressed by Lord Delamere, the
ader in the White Settlement movement. At a St. Andrew’s Day dinner

• Nakuru, he declared: “We must give up thinking of Kenya as an
olated unit. We must believe that our safety as a civilized entity depends
» the extension of our influence southward and that any wavering now in
jr attitude toward an inter-colonial policy may have the most disastrous
rfect on our own future.” 29

At the Tukuyu Conference of East African settlers, Lord Delamere
.id that the “time had arrived for settlers from the five territories to
and together.”. . . . This would help the European settlers of Eastern
frica “to stand together to resist the pressure of the West Africa
.hool.” The policy of this school was now “predominant in Uganda”
id was “beginning to infect Tanganyika Territory and Nyasaland. . . .”
"he government in England would be “more disposed to listen to the

"The Kenya and Uganda (Transport) Order in Council, 1925, Statutory Rules
id Orders, 1925, p. 1681.

" East African Standard, December 5, 1925.

524

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

united voice of the settlers from the Zambesi to the Nile than to the
separate voices of a number of isolated communities.” 30

A similar attitude was taken by the Kenya Governor, Sir Edward
Grigg, who in the opening address to the Conference of East Africa
Governors said: “We are deeply anxious that the policy of European
settlement, which is established here [in Kenya] should not be an isolated
policy or the European community in Kenya more divided than the natural
conditions necessitate from European communities elsewhere. It is our
hope, therefore, that European settlement may be encouraged in East Africa,
wherever suitable highlands exist, and that where such highlands do not
exist, the policy pursued may not be incompatible with ours.” 31

8 . The Tukuyu Conference

In order to increase the weight of this sentiment, Lord Delamere and
his followers brought together representatives of the European communi¬
ties from the various East African territories in a conference which was
held at Tukuyu in Tanganyika in October, 1925. 32 This conference
passed a resolution that settlement should be encouraged in Tanganyika,
Northern Nyasaland and the northern part of Northern Rhodesia—a
policy which could be put into effect without “encroaching upon native
interests.”

Likewise, it resolved that the government should not encourage native
agriculture in European areas because of the danger of disease, the fact
that natives have neglected the growth of food stuffs when growing
economic crops, 33 and the tendency of the men to become slothful by
“leaving the cultivation of their crops to their women and children.” Had
the conference been as solicitous of native welfare as these reasons would
indicate, they would not have limited their opposition to native agriculture

30 Proceedings and Resolutions, The Tukuyu Conference, pp. 3, 12. He later
said, to quote the Minutes, that “In Kenya they had fought for a long time to
ensure that development should take place in consonance with the ideals of western
civilisation and they were very much afraid of what was generally called the
West Coast theory. The great objection to the West Coast theory was that those
Europeans who were responsible for the welfare of the natives necessarily did their
work in a semi-detached frame of mind. They had to leave the country when they
retired and their mental horizon was bounded by the fact that the country *n
which their work lay must eventually cease to be their home. ... In East Africa
they had also men who looked upon the country as their permanent home and this
was a very valuable asset for by a combination of men of a high standard who
were disinterested with men who were personally interested and who understood
the economic side of their work, they secured the best prospects for the future on
the lines of the Roman occupation of Britain.”

31 Summary of the Proceedings, Conference of Governors of the East African
Dependencies, p. 35.

32 The “delegates” of Uganda were absent.

“For the truth of this assertion in Uganda, see Vol. I, p. 622.

A DOMINION OF EAST AFRICA

525

>r export in European areas, since the objections, if valid, applied in
ative areas as well. As a matter of fact, the recruiting of males for
‘.uropean plantations increases the burden upon the women and children
•ft at home. 34 It appears that Europeans oppose native agriculture
(.‘cause it absorbs labor which otherwise would work for Europeans.

One delegate from Northern Rhodesia, more liberal than the others,
^pressed the opinion that the conference “should show an unselfish inter-
t in the betterment of the native peoples and a sincere desire that justice
;ould be accorded to them.” 35 He therefore proposed that a fixed pro-
jrtion of native taxation should be earmarked for native trust funds; but
le general feeling of the conference was that the native already received
full value for his tax and in any case it” was “impossible to differentiate
‘tween services rendered to Europeans and natives.” It further believed
.at, “If a portion of the native tax now absorbed by general revenue was
verted to a special fund, further taxation would evolve on non-natives
make up the deficiency.”

A second unofficial conference for East Africa attended by practically
l the unofficial members of the Legislative Councils of the territories con-
rned was held at Livingstone, the capital of Northern Rhodesia, in
?ptember, 1926. 36 It reindorsed many of the resolutions of the previous
•ar, and also passed resolutions asking that the Kenya system of detention
mps and native registration be adopted in the other territories. 37 It
pressed the wish that the open door provisions of the convention of 1919
revised so as to make possible the system of Imperial Preference, that
oving picture films for exhibition to non-Europeans be censored, and
at the protectorates of Northern Rhodesia, Nyasaland, and Kenya 38
- annexed.

The influence of these unofficial conferences—the last of which decided
establish a secretariat at Nairobi—was probably greater than their author
id imagined it would be. For at the Conference of East African Gov-
nors in 1926, a number of resolutions were adopted officially recognizing
id adopting some of the Tukuyu resolutions, the most notable one of
hich favored white settlement in all of the territories of East Africa. 3 ®
Likewise the Governors’ Conference accepted a resolution that the
owing of Arabica coffee by natives “should certainly be discouraged and
issibly prohibited.” While the Governor of Tanganyika would not
M Cf. Vo!. I, p. 396.

38 Proceedings and Resolutions, The Tukuyu Conference, p. 18.

M Its resolutions are printed in the East African Standard for October 16, 1926.

87 Cf. Vol. I, p. 357.

88 A reference to the ten-mile strip.

38 Summary of the Proceedings, Conference of Governors of the East African
tpendencies, 1926, p. 17.

526 THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

endorse this resolution, he took the modified position that its growth i n
European areas “should not be encouraged.” 40

The most important resolutions of all dealt with the land and labor
policy, in which the Governors from all the territories with the exception of
Tanganyika declared in favor of the policy of native reserves, and in which
the Governors unanimously agreed that every able-bodied native should be
“given to understand that the Government expects him to do a reasonable
amount of work, either in production in his own reserve or in labor for
wages outside it. . . . In areas where the first alternative is not within
his reach, the native should be definitely encouraged to go out to labour.” 41

While the Governors emphasize the right of the native to his land, even
though they do not adequately safeguard this right, they virtually state
that the European employer, in those cases where the absence of transport
makes native production unprofitable, is entitled to receive native labor.
This sanction of what will amount in some cases to compulsory labor for
private purposes is being watched with intense interest by the Portuguese,
the Belgians, and the French, some of whom search British policy with
a microscopic minuteness for precedents which will justify them in applying
rigorously and universally a principle which may be more gently applied
in British territory.

Since the conditions in Kenya and Tanganyika approximate each other,
the Governors of these two territories agreed that they should consult
together before issuing any special instructions on land and labor policy
to their administrative officers. While this may give Kenya some direct
influence upon Tanganyika policy, it may at the same time place Kenya’s
policy under the scrutiny of the Mandates Commission of the League
of Nations.

9. Encircling Tanganyika

Thus as a result of the pressure of the White Settlement school, whose
headquarters are in Kenya, the five territories of East Africa have pledged
themselves to the principle of white settlement, where such a policy does
not encroach upon native interests. It is evident to anyone who reads the
proceedings that the Kenya school at the Governors’ Conference constantly
attempted—and in some cases with success—to force the Tanganyika Gov¬
ernment into a position which it did not wish to take. It did not, however,
altogether succumb, for it made reservations in regard to the construc¬
tion of the Mwanza railway, the policy of reserves, and the growing of
Arabica coffee. These reservations in themselves indicate the pressure to

40 Cf. Vol. I, p. 493.

41 The full text of this pronouncement is printed in an appendix, Vol. I, P- 55 a

A DOMINION OF EAST AFRICA

527

hich it was subjected—a pressure which would be increased in a fed-
ation and which may overwhelm some future governor having less
imina than Sir Donald Cameron. 42

Notwithstanding their adhesion to the principle of white settlement
id an indirect form of compulsory labor in some cases for private purposes,
e Governors of East Africa nevertheless did subscribe to what is called
? policy of “dual development.” 43 This policy was defined in June, 19-6,
Mr. Amery, Secretary of State for the Colonies, as “a policy which-
cognises our trusteeship both to the native population—whom we had
md on the spot and whom it was our duty to bring forward and
velop in every possible way—but also our trusteeship to humanity at
rge for the fullest development of those territories, and towards those
particular of our own race who had undertaken the task of helping
-ward that development.” 44

In laying down this principle of dual development, the British Colonial
•fice apparently believes it is giving birth to a new idea which will solve
e racial problems of the world. But as a matter of fact, the principle is
t new. Blanket indorsements of the rights of the native were made in
e early constitutions of the South African territories and in the con-
tution of the Chartered Company in Rhodesia; and they were embodied
the Certificates of Claim in Nyasaland, in the East Africa Land Regu-
ions in 1897, and in the German East Africa Land Law of 1895. 48 But
rse declarations have been scarcely worth the paper they were written
on because no machinery for guaranteeing these rights was erected at
e time the declarations were made. Nor it is probable that any machinery
old have been effective in the face of the efforts of white governments to
jmote white settlement. Wherever this principle has been admitted in
itish Africa, the native has been deprived of land which he has regarded
his own, and because of a land shortage created in these various terri¬
fies (except in Southern Rhodesia) he has been obliged to work for the
iropean employer.

The introduction of white settlement into British Africa, regardless
the territory, has created the same problems and the same type of
frictions: the establishment of native reserves which encroach upon
lat the natives believe to be their land, and which sooner or later
come inadequate for native needs; squatter legislation imposing severe

41 Nevertheless the Tanganyika Government following the conference not only
■dified its railway rates but discouraged native coffee production in the Arusha
trict. Cf. Vol. I, pp. 493, 520.

43 Cf. Vol. I, p. 379.

“The [London] Times, June 12, 1926, p. 13.

48 Cf. Vol. I, pp. 245, 299, 486.

528 THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

restrictions upon the freedom of native residents on European farms- th
reduction of a large proportion of the male population to the position o
migratory wage-earners living under unnatural and in many cases unhealth
conditions; a chronic labor shortage which leads the European farmer
to demand compulsion; the disintegration of home and tribal life; the penz
sanction in labor contracts, making desertion a criminal offense and strike
illegal; pass and registration laws which restrict native movements. Or
the other hand, white settlement in Africa has led to: a class of Europear
landlords who are not the pioneers who made the American West bu
rather the type of Virginia gentlemen who dominated the cultural anc
economic life of the South before the American Civil War; large area;
of European land undeveloped for want of labor which natives are noi
allowed to use, but out of which speculative fortunes may be made; mili¬
tary conscription of the whites so as to defend themselves against the blacks•
the increase of inter-racial crime; miscegenation; and the creation of z
poor white class. All of these conditions exist to a greater or less extern
in South Africa, Southern Rhodesia, and Kenya. As long as European
enterprise in East Africa is confined to agricultural estates, it is improbable
that conditions will develop there as detrimental to native welfare as have
developed in South Africa where mining has been the leading industry.
But it is probable that mines will be discovered, particularly in Tan¬
ganyika, when the same drain upon the native community will be imposed
as in South Africa. We have demonstrated that it is only a matter of
a few years before the Kenya native will suffer from the same land shortage
as does the South Africa native; and we have seen that the white com¬
munity there has already imposed even more severe restrictions upon the
native than have been imposed in South Africa. The mere preservation
of the rights of the native in the land—a principle accepted by the East
Africa Governors—will not prevent the growth of the above by-products
of an inter-racial community, in which a dominant minority is obligee
to depend for its existence upon primitive labor.

IO. The "Contact" Theory

Despite these consequences, three main arguments have been made in
favor of white settlement in East Africa. The first is that the native
will benefit from “contact” with the white man, particularly with the
Englishman, and that by imitation the native will absorb the virtues ot
western civilization much more quickly than if the white population were
restricted to a few officials and missionaries. In other words, the native
is “better off” working on a white man’s farm than working in the
reserve. Sir Edward Grigg, the Governor of Kenya, recently stated

A DOMINION OF EAST AFRICA

529

'.at the “best school for the African is a good European estate.” 48 The
.enya Economic Commission believed so strongly in the benefits of this
:sociation that it asked that European farms be planted in the midst of
stive reserves. 47

Carried to its logical conclusion, the education argument in favor of
hite settlement would mean that eventually the native, having learned
e devices of the European settler, would work for himself, and the
•ttler, if he did not choose to furnish his own labor, would be obliged
) withdraw—an argument which weakens the whole doctrine of white
•ttlement, whose leading principle is permanency.

The American negro is the most successful example of the assimilation
i western civilization by an alien group implanted in a white community,
he American negroes, however, have been a small minority of the total
opulation, permanently severed from the environment in which they
riginated. There is, moreover, some reason to believe that the American
egro is still linked to a distant past which he cannot see but for which
» blindly gropes. 48

In East Africa the native population, instead of being a minority in the
■hite community, outnumbers it 584 to i. 49 While this ratio may decline
ith increased settlement, the most fervent supporter of the Delamere
:hool does not believe that the whites in East Africa can ever hope to
vercome the numerical superiority of the blacks. Instead of being per-
lanently under the more or less intimate influence of a European employer
s was the American negro in the days of slavery, East African natives
rork for a few months upon a European estate, usually under the direction
t a native headman, and then return to their tribal homes. During the
•mrse of their employment, the European master addresses them, when he
ddresses them at all, in a butchered Swahili which can hardly be said
d have cultural value. A squatter’s family may receive more education
nd a greater amount of attention than a transient laborer who leaves his
•irmly at home. But those families permanently influenced by Europeans
re mere specks upon a sea of blackness. The elevation of the black
nan in Africa will not come by the “contact” theory which, after all, is a
nere adaptation of the French theory of assimilation. It will come by the
’.evelopment, and not the destruction, of the native group. The policy

44 Address to the Convention of Associations, East African Standard, Supple¬
ment, October 30, 1926.

41 It used the argument of Dr. C. T. Loram against segregation in his book on
T he Education of the South African Native as an argument against native re-
erves. Economic Commission, Final Report, Part I, 1919, pp. 18-21.

48 Cf. the description of Harlem (the negro district of New York) in Carl Van
•'echten’s Nigger Heaven.

*“ In Kenya, the ratio is about 233 to 1.

530

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

of assimilation the French are themselves discarding; and it is difficult to
believe that the racially intolerant Englishman can succeed where the
racially tolerant Frenchman has failed. The experiments of European¬
izing the natives of Freetown, the Gold Coast, and of Lagos have not
as. we shall see, been encouraging. 50

If the contact theory were valid, the negroes of South Africa who
have lived in close proximity to a white population of a million and a
half people should be far superior to the natives of West Africa. But
while the South African native may have a better knowledge of the English
language than his brother farther north, the negro of Central and
West Africa appears to the visitor to be far ahead in matters of industrial,
commercial, and agricultural knowledge. One does not meet in South
Africa the trained medical dispensers, the mechanics, or the traders that
he meets farther north. With all its faults, the negro governing class in
Liberia, a country from which European influence has been excluded
to a greater extent than any other place in Africa, appears to be
the most intelligent and able class of negro on the entire continent—
simply because it has had a job to do. 51

There is good reason to believe that the negroes of West Africa and of
Uganda will eventually go further in cultural and material progress
than the negroes of South Africa and of the United States, blessed though
they may be by contact with Europeans. The history of these two coun¬
tries shows that whatever benefits the white race may have conferred
upon the blacks have been more than outweighed by the disabilities which
the whites have imposed. Channels of advancement open to natives in
those parts of Africa following the native state policy are closed to the
South African negro, just as channels of political and social advancement
are closed to the American negro. In a community in which an advanced
and a primitive race live side by side, the dominant race has always tended
to suppress the development of the primitive race out of fear that its
economic or cultural existence would be destroyed.

Those who attempt to justify the white settlement of East Africa on the
ground of the benefits derived by the native from “contact” with whites
are liable to commit the sin of hypocrisy. The average settler in East
Africa was, until the talk about trusteeship arose in Europe, quite frank
to admit that his chief interest in coming to Africa was in making a
living and not in uplifting the African. The Kenya settlers, nevertheless,
in the Indian crisis several years ago, believed they could strengthen their
position by resorting to the humanitarian argument when they drew up
a petition to the King stating that they were fully convinced that “Your
60 Cf. Vol. I, pp. 661, 833, 842, 882. 61 Cf. Vol. Ill, Chap. 93.

A DOMINION OF EAST AFRICA

531

lajesty, as Defender of the Faith, no empty title, must view with peculiar
mcern the possibility that the flower of Christian Faith, so recently
anted in Eastern Africa, may be choked by the quick growth of other
astern Religions.” A Kenya leader also declared that Western civiliza-
on, no matter what errors it had made, stood “for Christianity, open and
->ove-board dealings. . . What was there to put against this on the
her side of the ledger? “The corrupt, cheating, hidden ways of the
•mi-civilization of the East.” Thus in order to save the native, the
uropean must keep out the Indian.

It is perhaps of some significance that Kenya is the only place in
.frica where it is orthodox to say that the native is better off working for
uropeans than for himself.

Instead of unconsciously transmitting European virtues to the natives,
\ere is a grave danger that a European minority which attempts to
tablish a permanent cultural existence in the tropics will accept native
andards. Association with an overwhelming majority of blacks together
ith the nervous strain produced by the closeness of the sun and excessive
ititude produce a distinctly unsettling influence upon a European popula-
on not subject to the special responsibilities which weigh upon missionaries
nd officials. The effect of this influence upon some of the settlers in
lenya—marked particularly by enormous drink bills—has been noticed by
lany visitors. Moreover, a child born and raised in the Highlands of
ae tropics is thrown into intimate contact with native servants for a
ozen or so years. Unless carefully watched, it acquires in such sur-
oundings a “bossy” attitude and an unhealthy conceit, while it is in danger
:f absorbing some of the principles of the native sexual code. The educa-
ion of Europeans is also a problem. Kenya is now making strenuous
fforts in this direction; but the Director of Education has pointed out how
ifficult this problem is. 62

Having examined the “humanitarian” argument for White Settlement,
ve shall now turn to less idealistic considerations.

ii. Economic Gains of White Settlement

The second argument which is officially advanced for white settlement
s economic in character. Spokesmen of the school point to the fact that
•vhile East Africa has an area as large as India, it has a population of only
welve million, in comparison with the three hundred million supported
?y Indian soil. The inference is that the native population of East Africa
s too sparse to develop these resources and that therefore white settlement
is necessary if this part of the world is to be developed for European

“Cf. Index—Poor Whites.

532

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

needs. If the white farmers of East Africa would furnish their own labor
supply, this argument might have some weight. But all of them depend
upon native labor. Increased white settlement therefore means that
natives now engaged or who might become engaged in native agriculture
will be diverted into European employment, in many cases against their
consent, and will receive wages much below the returns they would receive
working for themselves.

To justify white settlement under these circumstances, supporters of
the policy must take the position that a native is more productive working
for a European overseer than working for himself, which is exactly the
same argument made in favor of the system of European plantations instead
of native small farmers in West Africa. This question is examined in
greater detail elsewhere/* 3 It will be approached here from another
angle, by comparing the productivity of the colony of Kenya, a white set¬
tlement territory, with that of Uganda, a native state, and that of
Tanganyika, where native production still predominates. This productivity
will be judged first by a comparison of costs of administration, and
second by a comparison of trade.

Table I, printed on the next page, shows that the cost per hundred in¬
habitants of general administration and of police and prisons in Kenya
is about twice that of Uganda or Tanganyika. Military expenditures per
hundred inhabitants also exceed those in the other territories. These
figures would tend to show, therefore, that the administration of an inter¬
racial community requires a much greater outlay than the administration
of a native community. Much of this cost is due to personnel, since a
white settlement colony must maintain a closer control over natives than a
native territory, and since European needs occupy much of the time of
administrators.

This conclusion is emphasized by the financial condition of these
territories which is shown in Table II below.

Throughout its history, Kenya has received free grants-in-aid from
the home government which have been larger than those received by
Uganda, and it has contracted loans more than seven times as great.
While in Uganda, loan charges now constitute 4.5 per cent of the revenue,
in Kenya they constitute 22.3 per cent.

Productivity as determined by trade is shown by Table III below.

From the standpoint of- imports, Kenya stands three times as high as
Uganda. This superiority is due largely to the demands of the European
community. From this standpoint, it is probably correct to say that the
H Cf. Vol. I, p. 771.

534

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

(x.

(f) 1896-1913. None since.

(g) Of this amount £962,182 has been used by the railways.

(h) This interest is paid by the Railway.

536 THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

white settlement of the tropics will immediately give Europe a better market
than will the natives living by themselves. Nevertheless, the purchasing
power of a native wage-earner is much less than that of a native farmer
With the gradual progress of education, bringing with it an improved
standard of living, the actual consumption of territories where native
agriculture predominates will probably be greater than in territories dom¬
inated by native wage-earners. The importance of this consideration is
coming to be realized in South Africa. 54

The argument in favor of white settlement does not rest, however, upon
the need of Europe for markets. The official justification of this policy
is that white settlement is necessary to the development of the latent
resources of the territory. The value of this argument can be judged
by a comparison of exports. The exports of Uganda, almost wholly the
product of native farmers, were, in 1925, nearly twice Kenya exports. The
per capita exports of Uganda were 1.619 pounds, while the per capita
exports of Kenya were 1.046 pounds.

In 1925, Kenya had an unfavorable balance of trade (excluding gov¬
ernment imports) of 2,659,055 pounds, a figure nearly equalling exports,
while Uganda had a favorable balance of 2,198,249 pounds. The exports
of Tanganyika of 3,007,879 pounds are already greater than the exports
of Kenya. While per capita exports (.729 pounds) are still less than those
of Kenya, it will probably be only a matter of a few years before this differ¬
ence is overcome. Tanganyika, it should be remembered, was virtually
derelict for four years during the War, and is only now being restored.

To determine the actual value of a colony as a going concern, one
must take into consideration not only the amount of produce exported but
the amount of wealth consumed in administering the local government.
From this standpoint, government expenditures in relation to exports
in the three territories are as follows:

Ratios between Government Expenditures and Exports in East Africa

Territory

Ratio of
Government
expenditures
to exports

49.0

87-5

Cf. Vol. I, p. 65.

A DOMINION OF EAST AFRICA

537

The conclusion to be deduced from these figures is that Kenya is the
ast productive of the three territories. But these conclusions must
regarded as tentative, inasmuch as the past prosperity of Uganda has
pended upon the cotton crop which in the future may be destroyed. On
e other hand, similar factors may operate to hinder the development of
enya, which appears to have reached its limit because of the shortage
labor. If the comparison had been made five years ago, Kenya would
tve shown up in a much w r orse position than it does to-day. The debt
arges of Kenya will increase greatly in the future. 85 Whatever the
■sition in the future may be, there is no evidence so far supporting the
intention that the white settlement system in the tropics is more productive
ian native enterprise.

Nevertheless, the fact remains that under the white settlement policy,
relatively small number of European settlers may garner profits which
ider the native state policy go to native producers, and that they may
■rive gains from the speculative rise in land values which would not
Jce place to so great an extent under a native system of production and
: land tenure. Thus, while a few Europeans will obtain a larger share
i the distribution of wealth, the total net production under the system
white settlement will probably be less than in a native state.

This conclusion does not take into consideration the loss of trade which
.companies the political troubles which sooner or later occur in an
,ter-racial community. Inevitably the black man in Africa will grow in
rength and in racial self-consciousness as have the brown man in India and
le yellow man in China. He will demand a country of his own. In a
ative state, European control may gradually be relinquished in propor-
on as the natives are able to stand upon their own feet. In a white
■ttlement territory the European resident will have no intention of
dinquishing his control. Consequently, a racial struggle is much more
ikely to occur and to be more determined in a white settlement colony
ian in a protectorate.

12 . Climate

The third argument advanced in favor of white settlement is the
limate. It is asserted that the British Government is justified in following
different native policy in East Africa than in West Africa, on the
;round that a white man and his family can comfortably live in East
Vfrica with a degree of permanence approaching that of residence in
Canada or South Africa. There are those, however, who do not agree
“Cf. Vol. I, p. 407.

538

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

wholly with this assumption. While the climate may be equable, the alti¬
tude and the nearness of the sun create a nervous tension which is noticeable
in many residents and which leads Europeans from the East Coast to return
to England on leave almost as regularly as do Europeans from the West
Coast. One Rhodesia physician asserts that miscarriages among white
women are more common, and that the birth rate is lower in Rhodesia than
in England because of the climate. 66

On the other hand, the view has been advanced that the question as
to whether the white man may settle in the tropics does not depend upon
the factor of climate but upon the elimination of disease, which has been
and can be brought about, as in the case of the elimination of yellow fever
from the Panama Canal Zone. Professor J. W. Gregory says that the
contention that the tropics are unsuitable for the white man “overlooks
the automatic process by which the living body adjusts itself to tempera¬
tures even higher than occur in any climate on earth, and that would
quickly cook it, if dead.” In his opinion, any deleterious effects of the rays
of the sun may be avoided by the use of appropriate clothes. 57 In 1914,
the Australian Medical Congress appointed a sub-committee to investigate
“the possibility of the permanent occupation of Tropical Australia by a
healthy, indigenous white race.” After inquiring into medical, military
and insurance records, the committee reported (in 1920) that it could
find no “inherent or insuperable obstacles” in the way of this occupation.
It considered that the “whole question of successful development and
settlement of Tropical Australia is fundamentally a question of applied
public health in the modern sense.” 68

In an exhaustive study entitled “The White Man in the Tropics,” 59
Dr. R. W. Cilento of the Government Public Health Department gives the
results of his examination of the second and third generations of the white
men who have lived and labored in northern Queensland, which has a
tropical climate. His tentative conclusion is that evidence is accumulating
that “the white man may rise, and indeed is rising, superior to his environ¬
ment, and will ultimately produce a type as suited to the tropics as he has

“Dr. W. M. Hewetson, Environmental Influences Affecting Blondes in Rhodesia
and their Bearing on the Future, Salisbury, 1922.

"Professor J. W. Gregory, “Inter-racial Problems and White Colonization in
the Tropics,” Presidential Address delivered to the Geographical Section (E) at
the Toronto Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science,
1924.

“Report printed in the Medical Journal of Australia, September 18, I 9 20 >
p. 292.

Service Publication (Tropical Division) No. 7, Commonwealth of Australia,
Department of Health, 1925.

A DOMINION OF EAST AFRICA

53*9

eviously produced one suited to the latitudes in which he has for many
nturies been resident.” 60

The extent to which French and Belgian families are taking up their
sidence in West and in Central Africa would confirm these conclusions,
estern science has conquered tropical disease to such an extent that it is
iw just as possible for Europeans to direct the economic enterprises upon
e West Coast of Africa as in the Highlands of Kenya or Tanganyika.

, therefore, white settlement in East Africa can be justified on the
ound of climate, which, after all, is a physical, and not an ethical
gument, the introduction of the system into Western Africa may also be
stifled. Hence a victory for the White Settlement school would greatly
engthen the position of the plantation school on the West Coast. 81 The
nnection has already been realized by the native papers on the Gold
Dast. 62

Whatever the merits of the two systems may be, the fact remains that
anganyika is pledged under the Treaty of Versailles and under a Mandate
Id from the League of Nations to advance the social progress of her
:tive inhabitants. She is specifically pledged to respect native interests
the land and she is forbidden to resort to compulsory labor except for
sential public services. For the fulfilment of such obligations, the
ritish Colonial Office is ordinarily responsible only to Parliament. The

®His examination “proves conclusively that there is no appreciable difference
the mental and physical development of the children born within the tropics,”
d the children born in temperate zones who later removed to the tropics. “There
apparently no sign of mental deterioration in the school children. At all ages,
ildren of the second generation are as far advanced in their classes as the
migrants. . . . The further statement that while women may commonly live for
ort periods in the tropics without suffering permanent harm, yet they cannot
ar healthy children there, and that, moreover, their fertility is lessened, is entirely
sproved by the figures obtained. Not only are the women of the tropics as
rtile as immigrant stocks, but, allowing for the advantage in the ages in the
,'ures shown, they are more so.” Ibid., pp. 87 ff.

“ Cf. Vol. I, p. 767, Vol. II, p. 23.

"Mr. Ormsby-Gore, the Under-Secretary of State for Colonies, upon his return
:om West Africa declared: “Any attempt to apply a policy suitable to East African
velopment in West Africa would fail, just as any attempt to apply West
frican policy to East Africa would be equally undesirable. The main contrast
tween those two territories is climatic.” Quoted African World Supplement,
me 5, 1926, p. ix. Commenting on this and similar remarks, the Gold Coast
'ader, edited by an African, said: “But for the accident of climatic difference
Sn Ormsby-Gore would be disposed to advocate the application of the East
frican policy to West Africa, namely, the plantation system. . . .” Gold Coast
rader, July 8, 1926, p. 6.

It later declared: “We had always been told that British policy was based upon
sense of right, justice and fair play. ... It is something quite new for us to
arn that British policy has been entirely guided by climatic conditions. In other
ords, that, if the conditions were favourable, the authorities at Downing Street
luld not resist the temptation of casting an envious eye upon Naboth’s vineyard.”

» id., August 7, 1926, p. 6.

540

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

Colonial Office knows that no parliament will vote a ministry out of office
upon a colonial issue. Consequently, it is much easier for it to give in to
an interested minority on the spot than to disinterested sentiment in
England. The supervision of British obligations in Tanganyika rests
however, with another body—the Mandates Commission of the League
of Nations. Unlike a parliament with its multitudinous activities, this
body has one job—to see to it that the provisions of the Mandates are
enforced. A Colonial Office debate in the British House of Commons
seldom gets into a foreign newspaper, but when the Mandates Commission
speaks, it speaks with a united voice upon a single issue, and from a
forum which may extend not only to England, but around the world. 63
This “functional” type of control promises to be much more effective in
enforcing the obligations of trusteeship than parliamentary control. The
future of East Africa may, therefore, rest on the lap of the Mandates
Commission.

83 Cf. the discussion of the Commission in regard to the Bondelzwarts Rebellion,
and to Syria.

APPENDICES—TANGANYIKA TERRITORY

IX. Trade of the German Colonies, 1912

X. German Colonial Loans, 1908-1920

XI. Article 22. Covenant of the League of Na¬
tions

XII. British Mandate for East Africa
ail. Land and Labor Resolutions, Conference of
Governors of the East Africa Dependencies
XIV. Agriculture and Labor—Instructions of the
Tanganyika Government

APPENDIX IX

TRADE OF THE GERMAN COLONIES—MARKS

1912

Territory

Imports

Exports

Total

50,309 ,i 64M

34,241,582

n,427,83‘

32,498,899

3i,4i8,382M

23,336,212

9.958,903

39.035,340

8 i, 727,546M

57,577,794

21,386,734

71,534,239

German Southwest Africa.

128,477,476

9,207,059

4,994,401

103,748,837

12,086,806

5,044,485

232,226,313

21,293,865

10,038,886

Total .

142,678,936

120,880,128

263,559,064

From Die deutschen Schutzgebiete in Afrika und der Siidsee, 1912/13, Statisti¬
cal Part, p. 121.

543

Compiled according to the files of the German Ministry for Reconstruction,
Colonial Central Administration, Berlin.

COVENANT OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS

545

APPENDIX XI

Article 22. Covenant of the League of Nations

1. To those colonies and territories which as a consequence of the late war
ive ceased to be under the sovereignty of the States which formerly governed
lem and which are inhabited by peoples not yet able to stand by themselves
ader the strenuous conditions of the modern world, there should be applied
le principle that the well-being and development of such peoples form a
icred trust of civilization and that securities for the performance of this
rust should be embodied in this Covenant.

2. The best method of giving practical effect to this principle is that the
jtelage of such peoples should be intrusted to advanced nations who, by reason
t their resources, their experience or their geographical position, can best
ndertake this responsibility, and who are willing to accept it, and that this
utelage should be exercised by them as Mandatories on behalf of the League.

3. The character of the mandate must differ according to the stage of the
evelopment of the people, the geographical situation of the territory, its
conomic conditions and other similar circumstances.

4. Certain communities formerly belonging to the Turkish Empire have
eached a stage of development where their existence as independent nations
an be provisionally recognized subject to the rendering of administrative
■dvice and assistance by a Mandatory until such time as they are able to stand
lone. The wishes of these communities must be a principal consideration in
he selection of the Mandatory.

5. Other peoples, especially those of Central Africa, are at such a stage
hat the Mandatory must be responsible for the administration of the territory
mder conditions which will guarantee freedom of conscience and religion,
.uhject only to the maintenance of public order and morals, the prohibition of
ibuses such as the slave trade, the arms traffic and the liquor traffic, and the
prevention of the establishment of fortifications or military and naval bases
and of military training of the natives for other than police purposes and the
defense of territory, and will also secure equal opportunities for the trade and
:ommerce of other Members of the League.

6. There are territories, such as Southwest Africa and certain of the
South Pacific islands, which, owing to the sparseness of their population or
their small size, or their remoteness from the centers of civilization, or their
geographical contiguity to the territory of the Mandatory, and other circum¬
stances, can be best administered under the laws of the Mandatory as integral
portions of its territory, subject to the safeguards above mentioned in the
interests of the indigenous population.

7. In every case of mandate, the Mandatory shall render to the Council an
annual report in reference to the territory committed to its charge.

8 - The degree of authority, control or administration to be exercised by the

546

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

Mandatory shall, if not previously agreed upon by the Members of the League
be explicitly defined in each case by the Council.

9. A permanent Commission shall be constituted to receive and examine the
annual reports of the Mandatories, and to advise the Council on all matters
relating to the observance of the mandates.

APPENDIX XII

British Mandate for East Africa

The Council of the League of Nations:

Whereas by Article 119 of the Treaty of Peace with Germany signed at
Versailles on June 28th, 1919, Germany renounced in favour of the Principal
Allied and Associated Powers all her rights over her oversea possessions,
including therein German East Africa; and

Whereas, in accordance with the treaty of June nth, 1891, between Her
Britannic Majesty and His Majesty the King of Portugal, the River Rovuma
is recognised as forming the northern boundary of the Portuguese possessions
in East Africa from its mouth up to the confluence of the River M’Sinje; and

Whereas the Principal Allied and Associated Powers agreed that, in accord¬
ance with Article 22, Part I (Covenant of the League of Nations), of the
said treaty, a mandate should be conferred upon His Britannic Majesty to
administer part of the former colony of German East Africa, and have pro¬
posed that the mandate should be formulated in the following terms; and

Whereas His Britannic Majesty has agreed to accept the mandate in
respect to the said territory, and has undertaken to exercise it on behalf of
the League of Nations in accordance with the following provisions; and

Whereas by the afore-mentioned Article 22, paragraph 8, it is provided
that the degree of authority, control or administration to be exercised by
the Mandatory, not having been previously agreed upon by the Members
of the League, shall be explicitly defined by the Council of the League of
Nations;

Confirming the said mandate, defines its terms as follows:

Article I.

The territory over which a mandate is conferred upon His Britannic
Majesty (hereinafter called the Mandatory) comprises that part of the terri¬
tory of the former colony of German East Africa situated to the east of the
following line:

From the point where the frontier between the Uganda Protectorate and
German East Africa cuts the River Mavumba, a straight line in a south¬
easterly direction to point 1640, about 15 kilometres south-south-west of
Mount Gabiro;

Thence a straight line in a southerly direction to the north shore of Lake

BRITISH MANDATE FOR EAST AFRICA

547

lohazi, where it terminates at the confluence of a river situated about
y 2 kilometres west of the confluence of the River Msilala;

If the trace of the railway on the west of the River Kagera between
Jugufi and Uganda approaches within 16 kilometres of the line defined above,
he boundary will be carried to the west, following a minimum distance of
6 kilometres from the trace, without, however, passing to the west of the
rraight line joining the terminal point on Lake Mohazi and the top of Mount
Civisa, point 2IOO, situated on the Uganda-German East Africa frontier
.bout 5 kilometres south-west of the point where the River Mavumba cuts
his frontier;

Thence a line south-eastwards to meet the southern shore of Lake Mohazi;

Thence the watershed between the Taruka and the Mkarange and con-
inuing southwards to the north-eastern end of Lake Mugesera;

Thence the median line of this lake and continuing southwards across Lake
jsake to meet the Kagera;

Thence the course of the Kagera downstream to meet the western
'oundary of Bugufi;

Thence this boundary to its junction with the eastern boundary of Urundi;

Thence the eastern and southern boundary of Urundi to Lake Tanganyika.

The line described above is shown on the attached British 1:1,000,000
•nap, G.S.G.S. 2932, sheet Ruanda and Urundi. The boundaries of Bugufi
ind Urundi are drawn as shown in the Deutscher Kolonialatlas (Dietrich-
Reimer), scale 1:1,000,000, dated 1906.

Article 2.

Boundary Commissioners shall be appointed by His Britannic Majesty
and His Majesty the King of the Belgians to trace on the spot the line
described in Article 1 above.

In case any dispute should arise in connection with the work of these com¬
missioners, the question shall be referred to the Council of the League of
Nations, whose decision shall be final.

The final report by the Boundary Commission shall give the precise
description of this boundary as actually demarcated on the ground; the
necessary maps shall be annexed thereto and signed by the commissioners.
The report, with its annexes, shall be made in triplicate; one copy shall be
deposited in the archives of the League of Nations, one shall be kept by
the Government of His Majesty the King of the Belgians and one by the
Government of His Britannic Majesty.

Article 3.

The Mandatory shall be responsible for the peace, order and good govern¬
ment of the territory, and shall undertake to promote to the utmost the ma¬
terial and moral well-being and the social progress of its inhabitants. The
Mandatory shall have full powers of legislation and administration.

548

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

Article 4.

The Mandatory shall not establish any military or naval bases, nor erect
any fortifications, nor organise any native military force in the territory except
for local police purposes and for the defence of the territory.

Article 5.

The Mandatory:

(1) shall provide for the eventual emancipation of all slaves and for as
speedy an elimination of domestic and other slavery as social conditions will
allow:

(2) shall suppress all forms of slave trade;

(3) shall prohibit all forms of forced or compulsory labour, except for
essential public works and services, and then only in return for adequate
remuneration ;

(4) shall protect the natives from abuse and measures of fraud and force
by the careful supervision of labor contracts and the recruiting of labour;

(5) shall exercise a strict control over the traffic in arms and ammunition
and the sale of spirituous liquors.

Article 6.

In the framing of laws relating to the holding or transfer of land, the
Mandatory shall take into consideration native laws and customs, and shall
respect the rights and safeguard the interests of the native population.

No native land may be transferred, except between natives, without the
previous consent of the public authorities, and no real rights over native land
in favour of non-natives may be created except with the same consent.

The Mandatory will promulgate strict regulations against usury.

Article 7.

The Mandatory shall secure to all nationals of States Members of the
League of Nations the same rights as are enjoyed in the territory by his own
nationals in respect of entry into and residence in the territory, the protection
afforded to their person and property, the acquisition of property, movable and
immovable, and the exercise of their profession or trade, subject only to the
requirements of public order, and on condition of compliance with the local law.

Further, the Mandatory shall ensure to all nationals of States Members of
the League of Nations, on the same footing as to his own nationals, freedom
of transit and navigation, and complete economic, commercial and industrial
equality; provided that the Mandatory shall be free to organise essential
public works and services on such terms and conditions as he thinks just.

Concessions for the development of the natural resources of the territory
shall be granted by the Mandatory without distinction on grounds of na¬
tionality between the nationals of all States Members of the League of

BRITISH MANDATE FOR EAST AFRICA

549

• ations, but on such conditions as will maintain intact the authority of the
>cal Government.

Concessions having the character of a general monopoly shall not be
ranted. This provision does not affect the right of the Mandatory to create
•onopolies of a purely fiscal character in the interest of the territory under
mandate, and in order to provide the territory with fiscal resources which
cem best suited to the local requirements; or, in certain cases, to carry out
he development of natural resources either directly by the State or by a
ontrolled agency, provided that there shall result therefrom no monopoly of
he natural resources for the benefit of the Mandatory or his nationals,
irectly or indirectly, nor any preferential advantage which shall be incon-
istent with the economic, commercial and industrial equality hereinbefore
uaranteed.

The rights conferred by this article extend equally to companies and
>sociations organised in accordance with the law of any of the Members of
le League of Nations, subject only to the requirements of public order, and
n condition of compliance with the local law.

Article 8.

The Mandatory shall ensure in the territory' complete freedom cf con-
cience and the free exercise of all forms of worship which are consonant with
ublic order and morality; missionaries who are nationals of States Members
f the League of Nations shall be free to enter the territory and to travel and
eside therein, to acquire and possess property, to erect religious buildings and
o open schools throughout the territory; it being understood, however, that
he Mandatory shall have the right to exercise such control as may be
ecessary for the maintenance of public order and good government, and to
alee all measures required by such control.

Article 9.

The Mandatory shall apply to the territory any general international
onventions already existing, or which may be concluded hereafter, with the
pproval of the League of Nations, respecting the slave trade, the traffic in
rms and ammunition, the liquor traffic, and the traffic in drugs, or relating
o commercial equality, freedom of transit and navigation, aerial navigation,
ailways, postal, telegraphic, and wireless communication, and industrial,
iterary and artistic property.

The Mandatory shall co-operate in the execution of any common policy
adopted by the League of Nations for preventing and combating disease, in-
luding diseases of plants and animals.

Article 10.

The Mandatory shall be authorised to constitute the territory into a
:ustoms, fiscal and administrative union or federation with the adjacent terri-

550

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

tories under his own sovereignty or control; provided always that the measures
adopted to that end do not infringe the provisions of this mandate.

Article II.

The Mandatory shall make to the Council of the League of Nations an
annual report to the satisfaction of the Council, containing full information
concerning the measures taken to apply the provisions of this mandate.

A copy of all laws and regulations made in the course of the year and
affecting property, commerce, navigation or the moral and material well-being
of the natives shall be annexed to this report.

Article 12 .

The consent of the Council of the League of Nations is required for any
modification of the terms of this mandate.

Article 13.

The Mandatory agrees that if any dispute whatever should arise between
the Mandatory and another Member of the League of Nations relating to the
interpretation or the application of the provisions of the mandate, such dispute,
if it cannot be settled by negotiation, shall be submitted to the Permanent
Court of International Justice provided for by Article 14 of the Covenant
of the League of Nations.

States Members of the League of Nations may likewise bring any claims
on behalf of their nationals for infractions of their rights under this mandate
before the said Court for decision.

The present instrument shall be deposited in original in the archives of the
League of Nations. Certified copies shall be forwarded by the Secretary-
General of the League of Nations to all Members of the League.

Done at London, the twentieth day of July one thousand nine hundred
and twenty-two.

Certified true copy:

Secretary-General.

APPENDIX XIII

Land and Labor Resolutions, Conference of Governors of the
East Africa Dependencies 1

The adoption of a definite Land and Labour Policy was considered to
be one of the most important items before the Conference. There was
general agreement that a definite policy was essential; and, further, that the
Government should make it clear that when a policy had been accepted it
was the intention of the Government that it should be acted upon. The

1 From Conference of Governors of the East African Dependencies, 1926, Sum¬
mary of Proceedings, pp. 13-17.

CONFERENCE OF GOVERNORS 551

.sue of instructions of an equivocal nature to district officers, as had happened
umetimes in the past, had been harmful; in such circumstances each district
fficer interpreted his instructions in his own way, policy varied from district
o district, and neither native, settler nor the district officer knew the real
ntention of the Government. The whole question of Land and Labour
’olicy was examined in great detail, and eventually a Memorandum was
Irawn up, which was accepted by the Conference as the basis of Land and
.abour Policy in the East African Dependencies. This Memorandum reads
is follows:

Land and Labour Policy in the East African Territories

East Africa has two remarkable features which differentiate it greatly
rom British West Africa and from most of the Empire’s other tropical
ossessions. In the first place, the population is very sparse by comparison
vith the extent of the territory and its potentialities. In the second place,
arge areas are by reason of their altitude suited climatically for European
olonization.

It is generally admitted that European control in some form is necessary
o the welfare and development of the African peoples. In no other way
•an peace be secured, improper exploitation prevented, and the country de-
eloped to anything like its full producing capacity. Where the population
s sufficiently numerous the development can be carried on under European
.dministration and the produce marketed by European merchants. This is
he natural course of affairs in West Africa. But in East Africa the
copulation is not sufficient to secure development in the same manner; and if
:he whole country were to be handed over to a policy of native production
done under the guidance of European administration, it would have to be con¬
stituted an economic sanctuary so as to prevent the economic needs of the
cutside world from forcing some other form of development upon it. For
these reasons East Africa has already been committed to what is known as
:he dual policy—that is, to a combination of non-native and native production.

The broad contrast presented by natural conditions in different parts of
East Africa is illustrated by the difference between Kenya and Uganda. In
Uganda the population is sufficient for native production on a very large scale
and the climate is also unsuitable for European colonization. Uganda is,
therefore developing broadly on the same lines as West Africa. In the High¬
lands of Kenya, on the other hand, the native population is totally insufficient
and unfitted to develop the country. Its present scale of production would,
therefore, have been impossible unless the railway had been built across the
Highlands and had brought in its train several thousand European colonists.
The contrast presented by Kenya and Uganda in this respect may also be
seen on a small scale within the territory of Kenya alone. It is also to be
studied in Tanganyika.

The dual policy, however, raises considerable problems of its own. On

552

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

the one hand, there is the obligation which rests on'every civilized Government
of raising the capacities of its human subjects to their fullest expression; on
the other, there is the equally imperative duty of developing to the utmost
the productive power of its possessions. This latter duty cannot be performed
under any system which sacrifices the native human being to foreign exploita¬
tion of the soil. It is not possible to allocate to each area the quota of human
labour required for complete commercial success. The whole problem is to
arrive at a just and far-seeing method of harmonising the best progress and
welfare of the native inhabitants with the maximum of production.

In solving this problem East Africa has one special advantage. There
are examples elsewhere of the difficulties created by a disinterested and high-
minded officialism, which gives a country good government without providing
adequately for its economic development. In East Africa this danger may
be avoided by the fact that native and European populations are growing up
side by side, with an increasing knowledge and understanding of each other’s
requirements. Given good government, there is room in East Africa for many
times its present population. There is a great opportunity of providing for
its economic development without improper exploitation on the one hand or
unwise indifference to economic pressure on the other. There are, too,
a soil and climate which may easily produce enough to give the raw material,
and the markets necessary, to relieve and raise some part of the unemployed
millions which constitute Europe’s greatest problem.

The essential is to have a clear policy in regard to two factors—Land and
Labour.

LAND.—The land of East Africa may be divided into certain broad
categories:—

(a) First, there are those lands which, as jungle or forest or desert or
swamp, or because of the inroads of human and animal disease or for other
causes, were indubitably unoccupied and unclaimed at the time when our
Government was established.

(b) Secondly, there are those lands to which there was only a doubtful
claim, the “lands of the spear,” where the cattle of hostile tribes grazed under
warrior guard whenever grazing was scarce at home.

This third category of land should clearly be reserved to its original native
owners. In the other two, sufficient land for their own use should be secured
to the native tribes originally sprinkled or wandering over it, but the rest is
clearly the property of our Government, to develop in the manner which it
considers most suitable and effective.

The following conclusions emerge therefore as to the right method of
dealing with land:—

(i) Wherever a native population exists, sufficient land should be secured
to it to afford full opportunity for economic stock breeding and dairying, or

CONFERENCE OF GOVERNORS

553

r the production of crops according as the tribal bent is for pastoral or
ricultural pursuits.

(2) European colonization should be encouraged wherever the climate
suitable and adequate areas are available for settlement, without depriving
•,* existing native population of sufficient land for its own use.

(3) The area of land reserved for a native tribe should be sufficient to
commodate the whole tribe together, so that where a tribal organization
ists it may be preserved and improved; and that where none exists, some
■■m of native institutions may be gradually developed. 3

LABOUR.—The following principles in regard to labour arise out of the
regoing conclusions as to land:—

(1) The ideal in view should be to enable land to be put to the best possible
onomic use, while also providing for the steady progress and welfare of its na-
e inhabitants, and safeguarding them against serfdom in any form whatever.

(2) Steady progress cannot be secured in some areas unless every able-
died native who shows no tendency to work is given to understand that
e government expects him to do a reasonable amount of work, either in
oduction in his own Reserve or in labour for wages outside it.

(3) In areas where the first alternative is not within his reach, the native
■>uld be definitely encouraged to go out to labour. In others, where both
ternatives are open to him, the Government is not concerned to impose
her upon him, but simply to ensure so far as it can that he shall work in
e cultivation of his own land, if he pleases, or else as a wage-earner on
icnated land if he prefers it. In all areas where these two alternatives
ist, the natural play of human preference and economic impulse should be
lowed to take its course, so that the native may choose to work in whichever
ay pays him and pleases him best.

(4) While communications are undeveloped and distribution therefore
fficult, it is essential that the native should be instructed to grow sufficient
odstuffs for his own livelihood. Otherwise, provided risk of famine be
oided, the natural play of economic forces should be allowed to decide the
oice of crops.

(5) In establishing markets for produce, it is desirable that the process

production should be regulated so as to secure the most efficient methods

,d the highest possible standard of product. These considerations necessitate
me regulation of methods of production and the standardisation of products

grading. If these principles be accepted, they will indicate what restrictions
ay be necessary in the growth of certain crops by natives. There is no case
r prohibiting a native, just because he is a native, from growing any economic

3 The Governor of Tanganyika accepts these conclusions subject to the follow-
g reservations—(A) The land policy of the Territory as defined in the Land
rdinance whereunder the land is vested in the Governor for the use and common
nefit, direct or indirect, of the natives, to remain unimpaired in every respect;
>) The Government of Tanganyika does not commit itself to the policy of Native
jserves, to which it is opposed.

554

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

crop; but there is a very strong case for debarring from production any
inefficient producer who endangers other producers, whatever his race
There is little doubt that for many years to come the majority of natives will
be unable to grow certain crops with safety and efficiency, but there are many
others which they are well fitted to grow.

(6) In areas open to settlement, Government should encourage the growth
of those crops for which the least labour is required, and should, where
necessary, regulate the growth of those which make heavy demands on labour
for a short period in the year.

(7) It is by no means certain that the native will prove capable of making
adequate economic use of all the land secured to him, but there is no reason on
that account why any attempt should be made in the future to take the land
from him. It is, indeed, evident that in most cases the native is alive to
considerations of economic advantage, and that his rudimentary ideas of the
nature of wealth are changing. He is not likely to be content forever with
owning undeveloped land or with the mere multiplication of herds of cattle,
when he sees the profit that can be made in neighbouring areas from the skilled
cultivation of land and from economic animal husbandry. He will always
be free to choose whether he develops his land himself or brings in the aid
of European knowledge and skill to develop it; and in many cases he will
probably prefer to lease his land for cultivation by others rather than to take
the risk and trouble involved in organising its cultivation himself. There
is no reason why Government should limit his freedom of choice, provided
only that the land is leased on fair terms and that adequate rents are secured
for its native owners.

APPENDIX XIV

Agriculture and Labour—Instructions of the Tanganyika
Government

1. The first object of the Government is to induce the native to become
a producer directly or indirectly, that is, to produce or to assist in producing
something more than the crop of local foodstuffs that he requires for the
sustenance of himself and his family. This does not mean that he must
necessarily produce exportable crops. The number of people in the territory
who are not in a position to grow their own food is increasing and is bound
to increase, and it is a vital matter that the supply of locally grown foodstuffs
should increase rather than decrease.

2. The natives in some localities in the Territory are exposed to periodical
famine, and it is the duty of the Agricultural Department to ameliorate
this state of affairs: to save a native community from famine is more im¬
portant than the export of many bales of cotton. Where cotton or other
seed is distributed free of cost, a condition should be made, if the Administra¬
tive Officer considers it necessary, that a certain area should also be kept i p
cultivation with local foodstuffs.

3. In localities in which natives ( e.g . the Wanvamwezi) are industrious.

INSTRUCTIONS OF THE TANGANYIKA GOVERNMENT 555

rowing economic crops under conditions which are entirely suitable from the
oint of view of climate, soil, transport facilities, etc., and going out to
ibour, the Administrative Officers should encourage them in both forms of
ctivity; as the people may desire.

4. In other localities suitable for the cultivation of economic crops by the
atives in which they are not industrious the Administrative Officers should
xhort them, through their chiefs, to adopt some form of active work, but
tiould inform them, at the same time, that they are free to grow their
wn crops for sale or export or to labour for others as they may desire. The
.dministrative Officer should in the first instance remain neutral as far as
ossible, and the propaganda work in connection with peasant cultivation of
rops for sale or export should in the first instance be done by the Agricultural
department, but the meetings of these officers with the chiefs and their people
lould be presided over by the Administrative Officer. If an Administrative
officer is, however, of opinion that there are special reasons for declaring an
rea, without such delay, to be an area in which the cultivation of crops for
de or export should at once be encouraged by the Administrative Staff,
g. because the people have generally been shown to be unfitted for labour
1 the farms or are unwilling to undertake it he may apply for authority to

; declare it.

5. As soon as it is shown to the satisfaction of the Administrative Officer
lat a body of natives desires to grow economic crops for sale or export he
jould assist them in every way to do so. If he finds, however, that, a
articular community turns a deaf ear to his exhortations to them to adopt
ime active form of work it will be his duty to use every legitimate means
: his command to induce them to take up the cultivation of economic crops.

• 6. No steps should be taken by Administrative Officers or the Agricultural
“epartment to induce natives who have contracted the habit of working on
;rms in their neighbourhood to abandon that habit in order to grow their
•vn crops for sale or export.

7. The foregoing paragraphs have been written from the point of view of
le free distribution of cotton or other seed. Where a native makes an
^plication to purchase such seed, it should not be refused if he is situated in
locality in which the crop can be grown and if it is possible to comply with
s request.

8. In localities in which the native cannot grow economic crops owing to
ck of transport facilities Administrative Officers can best serve the State by
chorting the natives, through their chiefs, to adopt some form of active work,
jinting out that situated as they are they can only do so profitably by engaging
1 work for the Government or on the farms which are seeking their labour.

9. If a native is leaving his home to seek work or under contract of labour
ad desires to take his family with him no pressure should be exerted to pre-
:nt him from doing so.

h August, 1926.

Donald Cameron.

SECTION YI

UGANDA

CHAPTER 3

UGANDA ADMINISTRATION

A country of elephant grass and banana trees, Uganda leads a happy
nd secluded life, five hundred miles inland from the Indian ocean. Its
western frontier marches with that of Kenya and also touches the water
dge of Lake Victoria Nyanza. On the west, it adjoins the Belgian Congo,
id on the north, the Sudan. The country, which has an area of one hun-
red and ten thousand square miles, is located on the equator. Despite this
ict it has a fairly high elevation—the lowest point being 1560 feet, at Lake
udlof, and the highest point being 16,794 feet, in the Ruwenzori range,
ganda is broken by a chain of historic lakes—consisting of the immense
ake Victoria Nyanza and smaller bodies of water such as Lake Kioga,
ake Albert, and Lake Rudolf. It was in Uganda that the long-sought-
>r source of the Nile was found. This river begins its life at Lake Vic-
ria near Jinja, in a region shaded by papyrus grass and watched over by
ng-legged cranes.

Uganda, as a glance at the map will show, is separated from the sea by
;e colony of Kenya. It was only the construction of the Uganda Railway
« 1896 which made the occupation and retention of the protectorate by
e British possible. 1

I. Population

While in area Uganda is less than half the size of Kenya, its native
jpulation is somewhat larger, numbering a little less than three million,
he people of Uganda are divided into two main groups—the Nilotic
oup, composed of grain-eating people who are found on the northern
id eastern edges of the country; and the Bantu group, banana-eating
ibes found in Buganda, in the Western, and in part of the Eastern
rovinces.

There are 1451 Europeans and 7229 Indians in the country. While
ost of the Europeans are in the government service, practically all of the
idians are employed as clerks and artisans, or are in trade for themselves.

1 At the present time, Uganda receives 37.5 per cent of the customs duties coi¬
ned at the port of Mombasa by an amalgamated customs department.

559

560 THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

It is believed that Indian dukas control ninety per cent of the trade of the
protectorate, while Indian futidies dominate the crafts.

The total population is divided as follows:

Population Distribution in Uganda, 1924.

Area in Number pc ,

District Population square miles square milt

Buganda Province . 79*,052 22,370 3S .6 7

Eastern Province .1,170,0,7 35,43* 33.02

Western Province . 5*3,706 13,766 M . 13

Northern Province . 443,*74 23,270 ,,.„6

Rudolf Province . 150,000* 15,456

Grand Total ... 3,145,449 110,300 28.52

No attempt has been made to restrict the land holdings of Indians in
Uganda as has been done in Kenya; and the segregation measures estab¬
lished upon a basis of race as a result of the Simpson report have been
abolished. The Indians still, however, have grievances, particularly over
the fact that they are obliged to ride on the railway and on steamers
in “Asiatics Only” sections, although Japanese cotton buyers may ride
in European compartments. They have complained, also, that Indians
holding medical and law degrees from Indian universities are not allowed
to practice in the protectorate, and that Indian hospitals and schools are
inadequate.

It is interesting to note that the Indian Association, in a memorandum
to the East Africa Commission, advocated the settlement of Uganda with
Indian settlers, and also the recruiting of labor by the government for
private enterprise. It would appear that the introduction of Indian
agricultural enterprise, unless the Indians furnish their own labor, would
lead to the same conditions as European settlement in Kenya. That Indian
enterprise in Uganda is on a large scale is demonstrated by a remarkable
sugar factory and estate between Kampala and Jinja operated by a
prominent Indian business man.

2. Native State Agreements

British jurisdiction in Uganda is controlled in parts of the territory
by three agreements made with native states in 1900. The most important
is the Buganda agreement discussed in detail later. The British authorities
also made agreements with the kingdoms of Ankole and Toro promising
to respect their institutions. These territories are, however, subject to
such general laws and regulations as are generally in force throughout the
Uganda Protectorate. While no agreement was made with the kingdom
3 Approximate only. Blue Book, Uganda Protectorate, 1924, Section 15-

UGANDA ADMINISTRATION

561

f Bunyoro, it has been administered in much the same way as the other
tates. In 1905, the British Government terminated the agreement with
‘.nkole, following the murder of a district commissioner. Half a dozen
atives were convicted by the High Court at Entebbe for this murder,
ut the case was appealed, through the good offices of the Church Mis-
ionary Society, to the Court of Appeal at Zanzibar which acquitted these
atives. Upon their return to Ankole, the government was in a delicate
asition; the murder had been committed and the guilty person had not
een apprehended. It finally decided to terminate the agreement, to
eport the natives concerned, and to impose a collective fine of twenty
housand cattle upon the tribe. Since that time, some of the Ankole
risoners have been allowed to return, while the agreement was restored
1 1912. 3

That these agreements have constitutional importance is illustrated by
case in 1907, in which a native attempted to appeal from a decision of
le Lukiko * of Ankole to the High Court. The Uganda Order in
'ouncil, issued in 1902, two years after the Agreement, had established
High Court having full jurisdiction. But the agreement provided that
atives tried by native courts could appeal to an administrative officer
nd not to the High Court. In this case, the judges decided that they
ad no jurisdiction on the ground that “an Order in Council could not
ary existing agreements.” 5 The Secretary of State for the Colonies also
uled: 6 “The validity of the Uganda Order in Council, 1902, in so far
s it nullifies this reservation, is consequently open to question. ... In
aese circumstances, I am advised that the Uganda Order in Council, 1902,
lould be construed in such manner as not to impair the right thus
^served.” Therefore, the court could not entertain the appeal. 7

Ankole and Toro are ruled by Paramount Chiefs corresponding to the

* Altogether, four agreements have been made with Toro: the Agreement of
?oo, the Poll Tax Agreement of 1910, the Judicial Agreement of 1912, and the Poll
ax Agreement of 1914. These agreements follow the changes made in similar
Uganda agreements. For the texts see Laws of the Uganda Protectorate, 1923,
ol. III. Hereafter cited as Laws.

Following the restoration of the Ankole Agreement in 1912, three further
greements were made: the Ankole Boundaries Agreement of 1914, the Boundaries
.greement of 1923, and the Ankole Mugabe’s Private Estates Agreement of 1923.
or the latter, Cf. 1926 Supplement to the Laws of Uganda, pp. 269, 271. This
greement altered the location of the fifty square miles guaranteed to the Mugabe.

4 Or Native Council, cf. Vol. I, p. 579.

6 Katosi v. Kahizi, Uganda Law Reports, Vol. I, p. 22 (1907). This judgment
ppears to be in conflict with the opinion of the Privy Council in the Swaziland
tse, cf. Vol. I, p. 197.

8 His opinion was requested under Sec. 4 of the Foreign Jurisdiction Act, 1890.

7 Actually this decision conformed to the wishes of the administration which
esired to control native cases. This judgment led to the negotiation of the Judi-
al Agreements, conferring this right of appeal. Cf. Vol. I, p. 582!

562

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

Kabaka of Bunyoro, but called the Mugabe and Mukama respectively
These kings designate their own successors with the consent of the British
authority. They in turn are assisted by county chiefs, fourteen of whom
are in Ankole and six in Toro. Except in B Uganda, the government pays
ordinary chiefs ten per cent of the poll tax instead of a regular salary.
Seventy per cent of this payment goes to the saza chiefs, while 30 per cent
goes to the gombolola chiefs. The government usually pays Paramount
Chiefs twenty per cent of the tax collected in their districts, but it pays
the Bunyoro chiefs thirty per cent because of the poverty of this kingdom.
Plans are now under way to pay all chiefs fixed salaries.

3. Administrative Organization

Under the authority of the Order in Council of 1902, the govern¬
ment has divided Uganda into five provinces, each headed by a provincial
commissioner. 8 In 1920, an Order in Council was issued establishing a
Legislative Council in Uganda composed of an official majority together
with two unofficial Europeans and one unofficial Indian member appointed
by the Governor. 9 Inasmuch as they outnumbered the Europeans five
to one and were British subjects, the Indian population of Uganda
called this representation unjust, and as a protest declined to accept their
seat between 1920 and 1925. To enforce this point of view, the Uganda
Indian Association called a strike in which Indian shops were closed in

1920. The government justified the granting of only one Indian seat on
the Council on the ground that only a few Indians could meet the educa¬
tional qualifications of the European. In reply, the Indian Association
demanded a franchise based upon educational and property qualifications
applying to all races alike—a proposal which was refused. 10 The Uganda
Indians continued to decline the seat on the Legislative Council, despite
advice to the contrary from the government of India. 11 It is understood,
however, that the Indian Association agreed, in 1925, to accept a nominated
member on the understanding that it would not prejudice their claims
for an increase in representation later.

4. Courts

Two systems of courts are recognized in the protectorate: (1)
British courts, composed of a High Court, Courts of Sessions, and District

8 The Rudolf Province has recently been administered to Kenya Colony pending
a readjustment of the frontier which was effected by the Kenya (Boundaries;
Order in Council, 1926. Statutory Rules and Orders, 1926, p. 569.

• Laws, Vol. II, p. 1210. .

10 Summary of the Proceedings of the Legislative Council of Uganda, Aug-

1921, p. 18.

u Ibid., June, 1921, p. 15.

UGANDA ADMINISTRATION

563 *

mrts; and (2) the Native Courts. The High Court is composed of a
mber of professional magistrates. It is assisted by a native court ad-
«r who is now the son of the late Katilciro of Buganda, and who receives
salary of three hundred pounds. The Courts of Sessions are made up
the provincial commissioner of each province, and the District Courts
e usually made up of district and assistant commissioners. 12
In all civil cases to which a native is a party, every court shall be
ided by native law so far as it is applicable and is not repugnant to
stice and morality or inconsistent with the laws in force for the time being
thin the protectorate. Assessors are to be called by the District Courts
certain civil cases affecting natives. British magistrates, however, are
ictly bound by the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Ordinance and
- Indian Penal Code. Native law is therefore applied largely to civil
•es which come up on appeal, rather than to crimes. 13 The Native
urts, as recognized by the British Government, function under the
neral supervision of the District Court to which there is a right of
peal (except in Buganda) and which has revisionary powers. 14

’*The Courts Ordinance, Laws, Vol. I, p. 9. However, the District Courts at
mpala, Junga, and Mbale are composed of professional magistrates.
u In non-native cases, the District Courts may punish by imprisonment up to
0 years, by fines of two thousand shillings, and by whipping, but have full
isdiction over natives, subject to the Code. Articles io-ii, Criminal Procedure
dinance, Chap. 5, Laws. In 1925, the use of the kiboko (hippopotamus hide)
the infliction of the punishment of whipping was abolished. 1926 Supplement
the Laws of Uganda, p. 96.

“For Rules of Court, cf. Laws, Vol. Ill, pp. 74 ff.

An appeal in both civil and criminal matters may be taken from a Native
urt to a British court, and Native Courts must make civil and criminal returns,
strict officials, acting as supervisory courts, may revise judgments. Part V,
urts Ordinance; Sections 21-33, Criminal Procedure Ordinance, ibid., Vol. I,
* 5 ,. 38 -

Native courts also in theory follow native law in determining the existence and
nishment of crime. But when they hear cases which are criminal under British
: not under native law, their jurisdiction is limited by British statutes. One such
•e involved the offense of gambling, which was an offense, not under native law,

: under the British Gambling Regulations. In this case, a Native Court sen-
iced three natives to imprisonment ranging from four months to a year. But
■ court held: “Where an offence has been created by our laws, which is not
own under native law, and a maximum punishment is prescribed, it is- not
npetent for a native Court to pass a higher sentence than would be passed by
British Court” which in this case was one month. Cf. Rex v. Kiwanaka, 1920,
w Reports, cited, Vol. II, p. 355.

Native Courts have been established in about twenty townships in Uganda,
the Eastern and Northern Provinces. The members of these township courts,
.pointed by the district officer, are usually the Crown Lands headman as president
d other leading natives as members. These township courts have jurisdiction
civil disputes between natives in the^township involving up to one hundred and
::y shillings, and they may try offenses with a punishment of imprisonment up to
s month or a fine of one hundred shillings, or ten lashes. There is an appeal
the District Court. Apparently, these township courts are based upon the same
■a as the native courts recently established in the communes in French West
rica. Cf. Vol. I, p. 1015.

564

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

As a rule, Native Courts in the agreement areas of Toro and Ankole
have a greater jurisdiction than elsewhere. While the Lukikos 15 0 f
Ankole, Toro, Busogo and Bunyoro have full jurisdiction except in regard
to murder and witchcraft and certain other cases, the highest ordinary
native tribunals elsewhere may impose only one year’s imprisonment a
fine of three hundred shillings, or twenty-four lashes. The jurisdiction
of the courts of county chiefs and sub-chiefs is correspondingly lower. 18

5. Native Advisers and Lukikos

It has been the policy of the British Government to introduce the
system of native administration worked out so successfully in BUganda, 17
into the other parts of the protectorate where it did not originally exist.
Thus it has established Native Courts in some fifteen different districts,
and recognized and developed the power of local chiefs. These chiefs are
assisted by native advisers or agents, who have usually been members of the
ruling class in Buganda. These advisers differ from the German akidas
in Tanganyika in that they are supposedly advisers, and not chiefs. Many
of them have been tempted, however, to assume responsibility rather than
merely control. While opinion is not unanimous, it appears that these agents
under close and continuous supervision by district officers, have been more
successful than European advisers would have been in training local chiefs
to meet the responsibilities connected with tax collection and the admin¬
istration of justice. At the present time, the Buganda advisers have been
withdrawn except in certain backward areas where “county agents” still
advise the saza chiefs and Lukikos. In Teso, all except two such advisers
have been withdrawn, and the native chiefs are standing on their own
feet. 18 About six thousand pounds is still expended annually upon these
agents and followers.

In about a dozen of the outlying districts will be found Lukikos,
or native parliaments—organized upon the same basis as in Buganda.
Usually, these Lukikos are also courts sitting continually with a quorum
of seven. Once a year, a plenary meeting is held. Fines imposed by
these Lukikos in the Eastern Province, the Gulu, Chua, and West Nile
districts of the Northern Province, and in the Kigeri district of the
Western Province are administered by boards consisting of the district
commissioner concerned and three members of the Lukiko in each district,
under the control of the provincial commissioner. These funds are used
for public works of direct benefit to the people, such as making culverts

“For the even wider jurisdiction of the Buganda Lukiko, cf. Vol. I, p. 5 ® 1, .

18 Jurisdiction is defined and courts are established by the Governor by proc
mation. Cf. Laws, Vol. Ill, pp. 34-82.

17 Cf. Vol. I, p. 574. 18 Uganda Gazette, 1924, p. 3 ^ 4 -

UGANDA ADMINISTRATION

565

id bridges, buying cattle and carts for road making, as well as canoes
ir ferries.

These Lukikos also have a certain legislative power in regard to native
jw, recognized by the Native Law Ordinance of 1919. 19 The Governor’s
wisent is necessary to make valid their enactments. Eight Councils includ-
g the Lukikos of Busoga, Toro, Ankole, Teso, and the Councils of
.choli and Lugwari have been granted this power. 20

An annual allowance of three hundred pounds is made to Kakunguru, a
:ukedi chief. Originally he was a Buganda chief who assisted the British
any years ago in the conquest of Bunyoro. Since he was more or less of
rival of the Katikiro, the British took him and four thousand followers
> Mount Mbale, and told him that he could govern this country as his
wn. Kakunguru proceeded to put in the Buganda system of administra-
on, with “foreign” saza and gombolola chiefs. When in about 1901 the
British extended their administration to this country, they encountered
le opposition of Kakunguru who insisted that the British had promised
lat he could always govern it. But the British denied that they had
ade any such promise. They had come to realize that they could not
ermanently impose an alien Paramount Chief upon these people. When
lakunguru made trouble for them, they took away his power, but in return
lade him president of the Busogo Lukiko. Upon his failure here, he was
lade a saza chief, in which capacity he again made trouble by preaching
le Malaki religion. 21 His attitude led to his deposition, but he still
raws an annual subsidy of three hundred pounds a year.

While it has no Paramount Chief, Busogo is the most advanced native
jvernment, next to Buganda. The president of the Lukiko draws a
llary of five hundred and fifty pounds a year.

6. Taxation

The British Government imposes a number of obligations upon the
atives of Uganda, the first of which is taxation. Each adult male native
. liable to a poll tax, the rate of which throughout Ankole, Bunyoro,
Juganda, and the greater part of the Eastern Province is fifteen shillings.
Elsewhere, it ranges from six to ten shillings, according to the relative
wealth of the district concerned. 22 While the maximum rate in Uganda
* three shillings higher than in Kenya, the Uganda native is better off,
ince he is not obliged to pay a hut tax as in Kenya. 23

19 Laws, Chap. 62.

90 Ibid., Vol. Ill, p. 208; 1926 Supplement to the Laws of Uganda, p*. 186.

21 Cf. Vol. I, p. 612.

“Schedule, Poll Tax Ordinance, 1920, Laws, Vol. I, p. 595.

a Cf. chart in Vol. I, p. 383.

566

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

In one part of Uganda—the Buganda Kingdom—the natives are also
subject to a land tax. In 1922, the British Government and the Kabaka
of Buganda made a Tax Agreement 24 imposing a land tax of twenty
shillings (in addition to the poll tax) on every Buganda owner of five or
more acres of land. 25 A tax of two shillings could also be imposed upon
natives not owning five acres if the Kabaka and native government believed
that circumstances warranted its imposition. Every Buganda land owner
was likewise made liable to pay a tax of ten per cent of the rent which he
received from his tenants. Three hundred and six thousand shillings out of
the five hundred and twenty thousand shillings which it was estimated
would be derived from the tax were to go to the native government and the
remainder to the British in order to advance education and to combat
venereal disease. As a matter of fact, this development tax, which applies
only to Buganda, has yielded less than half of this amount. While the
agreement was made for a period of one year, it was renewed for another
year. It is probable that some other form of taxation will be enacted
inasmuch as a land tax bearing equally on the holder of five acres and on
the mailo 26 owner of five square miles is scarcely equitable.

Another tax, which constitutes the third largest item in the revenue
of the country, is the cotton tax. 27 This is a tax on cotton exports the
rate of which in 1924 was 3/4 penny a pound. The funds derived from
this tax supposedly go to the development of the cotton industry. It is
difficult to say whether the incidence of this tax falls upon the native, the
European ginner, or the consumer. Judged by their complaints, the
European ginners believe that the tax falls upon the middleman rather
than upon the native.

7. Kasanvu Labor

In addition to taxes, the British Government imposes certain labor
obligations, the first of which is communal or luwalo labor. In Buganda
proper, this obligation is owed to the native government instead of to the
European authority, and hence will not be discussed here. 28 But in the

H Unlike the other parts of Uganda, the rate of the poll tax here is fixed by
agreement. Article 13 of the Agreement of 1900 fixed the hut tax at three rupees
or four shillings and a gun tax at the same rate. The hut tax was changed to a
poll tax and the rate increased to ten shillings in an Agreement of 1910, and to
fifteen shillings in an Agreement of 1920. Laws, Vol. Ill, p. 478.

26 Ibid., Vol. Ill, p. 482; also Buganda Taxation Ordinance, ibid., Vol. I, P- 59 6>
30 Cf. Vol. I, p. 591. ,

x The customs provide 400,000 pounds, poll taxes, 401,500 pounds, and t e
cotton tax, 216,000 pounds out of a total revenue of 1,306,761 pounds.

28 Cf. Vol. I, p. 584.

UGANDA ADMINISTRATION

567

ree other provinces of the protectorate, natives are obliged to furnish
irty days of free labor a year on the roads, or six days more than in
;nya. At present, this obligation cannot be commuted for a sum of
iney. But the Uganda Government is considering a proposal to allow
e natives in the Eastern, Northern, and Central Provinces to commute
ihteen days of this labor for a payment of six shillings, one shilling of
lich should go to a chiefs’ pension fund, one to education, and four, along
th a proportion of the poll tax, into a fund out of which regular salaries
chiefs shall be paid. For the time being, the natives will be required
pay the remaining twelve days in communal labor. The present system
Uganda appears open to the same objection as elsewhere, 20 but some of
ese objections will be eliminated by the adoption of the principle of
mmutation.

In addition to obliging the natives to perform a month’s unpaid labor
r communal purposes, the Uganda Government also resorts to compulsory
id labor for certain public purposes. Before 1921, practically all the
Dor required for government services was secured by a form of compulsion,
der a system of kasanvu labor. No serious effort to obtain voluntary
bor was made; men were called out under the Native Authority Ordi-
.nce under which they could be required to do work “of a public nature”
r not more than sixty days in any year, unless employed for a period of
ree months in any other occupation. 30 It is estimated that twenty
ousand men were annually obliged to submit to this obligation. The
nation was described by a government circular as follows: “At present,
;t a small proportion of the unskilled labour employed by Government
■partments is voluntary. There are many reasons for this, not the
ast of which is that officers, being assured of a continuous supply of
■mpulsory labour, have not found time to give that personal attention to
>e requirements of their labour and to causes for discontent among them
hich is essential if a supply of volunteer labour is to be attained. Head¬
men also have not encouraged voluntary labourers as they must be handled
ith tact and patience—qualities which need not be exercised in dealing
ith Kasanvu labourers, who are not free agents.” 31

Thus compulsion worked in a vicious circle. It discouraged attempts
* secure voluntary labor. It also resulted in all the dullards being swept
ito government employ, while the intelligent natives, to escape this
:quisition, sought more popular employment with European coffee

* Cf. Vol. I, p. 369.

i0 Sec. 7, B. (i), Native Authority Ordinance, 1919, Laws, Vol. I, p. 586.
“Circular No. 3 of 1922, “Unskilled Labour.”

568

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

planters. Such a form of compulsion, though nominally for public purpose
indirectly benefited private employers.

This labor was taken in the middle of every month to work the ne>
month. Only steady men, having a stake in the land, men with familit
cultivating shambas, 32 could be caught, as the unmarried men would scoo
off at the rounding-up time. These young men were reluctant to marr
and settle down upon a shamba, and became wanderers, escaping all oblige
tions, including those imposed by the tribal authority. The institutioi
was thus destroying native society. The system itself was breaking dowr
because of the difficulty of catching the men. Between 1917 and 1920
the government experienced a severe labor shortage.

These considerations led to the abolition of this system in 1923. Fol¬
lowing the despatch relating to native labor in Kenya, which declared
that the same principles would be extended to Uganda and Zanzibar, 33
the Uganda Government passed an amendment of the Native Authority
Ordinance which imposes the same restrictions upon the use of compulsory
labor as exist in Kenya. That is, it can not be employed, 34 except for
government porterage, without the prior consent of the Secretary of State,
which is seldom given except for railway or road construction. Apparently
one of the most important results of this abolition has been an increase in
the population in Buganda which hitherto showed a decline. 35 Many rea¬
sons might have accounted for this; but not the least important reason was
that the Buganda native, instead of being carted around the province
by compulsion, now stayed at home on his shamba. A second result of
this abolition has been a labor shortage. But the real reason back of this
shortage is not so much the abolition of kasanvu labor as the great increase
of cotton production which has absorbed the labor supply and disinclined
natives from seeking employment. 36

8. Communal Labor

In place of the old kasanvu labor, a system of communal labor is now
being employed in parts of Uganda for the construction of new roads.
This labor is requisitioned under the Native Authority Ordinance (Amend¬
ment) 1923, subject to the prior approval of the Secretary of State. It
is used to construct metalled roads which do not require the labor of
maintenance which must now be applied to ordinary roads. The entire
male population within a radius of five miles on each side of the road is

82 The native word for farm.

33 Para. 5, Cmd. 1509 (1921), cf. Vol. I, p. 336.

34 No. 14 of 1923. 1926 Supplement to the Laws of Uganda, p. 2.

85 Annual Medical and Sanitary Report, Uganda Protectorate, 1923, p- 7 -

39 Cf. Vol. I, p. 622.

UGANDA ADMINISTRATION

569

jailed out in installments for a short period at a time when they have little
ivork to do in their own gardens. Since this type of construction will relieve
natives of maintaining the road in the future, the chiefs as well as the peas¬
ants have accepted with good grace the obligation which now falls equally
upon all. During 1923, 14,097 men were called out 37 under the communal
ystem. In 1924, the number was 19,900, each working an average of
23.4 days. 38 They are paid the market wage. In 1924, nearly seventy-
ive miles were built at a cost of about one hundred and seventy-five pounds
l mile, compared with a cost of six hundred pounds a mile under a system
>f regular voluntary labor, where men work under departmental officers
ior a long period rather than under their chiefs and political officers.

Despite this use of communal labor on road construction, government
departments have recently experienced grave labor difficulties, particularly
n regard to transport and building. About fifteen hundred men a month
.re required by the Public Works Department, while fifty-five hundred
nen are employed on railway construction. Unable to obtain labor by
ompulsion and to find volunteers in the cotton growing areas of Buganda
;nd the Eastern Province, the government in 1923 established a Labor
lureau for the purpose of recruiting government labor in the non-
uoducing provinces, primarily from the Ruanda district in the south and
rom the West Nile in the north—areas where native production has hot
>een developed. This Labor Bureau is headed by a Labor Commissioner,
nd it employs native recruiters, who receive six pence a recruit. Two
European “conductors” are also now employed. The natives sign four-
nonth contracts at twelve shillings a month and food, the latter costing
he government about eight shillings a month. If the native stays six
months, his wage is increased two shillings. These boys are subject to a
ledical examination before they start on their journey down to the in-
ustrial centers of Uganda, such as Kampala and Jinja. In 1925, the
lureau recruited about twenty thousand men, including twelve thousand
ffio came from Ruanda 39 and six thousand from the West Nile.

In 1924 and 1925, the Uganda Government was frightfully negligent
i protecting this labor on the way to its destination. Natives were
■bliged to walk most of the way without adequate provision being made
or their wants. Sanitary and cooking arrangements in rest camps were

31 Report of the Department of Public tVorks, 1923, p. 10.

** Ibid., 1924, p. 7.

“Much of this labor was composed of natives from the Belgian Congo who,
red of past compulsion and ill-treatment on the Kilo mines, were also attracted by
se relatively high wages due to the depreciation of the franc. This emigration
uestion has been made the subject of representations by the Congo to the Uganda
iovernment.

570 THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

particularly bad. Apparently the medical examination was inadequate,
since many natives carried tick or spirilium fever from one end of the
country to the other. According to the medical report on this “imported”
labor, the annual death rate was one hundred and eighty per thousand,
of which fifty deaths per thousand were on account of dysentery. The
treatment of laborers returning home after the completion of their con¬
tracts was particularly bad. They were simply given rations at the be¬
ginning and then left to shift for themselves, with the result that many
died.

More effective administration can remedy these evils. 40 The govern¬
ment has decided to erect labor locations at centers of employment, which
will help. Nevertheless, these importations of temporary alien laborers,
coming over hundreds of miles, and living under artificial conditions
whether of housing or food, are based upon an unhealthy principle. The
condition of the villages in the non-productive parts of Uganda is described
by one missionary in the Western Province as follows: “The whole
population of able-bodied men now spend more than half the year away
from their homes, working on the tillage of the soil or carrying the cotton
to the ginneries; while thousands of Banyalwanda from Belgian Ruanda
pass through Ankole seeking more from the same source.” 41 An extension
of the communal labor system which would oblige local natives to work
for public purposes 42 would be better than the employment of this alien
labor. It should also be possible to organize, through the various Lukikos,
a cooperative system of marketing native produce which would relieve
the labor shortage from which transport and ginneries now suffer.

40 New Labor Regulations were issued in December, 1924. They provide for
the appointment of a native camp superintendent and a native medical attendant,
for standing camps of fifty laborers or more. Government loads for carriers are
limited to fifty pounds; marches are daily limited to sixteen miles a day. The

protectorate ration scale for labor is fixed at:

1. Maize (finely ground and sifted) or rice (unpolished)... lbs.

2. Beans . 4 oz.

3. Groundnuts . 2 oz.

or Salt . Vt oz.

In addition, laborers are given half a shilling a week to purchase green food.
41 Annual Report of the Church Missionary Society, 1924, London, p. 17*
43 Cf. Vol. I, p. 568.

CHAPTER 32

THE NATIVE KINGDOM OF BOG AN DA

Ik the Middle Ages, Uganda bore the brunt of the invasions of the
)allas who poured out of Abyssinia and swarmed over the Bantu peoples,
x>sely organized into clans, who inhabited what is part of Uganda to-day.
i'he result of this invasion was the establishment of the native kingdoms
f Buganda, Toro, Ankole, Bunyoro, and Busoga. To-day the ruling
.ass in all of these kingdoms bears certain indications of Galla origin,
specially in Ankole, where indeed the invaders appear to have kept them-
elves distinct from the original Bantu inhabitants. With the exception of
iusoga, all of these native kingdoms have hereditary kings, and all of them
ave governing councils, called Lukikos.

I. The Clans

The leading people in the protectorate to-day are the Baganda, who
umber more than six hundred thousand souls. .They date their origin from
he Galla invasion which brought to them the mythical founder of their
ation, Kintu. It appears that he was a powerful chief who welded the
arious clans into which the Baganda are divided into a nation. Each
'luganda 1 belongs to a clan the members of which trace their origin to
■ne ancestor and have a common totem . 2 Each clan also has its family
ands, called Bataka land, over which a violent dispute has occurred . 8

In the past, the head of the clan has been regarded with more venera-
on than a chief. According to a ruling of Mutsea, the succession
0 the clan headship must always descend upon a son, unless he is notori¬
ously unfit for the position . 4

The early Kabakas of Buganda—the descendants of Kintu—super-
mposed upon this clan organization a hierarchy of chiefs. The country
vas divided up into ten (later twenty) provinces or counties, each in

1 Muganda is the singular of the Baganda people who live in a country called
luganda, and who speak a language called Luganda.

The Buganda clan system is discussed in J. Roscoe, The Baganda, Their
Customs and Beliefs, London, 1911, Ch. VI.

’CL Vol. I, p. 594.

Cf. Judge Carter, “The Clan System, Land Tenure and Succession among
he Baganda,” reprinted from the Law Quarterly Review, in Uganda Law Reports,
r ol. I, p. 99.

571

572 THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

charge of an Owesaza chief 6 who had eight or nine lesser chiefs under him
appointed by the Kabaka, and a number of other officials appointed by
himself.

From the time of Kintu down to the present—a period covering a
thousand years—there have been thirty-five Kabakas. 6 Descent is in¬
variably through the male line. So great was the objection to women
rulers that princesses were forbidden to marry or to have children.
Although the Kabaka in the early days was a despotfc ruler, the Buganda
system of government possessed some remarkably democratic features. It
was customary to appoint commoners as saza chiefs, and the mother of
the king was obliged by native law to be a commoner, which is still true
to-day.

Next to the mythical Kintu the greatest king in the history of Buganda
was Mutesa Mukabya, who reigned about 1850. He organized a regular
standing army, the troops of which he settled in each district. With the
coming of the Europeans, the king supplied these troops with guns instead
of spears. As a result of his military power, Busoga, Ankole, and Koki
paid tribute to the Kabaka.

2. The Kabaka s Kingdom

Long before the British occupation, the Kingdom of Buganda had
worked out a system of administration perhaps unique among the native
states of Africa. The Kabaka had his prime minister, or Katikiro, who also
acted as Chief Justice, while the next important official in the country
was the Kimbugwe, or the keeper of the king’s umbilical cord. The
queen and the king’s mother occupied positions of importance.

Each saza chief was obliged to maintain a road four yards wide from
his country seat to the capital, and some of these roads were a hundred
miles long. The construction of these roads and other public work was
directed by the Katikiro from the capital. A Muganda called upon to
do state work would be obliged to pay the overseer a sum of cowry-shells,
in addition to performing labor. Under some overseers, the exactions
of cowry-shells became excessive, and led to complaints. At a given time,
the Kabaka also collected taxes. Special collectors for each district, to¬
gether with representatives of the king’s mother, the Katikiro, the district
chief concerned, and other important native officials toured the districts
for this purpose. The taxes were divided up between the Kabaka, his
ministers, and the chiefs. From time to time, the king also imposed a

B Commonly called saza chief.

“The list, together with the names of the mothers and the clans of the Kabakas,
is printed in the Buganda handbook Ekitabo Kyo Bivami Bwabami Bomu Buganda.

THE NATIVE KINGDOM OF BUG AN DA 573

ix of boys and girls for the royal enclosure. The king held court with
reat and solemn ceremony in the Lukiko or Council, the meetings of
hich were attended daily by the leading chiefs. A system of domestic
avery similar to that in other parts of Africa was in vogue, while human
icrifice for ceremonial purposes was frequently practiced.

Such was the organization of the Buganda people who are among
le most intelligent people of all Africa. Handsome physically, they are
ie only Bantu people in this part of Africa who do not mutilate their
ersons, and who are familiar with even the most elementary principles
f sanitation. 7 The progressive nature of this people is shown by the fre-
uent changes which the Buganda native government has made to adapt
ative law to changing conditions. After the flight of Mwanga, 8 the
labaka and chiefs gave up their right to a portion of the estate and the
ives of a deceased chief or peasant. In 1916, the Lukiko introduced an
movation by the enactment of a law that Buganda wills should be in
riting. 9 These people possess a rich language, Luganda, and their folk
■ories are marked by a charm and simplicity which would do credit to a
European people. 10

3. The Uganda Agreement, igoo

The British Government wisely did not attempt, nor did it wish, to
estroy the native organization by means of which these people were being
overned. Consequently, Mr. Harry Johnston, Her Majesty’s Special
Commissioner, negotiated the famous Uganda Agreement of 1900 which
ecognized the government of the Kabaka of Uganda. 11 In this agreement,
he Kabaka and chiefs agreed to renounce in favor of the Queen the tribute
hey had formerly collected from adjoining provinces, and they further
.greed that the revenue of the kingdom should be merged into th.at of the
rotectorate. British law enacted for the general government of the pro-
ectorate would apply to Uganda, except in so far as it might in any
jarticular conflict with the terms of this agreement. Article 6 provided:
‘So long as the Kabaka, chiefs, and people of Uganda shall conform to
he laws and regulations instituted for their governance by Her Majesty’s
jovernment, and shall co-operate loyally with Her Majesty’s Government
n the organization and administration of the said Kingdom of Uganda,

7 Cf. H. R. Wallis, The Handbook of Uganda, London, 1920, second edition,
). 127.

* Cf. Vol. I, p. 277.

®This native law was apparently passed after a dispute over a verbal will
ippealed from the Lukiko to the High Court. Kisule v. Nkangali, Uganda Law
Reports, 1915, Vol. II, p. 140.

“Cf. Mrs. George Baskerville’s The King of the Snakes and Other Folk-Lore
Stories from Uganda, London, 1922; also The Flame Tree, London.

11 Cf. Vol. I, p. 670, for a similar policy in Southern Nigeria.

574

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

Her Majesty's Government agrees to recognize the Kabaka of Uganda as
the native ruler of the province of Uganda under Her Majesty’s protec¬
tion and over-rule. . . The agreement provided that upon the death
of a Kabaka, his successor should be elected from among the members of
the Royal family by a majority of the Lukiko or Council, subject to the
approval of the British Government. The Kabaka’s courts were recognized
subject to provisions discussed later. The agreement guaranteed that the
Kabaka should be paid a minimum yearly allowance of one thousand five
hundred pounds. The county organization and the Lukiko were also
recognized, together with the saza chiefs and three ministers. No taxes
except a hut tax could be imposed on the province without the agreement
of the Kabaka and the Lukiko. One of the most important provisions
of the agreement related to the land. Half a dozen other agreements have
subsequently been made between the Kabaka and the British authorities,
relating to such matters as forests, poll taxes and courts.

4. Present Organization

The native government thus recognized is at present headed by a
Kabaka who is addressed in Buganda as “Your Highness” and who flies a
Buganda flag. The present Kabaka, David Chwa, came of age only in
1914. Between 1900 and that date, his kingdom was in the hands of three
regents: the Prime Minister, 12 the Chief Justice, and the Treasurer of the
Buganda Government. These positions are of great importance to-day.
The British Government appointed an administrative officer 12 as the
tutor of the Kabaka during his minority. As a result of his efforts, the
Kabaka received a thorough European education, but did not lose touch
with his people, which usually follows when Africans receive their educa¬
tion over a long period of time in England.

At the present time, the kingdom of Buganda is divided into twenty
different counties, each of which has a county or saza chief at its head,
who is appointed by the Kabaka in agreement with the British Government.
In the Agreement of 1900, the British Government and the Kabaka en¬
trusted the task of administering justice, of assessing and collecting taxes,
of keeping up the main roads, and of supervising native affairs to these
chiefs in their respective districts. On all questions except the assessment
and collection of taxes the county chief reports directly to the kings

11 The Prime Minister, Sir Apoio Kagwa, resigned from a long period of
service in August, 1926, on account of ill-health. He died at Nairobi on February
21 .' 927 . . . .

Mr. J. C. R. Sturrock, who has now been made Resident Commissioner ot
Basutoland.

THE NATIVE KINGDOM OF BUG AN DA 575

nnisters from whom he receives instructions. 14 Each saza chief has a
Durt with criminal jurisdiction over cases involving one year’s imprison¬
ment, one hundred fifty shillings’ fine, or twenty-four lashes, and over
ivil cases the subject of which does not exceed five hundred shillings.
,'ases which exceed these limits go directly to the Lukiko court, to which
■atives under the saza court jurisdiction may also appeal. The saza courts
i turn hear appeals from the courts of sub-chiefs, most of which are
o-called gombolola courts. Each saza chief has on the average of about
wenty-five thousand people under his jurisdiction.

The twenty counties of Buganda are in turn divided up into districts
nhabited by between one thousand and four thousand people in charge of
. gombolola chief, who is responsible to the saza or county chief. He has
i court which may impose sentences of imprisonment not exceeding three
nonths, fines up to sixty shillings, and whipping up to ten lashes. He
nay hear civil cases the object of which does not have a value in excess
f one hundred and fifty shillings. The British district commissioners in
3 Uganda inspect the records of both saza and gombolola courts, but they
io not have the power, because of the Agreement of 1900, to hear appeals,
is do district commissioners in other provinces.

Prisoners are invariably confined in native prisons for which the chiefs
are responsible. Apparently, they may be committed without a warrant
from a British official. The headquarters prisons are inspected at least
once a month by district officers, while the saza and gombolola prisons must
also be inspected. 16 A few years ago, these native prisons were quite
insanitary, but as a result of increased vigilance of inspecting officers, they
have been greatly improved. The regime is mild, and a native would
probably prefer to be confined in a native rather than in a European
prison.

The saza chiefs assume full responsibility for preparing tax registers,
collecting taxes, and writing individual receipts by the counter-foil system.
Each chief must keep a cash book in which he must enter daily all receipts
and payments. 18 By means of this native machinery, the administrative
officials are relieved of an immense amount of work assumed by officials
in the French and Belgian colonies, and in such places as Kenya. There
have been a few scandals connected with native tax collection which led to
an investigation in 1924 by a committee of the Uganda Government.

u Article i, Agreement of 1900. This agreement is printed in Laws, Vol. Ill,
2nd edition, and as an appendix to this section, Vol. I, p. 633.

15 Cf. Uganda Government Circular No. 1 of 1917, “Prisons under Native Gov¬
ernment,’’ which provides that district officers shall inspect native prisons.

19 Instructions re Collection of Poll Taxes by Chiefs in the Kingdom of Buganda
(translated into Luganda).

576

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

It found that no taxes were embezzled in 1918 and 1919; but that mis¬
appropriations later amounted to:

£ 19 12s in 1920

£ 50 10s in 1921

£220 5s 3d in 1922

£685 6d in 1923

This disconcerting increase in embezzlement in the last two years was due,
the committee believed, to the fact that during these years the European
staff was very short-handed, and had not been able to check the returns—
a condition of affairs which was unduly tempting to the chiefs. According
to instructions, poll tax tickets should be checked twice a year, but in
this case they had not been checked for three years. In 1925, the tax
defalcations had declined to about thirty pounds. 17

Inasmuch as the county organization of Buganda was superimposed upon
the clan system, the chiefs have never been hereditary, except for the
Kabaka. Consequently, the Kabaka and administration may choose men
possessing the highest degree of intelligence and character, without regard
to family trees. There have been a number of cases where sons of peasants
have been made gombolola chiefs, and a few instances where such chiefs
have been made saza chiefs. The acting Chief Treasurer of the native
government has had some such history. Nevertheless, the visitor who has
witnessed tribal institutions in other parts of Africa has certain misgivings
at the ease with which the British Government shifts a chief from one
county to another, just as if he were a British official. 18 In fact, the
British Government aims to make out of these chiefs a regular native civil
service, composed of educated young men who receive their apprentice¬
ship in a British office. It seems that the British authorities exercise a
high degree of control over the appointment and designation of these chiefs,
and for this reason, there is a danger that the Buganda Government will
lose the autonomy which the presence of hereditary rulers would insure.

In carrying out this aim of establishing a native civil service, it appears
that British officials have dealt directly with many native chiefs, instead of
first going to the Kabaka. This practice has been made the object of a
complaint, part of which reads as follows:

“. . . At present, however, as has been pointed out before in this Memo¬
randum, the Kabaka occupies a position which is tantamount to that of an
ordinary Paramount Chief of one of the second-rate native tribes of Africa.

"These figures are for the whole of Uganda.

“For example, the Governor approves the appointment of “X” to be Mutaba V
of Gombi, vice “Z”, promoted. Uganda Gazette, 1923, p. 220. Mutaba V is a
title of a gombolola chief. These different chiefs are all listed in Ekitabo hyo
Bnuami Bwabami Bomu Buganda, the civil list of the Buganda Government.

THE NATIVE KINGDOM OF BVGANDA

577

no longer has any power or control over his own Chiefs and all and
lry officers of the Protectorate Government appear to possess the right
have direct access’ to the Kabaka, which right was exclusively reserved
r he Governor alone. This practice is clearly contrary to the old native
iciples and system of Government of Buganda Kingdom, and is certainly
irect conflict with the terms of the Uganda Agreement of 1900. At present,
natters of the native administration of Buganda Kingdom, the Provincial
nmissioner in charge of Buganda Province appears to occupy the position
ch was intended for the Kabaka in the Agreement. The Provincial
nmissioner is now the direct ruler of the native chiefs of Buganda through

■ District Officers. Any order issued to the chiefs by the Kabaka or his
vernment has to be countersigned and approved by the Provincial Com-

■ sioner before it can be transmitted to the Chiefs concerned with the
- ural result that the Chiefs now are beginning to lose their sense of loyalty

ards their Kabaka, since he has now come to be looked upon by these
efs as merely the headman or superior Chief of the Natives of Buganda
more or less the same level and receiving an annual salary from the
otectorate Government in the same way as they themselves. This is the
zct brought about solely by the practice pursued by the Administrative
fleers of the British Government, a practice which is entirely unjustifiable
d clearly in conflict not only with the time-honored customs, traditions,
d principle of native administration of Buganda, but also with the terms
d intention of the Uganda Agreement of 1900 which is the basis of the
institution of the Native Government of Buganda Kingdom.”

This document complains that the three native ministers have lost
ntrol of the saza and gombolola chiefs because of this practice of admin-
jative officers of filling up vacancies without consulting them. The
icument says:

"As a matter of fact,, the direct and natural result of this practice has
•en that some of the more educated Chiefs of the young gen.ration, who are
norant of the old traditional and hereditary authority of the Kabaka over
3 Chiefs and people, are now beginning to flout the authority of the Native
overnment of Buganda, and to consider themselves more as Native Officers
f the British Government to whom they are responsible for all their adminis-
ative duties in their respective areas.”

If this statement accurately portrays British policy toward the native
overnment, it would appear that this policy does not conform to the spirit
f the agreement of 1900, and that the continuance of such a policy will
ead to the weakening of the Buganda Government and the Buganda
lation. Such a result would not only be inconsistent with the broad lines
>f British policy elsewhere, but it would be lamentable in its effects upon
he native peoples of East Africa.

578

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

5. Salaries

The payment of salaries by the British Government to the Kabaka, his
ministers, and the saza chiefs is guaranteed in the original Agreement. As
a result of increased revenues and subsequent agreements, these salaries have
been raised. 19

At the present time, the British Government allots a total of 30,205
pounds for salaries to these different officials in the Buganda Province.
The Kabaka receives, instead of the fifteen hundred pounds guaranteed
in the agreement, a salary of twenty-four hundred pounds, or more than
twice as much as a provincial commissioner. Each of the three native
ministers receives, instead of the three hundred pounds guaranteed in the
agreement, six hundred and seventy-five pounds annually, while the Queen
Mother, an extremely influential person in the old regime, gets a subsidy of
eighty-three pounds. The twenty saza chiefs are graded, the lowest re¬
ceiving one hundred and twenty-seven pounds and the seven highest three
hundred and thirty pounds a year. A total of 8l'l6 pounds, including
allowances, is paid out to the gombolola chiefs. The miruka chiefs receive
allowances totalling eight hundred and fifteen pounds. The government
also supports a system of county police composed of twenty corporals and
sixty-seven constables; while it expends 6308 pounds upon clerks for saza
and gombolola chiefs. 20

A plan for pensioning the saza chiefs and giving gratuities to gombolola
chiefs upon retirement has been introduced under which sums amounting
to six hundred and ninety pounds a year are now paid. These sums will, of
course, increase as time goes by. Unlike the Nigerian Administration.

19 The Agreement of 1900 fixed the salary of each saza chief at two hundred
pounds, but as the government wanted a more flexible arrangement, the Governor
and the Kabaka entered into the Uganda (Payment of Chiefs) Agreement of
1908 (Laws, Vol. Ill, p. 468), giving the Governor and Kabaka power to reduce
salaries of county chiefs upon their appointment to office, and to apply the saving
to the payment of salaries to sub-chiefs, provided that the total amount of four
thousand pounds guaranteed in the Agreement of 1900 shall not be reduced.

In 1920, a Uganda (Poll Tax) Agreement was made, which authorizes the
imposition of a poll tax of fifteen shillings, on condition that the British Govern¬
ment pay twenty per cent of the tax to the Kabaka and chiefs, provided that this
sum shall not be less than 11,000 nor more than 15,800 pounds. Thus the chiefs
of Buganda base their income upon three sources: (1) the sums guaranteed in the
Agreement of 1900, and (2) twenty per cent of the poll tax; (3) a proportion of
the Development tax. (Cf. Vol. I, p. 566.)

In 1913, a Uganda (Payments by the Government) Agreement was made
which provides that the Government will pay to the Kabaka and chiefs at least
10,773 pounds.

A Uganda (Payments by Government) Agreement .of 1920 increased the
allowances of the Kabaka, and the ministers, etc., and also provided that when the
amount of the poll tax exceeded 79,000 pounds, the chiefs might apply to the
government to increase the limit of payment of 15,800 pounds.

30 Cf. Appendix F, 1926 Estimates.

THE NATIVE KINGDOM OF BUG AND A

579

/ h has a native budget paying native salaries out of part of native taxes,
i . British budget in Uganda assumes this burden itself and in return re-
s the whole of the native hut and poll taxes. The poll and development
s in Buganda proper amount to about one hundred and twenty-five
• sand pounds a year, of which the government expends 30,205 pounds
native salaries. The chiefs and ministers, as well as the Kabaka, also
ive revenue from official land estates. 21

6. The Lukiko

The most interesting feature of the Uganda Government, and a body
ch is unique in Africa, 22 is a native “parliament,” called the Lukiko,
posed of the saza chiefs and other native representatives. The Lukiko,
palace of the Kabaka, and the native government offices, are at Mengo
■ 1 , about three miles outside of the township of Kampala, and are
iosed by an immense reed fence. While Kampala is the commercial
■cer of Uganda, the British Government remains at Entebbe, twenty-five
es away, doubtless because of the undesirability of having both govem-
nts in the same place. Directly behind the entrance to this enclosure,
ich is guarded by uniformed native police, stands a long building with
orrugated iron roof, the Assembly Hall of the Lukiko, in front of which
1 pole flying the Buganda flag. The Lukiko holds some sort of a session
irly every day of the year. At one end of the hall is a dais covered with
pard skin, upon which rests the Kabaka’s throne, a great chair inlaid
:h gold. On the floor below the dais is the chair of the Prime Minister,

: Katikiro, who usually presides over the Lukiko. Members sit on each
e of this hall, and behind them are seats for native spectators. At the
r end of the hall is an open space where persons whose case has been
■/orably heard by the Lukiko prostrate themselves, along with innu-
erable followers, on the floor, before the Kabaka’s throne.

There are eighty-nine members of the Lukiko: the three ministers,
renty saza chiefs, three notables from each county, who are usually
Dmbolola chiefs, and six other important dignitaries from the country
: large. The notables from the counties and the country at large are
^pointed by the Kabaka and serve at his pleasure. 23

Every October, the Lukiko holds a full conference attended by all the
iza chiefs. Usually it is presided over by the Kabaka. It may discuss
11 matters concerning the native administration of Buganda and for¬
ward to the Kabaka resolutions voted by a majority. The Kabaka must
31 Cf. Vol. I, p. 591.

33 The closest approach is the Pitso in Basutoland.

**Cf. Article II, Agreement of 1900.

580

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

follow the advice of His Majesty’s representative in approving or reject
ing these resolutions. These resolutions are of two kinds: those affecting
the country from the standpoint of the British authority, which must be
submitted to the Governor for approval; and those relating to the purely
internal administration of the Lukiko in regard to land, clan disputes
etc., which are, apparently, not subject to this form of control.

At one time, doubt was expressed as to whether or not the Lukiko had
the power to bind natives by legislation. In 1904, that body passed a law
requiring its approval before a native could transfer land to a non-native.
In one particular case, a native had agreed to sell some land to a European
and the British Governor had given his consent in accordance with British
law. The Lukiko, however, declined to approve the transaction except
subject to certain conditions. The European therefore brought his case
before the High Court of Uganda, declaring that the consent of the Lukiko
was not necessary since it had no legislative power. But the Judge declared:
“The Uganda Agreement is in the nature of a treaty whereby Her
Majesty’s Government agrees to recognize the Kabaka of Uganda as the
native ruler of the Province of Uganda under Her Majesty’s protection
and overrule and by its articles the power of its rulers are limited in
various ways. As I understand the Agreement, it is not to be regarded
as taking away any right or power of the Kabaka except by its express
provisions; therefore, whatever powers were his before remain with him,
except so far as they are expressly taken away or limited. A sovereign
state has undoubtedly its power of legislating and there is no Agreement
with Uganda prior to the 1900 Agreement, so far as I know, which takes
away this right. . . .”

The provision that British laws apply to the kingdom except where
they conflict with the express terms of the Agreement does not “oust the
right of the Buganda to legislate for the native, nor can the Uganda
Order in Council take away any powers from the Native Government,
as the Order in Council must be read as subject to the Agreement. . . •
The court in the case quoted declared therefore that the “Native Govern¬
ment of Uganda has power to legislate for the subjects of the Kabaka after
consultation and following the advice of the Governor.’’ 24 The Lukiko
and Kabaka cannot, however, persist in disagreement with the Governor,
since the Kabaka is obliged to follow the Governor’s advice.

In order to remove all doubts as to the legislative power of the Lukiko,
the Governor and the Kabaka made the Native Laws Agreement in I 9 ia
expressly confirming the power of the Kabaka and the Lukiko with the
consent of the Governor “to make laws governing the Baganda in
Buganda.”

“Nasanairi Kibimka v. Smith (1908), Uganda Law Reports, Vol. I, p. 4 1 -

THE NATIVE KINGDOM OF BUG AN DA

581

At the beginning of each annual meeting of the Lukiko, the provincial
imissioner of the Buganda Province submits questions for discussion,
ile the chiefs may also place items on the agenda. In the 1917 session,
le forty-two resolutions were passed. These resolutions range over a
mendous ground. In 1916, a resolution was passed fixing the amount
dowry payable by poor people at fifty shillings. Another resolution was
.sed providing that people should kneel when the Kabaka passed in a
itor car. This did not, however, meet the approval of the provincial
nmissioner, who said that to uncover the head would be sufficient. In
17, the Lukiko passed another resolution that the government should
r allow children to go out to work on plantations. In 1918, it passed a
•olution providing that every person leaving Buganda must get a permit
m his gombolola chief. In 1920, it passed a resolution that chiefs should
given second instead of third class tickets on the steamers and trains, as
was not dignified for them to ride third class. In 1922, it passed a
solution stating that fees at Makerere College were too high. Other
iolutions have provided for the organization of different offices in the
tive government.

Between 1900 and 1925, the Lukiko passed about twenty-five native
ws, approved by the Secretary of State. They are, therefore, enforceable
the courts. 25 These laws punish abortion, adultery, and fornication,
eating, the carrying of knives, and the use of indecent language, and
ovide for the prevention of sleeping sickness and venereal disease. Other
ws concern cotton cultivation, tax collection, land, coming of age,
jardianship, survey, boundaries, and luwalo. Some of these laws are
saintly worded, such as “the law for the people who do not pay their
:xes before the end of the year for which they are due, 1910,” which has
ren repealed. In 1925, the Lukiko passed a draft law prohibiting more
lan one native from riding on the same bicycle, as many accidents had
rcurred because men insisted upon carrying their wives on the handle bars!

This is a real native assembly. It was in existence when the Europeans
ame, and it functions now without any European officials. The debates
re carried on in the native language, Luganda, and the laws when ap-
roved are published in the Gazette, as are other notices, both in Luganda
nd in English—a practice which other governments might well follow.

7. The Lukiko Court

While it thus holds an annual legislative meeting, the Lukiko also sits
ivery day throughout the year for administrative and judicial business. As
1 rule, however, the saza chiefs are not present, but are represented by
as For the Buganda laws, see Laws, Vol. Ill, pp. 484 ff.

582

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

lieutenants who are usually gombolola (or miruka) chiefs who go to the
Lukiko for a turn of three months at a time. Thus a large number of
natives gain political experience. Much of the business of the Lukiko in
these daily sittings is concerned with disputes between clans over lands.
For these cases, the Lukiko sits as the Kabaka’s court, deciding by majority
vote. While a clan may appeal personally to the Kabaka, it cannot appeal
to the British Government, which has recognized that the Kabaka alone
should deal with the traditional organization of his kingdom. 26 The
Lukiko, by virtue of the article in the Agreement of 1900 em¬
powering it to distribute land, also has final jurisdiction in disputes over
this subject. 27

Sitting in the same enclosure, near the main Lukiko, is the Court of
the Chief Justice, composed of ten gombolola chiefs. A number of miruka
chiefs also attend as listeners to learn the procedure. According to the
Agreement of 1900 (Article 11) the Lukiko or a committee thereof shall
“be a Court of Appeal from the decisions of the Courts of first Instances
held by the chiefs of counties. In all cases affecting property exceeding
the value of five pounds or imprisonment exceeding one week, an appeal for
revision may be addressed to the Lukiko. In all cases involving property
or claims exceeding one hundred pounds in value, or a sentence or im¬
prisonment exceeding five years, or sentences of death, the Lukiko shall refer
the matter to the consideration of the Kabaka, whose decision when
countersigned by Her Majesty’s chief representative in Uganda shall be
final. The Lukiko shall not decide any questions affecting the persons or
property of Europeans or others who are not natives of Uganda.”

According to the Judicial Agreement of 1905, an appeal may be taken
to the High Court of Uganda: (1) in criminal matters from the Buganda
courts where a sentence of death or of imprisonment exceeding five years

39 In the Uganda (Clan Cases) Agreement, 1924, the Governor and the Kabaka
agreed that no native court should take cognizance of any case relating to members
of different clans, but that such matters would be settled by the Kabaka and the
Lukiko, whose decision would be final. 1926 Supplement to the Laws of Uganda,
p • 2 73 . . .

The powers of the Lukiko over land matters have been the subjects of several
judgments of the High Court of Uganda. In 1911, two natives became involved in
a dispute over land, and one of them, not being satisfied by the decision of the
Lukiko, appealed to the High Court. But the High Court quoted Article 15 of the
Agreement, that the allotment of lands should be left to the decision of the Lukiko,
etc., and it ruled that such a decision was not subject to appeal to the British
Court. But the Lukiko had no power to change its decision and re-allot land.
Kabazi v. Kibuka, Uganda Law Reports, Vol. II, 1911, p. 9.

It held, however, in a later case, that the British Court had jurisdiction m a
dispute between two natives over an alleged contract in which one native promise
to give any land which might prove to be a surplus as a result of a survey to
another native who had originally claimed it. The High Court ruled that this
was a civil dispute, and that it could entertain an appeal from the Lukiko under
the Judicial Agreement of 1905. Mugwanya v. Sensuwa, ibid., 1916, Vol. II, P- 20 7 ‘

THE NATIVE KINGDOM OF BUG AN DA

583

a fine exceeding one hundred pounds or of whipping of over twenty-
lashes has been passed; and (2) in civil matters, in cases where
1. mount or value of the subject of the suit exceeds one hundred pounds. 28
kpart from these serious cases, where the decision of the Kabaka must
mntersigned by the British official and in which the accused or the
idant has a right of appeal, the Lukiko is supposedly the final court
he Buganda kingdom. Technically, the provincial commissioner has
i the power of representation or remonstrance in chose minor cases in
h the judgment or sentences appear to him illegal or unjust; but in
ul practice, he exercises, by the tacit consent of the native govern-
complete revisional powers, since the native government accepts his
ion without question. For the purpose of revising these judgments,
provisional commissioner keeps a revisional order book. The per-
age of revisions is relatively high. In 1924, fifty-nine out of three
Jred and ten cases were revised by the provincial commissioner, but
of seventy-seven appeals, the provincial commissioner upheld sixty-
> judgments of the Lukiko. In one case, he turned an acquittal into a
iction, but on this he was overruled by the High Court which held
1 action was ultra vires. Many revisions have been made on the ground
aulty records, and others, not because the main question of guilt or
>cence was wrongly decided, but because the penalty was out of propor-
to the offense. A court presided over by Christian chiefs is unusually
•re on moral offenders. In one case, a woman accused a man of rape;
the evidence showed that the woman had consented, provided he took
to his house. The man got in a hurry, however, and used the field,
is made the woman angry, and she hauled him before the native court,
ich condemned the man to jail for five years. The provincial com¬
moner decided that five years was altogether too much, and ordered
sentence remitted in favor of a payment of twenty shillings to the
man. On the other hand, the Lukiko fined a man guilty of forgery
iy one hundred shillings, which the provincial commissioner ruled was
i> light a punishment. 29

The records of some of these cases are kept by Lukiko officials with
lazing precision and detail. In one case “of cutting off a portion of
aintiff’s land on which the borders have been already marked,” the record
nsists of fourteen typewritten pages, containing the statements of the
aintiff and defendant, the questions and answers put to them by the
imbolola court, and the judgment of this court. The record of the
ipeal to the saza court and to the Lukiko court, together with a map of
ie land in dispute, is similarly given. This case is bound in a printed
" Laws, Vol. I, p. 461. * Laws, Vol. I, p. 461.

584

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

cover and filed after the manner of any well-behaved court in Europe
America.

Altogether, the native court system of Uganda works as successful
as do the native courts in other parts of Africa. Without them, t!
British officials would be overwhelmed with petty but complicated dispute
These courts are, moreover, an essential foundation to the edifice c
African self-government.

8. The Lukiko Offices

Of equal importance to these legislative and judicial duties are thi
administrative tasks of the Buganda Government.

When the Kabaka came of age in 1914, he reorganized the wholi
internal administration at Mengo, putting in European bookkeeping sys¬
tems and office equipment. At the present time, there are three mair
departments in the Buganda native administration: (1) the administrative
department, (2) the judicial department, and (3) the treasury depart
ment. The administrative department includes the office of the Prime
Minister, the Secretariat, where laws are drafted and correspondence
with the British Government handled, and the Land Office, a department
charged with the administration of the land under the Agreement ot
1900. Here land sales are registered and provisional certificates issued.
The Judicial Department is in charge of the chief justice who inspects court
and prison returns from each county. The Treasury Department is in charge
of a chief treasurer. While the Buganda Government has no native
treasury fed by a portion of the taxes and controlled by British advisers,
it has created two budgets of its own without the assistance and beyond
the control of the British Government.

9. The "Luuralo" Budget

The first of these budgets is composed of payments made to commute
the obligation of thirty days’ free road work a year, called luwalu. This
budget is under the control of the chief treasurer of the Lukiko. Luvvalo
was an obligation which the Kabaka imposed upon his people in olden
times—the obligation to maintain the roads between the different counties
and the capital. The Agreement of 1900 provided that all main public
roads traversing the kingdom should be maintained in good repair by the
chief of the county through which the roads ran. "The chief of a count)
shall have the right to call upon each native town, village, or commune
to furnish labourers in the proportion of one to every three huts or houses,
to assist in keeping the established roads in repair, provided that no labourers
shall be called upon to work on the roads for more than one month m

THE NATIVE KINGDOM OF BUG AND A

585

year.” 30 The British Government at present entrusts work on the
, ir roads to the Buganda Government. Main roads are, however,
- itained by the British Public Works Department.

In 1920, the Kabaka and Lukiko enacted, with the approval of the
ish Government, a Luwalo Law, exempting all saza, gombolola, and
chiefs (if the latter had ten taxpayers under them) from luwalo.
nmoners over eighteen were made liable to thirty days of luwalo labor,
r classes were, however, authorized to commute this work with a
nent of ten shillings. These classes were: (1) men working on a con-
t of three months or more; (2) men regularly employed as engine
notor drivers or as certified rubber tappers; (3) men engaged in labor
:rade on their own behalf, as approved by the chiefs and district
missioners; (4) Abatongole, Abasigiri, Ababeze, and chiefs who own
or more square miles of land. 31

On paying the tax or on completing the work, every man is given a
et on which the nature of the work and of the locality is stated. A
i not exempted by the above provisions is entitled to employ a
jtitute.

Originally, it appears that the practice of commuting luwalo was open
1 number of abuses. In 1920, the Uganda Development Commission,
iposed of Europeans appointed by the Governor to study how the
tectorate could be developed, declared that: “. . . no account is kept
receipts and expenditures, and it may be questioned if labour is hired
! paid except in a few isolated cases. Meanwhile, the quality of work
*e has steadily declined, the condition of the roads has deteriorated, and
delay in the erection of native Government buildings is almost a
ndal.” 32

These criticisms, it appears, led the Lukiko to enact supplementary
islation in 1921 improving the accounting side of commutation; while
Kabaka made other reforms.

About one-third of the able-bodied men of Buganda now commute this
vice by the payment of ten shillings. These sums are collected by
gombolola chiefs and sent to the saza chiefs. The county chiefs then
n the money over to five district luwalo inspectors, appointed by the
tbaka, and under the supervision of a provincial luwalo inspector,
lese inspectors send in sixty per cent of the luwalo money to the central
vernment at Mengo, while the remaining forty per cent is retained by
e district inspector and expended for local improvements under the

“Article 14, Uganda Agreement of 1900.

^Luwalo Law, Laws, Vol. Ill, p. 506.

” Report of the Uganda Development Commission, 1920, p. 15.

586

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

supervision of a Finance Committee upon which the British district com¬
missioner is represented. The Finance Committee must draw up annua 1
estimates as to the amount of money and the number of men required (or
local work during the year. The estimate is then sent in to be approved
by the Lukiko Finance Committee, composed of the three ministers and
the chief luwalo inspector. This latter inspector frequently goes on tour
inspecting the work of the other luwalo inspectors in connection with
roads and buildings. British officials also check the cash books which
control the receipts and expenditures of the luwalo estimates. The central
funds, comprising sixty per cent of the total tax, are handled by the Kabaka
and his ministers, without any control or audit being imposed by the
British authorities.

In 1925, the luwalo estimates had a revenue of about five hundred and
eighty thousand shillings, of which three and forty-eight thousand shillings
were expended at headquarters, and two hundred and thirty-two thousand
on the districts. The local sums are used for the construction and mainte¬
nance of roads, saza court houses, and dispensaries, the payment of saza and
gombolola clerks, headmen, and building inspectors, and for the purchase
of tools and office furniture.

About one hundred thousand shillings out of the three hundred and
forty-eight thousand shillings obtained by the central government are ex¬
pended on “personal emoluments.” The provincial luwalo inspector re¬
ceives an annual salary of six thousand six hundred shillings, while four ot
the district luwalo inspectors receive two hundred shillings per month
The fifth receives a hundred and fifty.

These funds also pay the salary of the head sanitary inspector and two
other sanitary inspectors, and of a number of road headmen. About thirty
thousand shillings a year are expended in maintaining the Lukiko police and
the Lukiko prison.

Furthermore, grants totalling thirty thousand shillings go to missionary
societies, seven thousand shillings to hospitals in the counties, and seven
thousand shillings towards payment of survey fees for poor people. The
1925 Estimates also appropriated sixty thousand shillings for a new house
for the Kabaka, about 5200 shillings for the upkeep of motor cars be¬
longing to the Lukiko and the Kabaka and 12,500 shillings for repairs to
various enclosures. Petrol for motor vehicles of the Luwalo inspectors
and of chiefs amounted to nearly thirty-four hundred shillings. Stationer),
vouchers, and revenue tickets for counties cost the treasury 27,240 shill¬
ings, while ten thousand shillings are set aside as an entertainment allow¬
ance for the chiefs. Five thousand shillings go as an “alimentary allow-

THE NATIVE KINGDOM OF BUGANDA

587

for certain of the Kabaka’s relatives,” while 7110 more go as upkeep
he Kabaka’s entertainers.

ome of these items look suspicious, especially when we remember that
expenditure of these funds is not subject to any outside audit. It
d appear, also, that the percentage of the luwalo money expended on
entral headquarters is disproportionate. Money raised from a com-
d road tax should be returned for the most part to the district where
( abor was to have been applied.

IO. The Second Budget

The Buganda Government has a second budget which, in 1925, had
icome of 152,347 shillings. The two largest items in this budget con-
■ of forty-six thousand shillings derived from the fees and fines of the
and gombolola courts, and seventy thousand shillings from market
. collected at every native market throughout the kingdom. This bud-
dso receives fees from the registration of native land, beer licenses, and
inistrative fines. Nearly thirty-four thousand out of the one and fifty-
thousand shillings collected are expended on maintaining the offices
he three ministers and the Kabaka, while about nine thousand shillings
expended on the Lukiko prison, about nine thousand four hundred more
stationery for the counties, and five thousand five hundred shillings on
brating the Kabaka’s birthday and in entertaining Lukiko guests—
is which are, to a certain extent, duplicated by the luwalo expenditures,
ty-eight thousand four hundred and forty shillings are returned to the
downers and market collectors as a share in fees collected by them,
e only items of a really social nature are four hundred shillings for the
tr settlement, and four hundred and forty shillings as a grant for
kerere college scholarships.

It is a remarkable fact that these two budgets have come into existence
ihout the assistance, consent, or control of the British authorities. Here
*1 government expending more than seven hundred thousand shillings a
• r in complete independence of even an auditor. Neither of these two
! :imates is even submitted to the approval of the Lukiko before going into
tct. The Buganda Government has probably been more free in this
pect from European control than any other government in Africa.
While the cost of maintaining the administrative machinery of the
ugdom is necessarily great, it should be remembered that the salaries of
native officials are paid not out of these budgets, but out of the
iitish treasury. It therefore appears that largely because of the absence
: the accounting control to which every European business and govern-

588

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

ment submits, the Buganda Estimates have expended an unduly large
proportion of revenue upon overhead, thereby cutting down amounts
available for promoting the welfare of the people, for which the Transkei
and the Nigeria treasuries are doing so much. 33

Realizing the importance of a form of audit, the Kabaka and the
British Government have now agreed that a British assistant auditor and
an assistant district commissioner should be assigned to the Lukiko to give
advice in regard to these highly technical matters of finance.

Sir William Gowers, the present Governor, who served as Lieutenant
Governor of the Northern Provinces of Nigeria, where the native treas¬
ury plan has been carried to its highest development, has a great oppor¬
tunity, in cooperation with a highly intelligent Kabaka, to work out a
Buganda treasury system. This treasury should be based upon the present
Lukiko budget, but should be composed of the luwalo money, court fees,
and a proportion of the taxes paid by the Buganda people to the British
Government. The salaries of the Kabaka, his ministers and chiefs should
no longer be paid by the British treasurer, but should be paid out of this
consolidated fund. The annual Buganda Estimates should be drawn up
as are the Luwalo Estimates now, and the money expended by the Kabaka
and his ministers, subject to British advice and to the installation of the
pre-audit system. It might be desirable, also, to have the Lukiko vote the
annual Estimate. The Buganda people are among the most intelligent as
well as the least detribalized natives of Africa. The male population,
unlike that of Basutoland or of the Transkei, is not obliged to go out for
half the year to European centers far away from its home. This may
account for the growth of a high degree of civic and national pride. It
is possible that if the native treasury system is introduced in Buganda, it
will be more successful than in any other part of Africa. It can be intro¬
duced, of course, only by an agreement between the Kabaka and the British
authorities.

II. Demand for Reform

The educated native has challenged the supremacy of the aristocratic
principle in Uganda as well as elsewhere. Following the World War, a
Young Buganda Association, one of whose purposes was to increase the
participation of the young intelligentsia in the government was organized.
As a matter of fact, it appears that this organization was more anti-
European than anti-Kabaka. At present, it is enjoying a dormant existence.
This element introduced a resolution in the Lukiko in 1918 to the effect
that the “intelligent young men interested in the welfare of the country”
should be allowed to select a county or gombolola chief to represent them

33 Cf. Vol. I, pp. 96, 694.

THE NATIVE KINGDOM OF BUG AND A

589

in the Lukiko; the organization also asked that the young men should
form a committee called the Lukiko of the Bakopi, or Peasants’ Parlia¬
ment. In defeating this resolution fifty-one to forty-four, the majority
of the Lukiko took the position that the young men were already repre¬
sented through the younger chiefs. As this close vote would indicate, it is
not improbable that a more democratic element will be introduced into
the Lukiko in the future, and that, for example, the gombolola chiefs will
be elected by the people instead of being appointed by the Kabaka. As we
have seen, the Buganda system is already democratic in the sense that
peasants’ sons are eligible to become chiefs. If further changes are to be
made, they should be changes genuinely asked for by the people and chiefs,
and not imposed by the British authorities.

There is a feeling of anxiety among some of the leading Baganda that
the British authorities wish to terminate the Agreement of 1900. Part
of this anxiety is due to the dispute over tithes, discussed in the next chapter,
and part to the government’s policy of changing around chiefs and trying
to develop a civil service out of these native functionaries. Moreover, in
1920, the Uganda Development Commission declared: “The Lukiko, or
native government of Buganda, appear to have failed to appreciate the
progress which the country has made. . . . The powers of the chiefs over
their men must be strengthened, and in this the Government can render
valuable assistance by exercising a wide discrimination in selecting candi¬
dates for appointment.” It believed that saza chiefs should be transferred
more frequently. The Commission continued: “. . . We feel it our
duty to state, also, that the progress of the Buganda province is retarded
by the existence of the Uganda Agreement, 1900, which in certain re¬
spects is entirely unsuitable to present-day needs. . . .” 84

This statement represents a typically European point of view. It is
difficult to see how the British Government could terminate with a clear
conscience an agreement which has been in force for twenty-seven years.
There does not appear to be any likelihood of this action, unless the
Buganda Government itself flagrantly fails to live up to its terms—which
is an equally remote possibility.

** Report of the Uganda Development Commission, paras. 325, 326.

586

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

supervision of a Finance Committee upon which the British district com¬
missioner is represented. The Finance Committee must draw up annual
estimates as to the amount of money and the number of men required for
local work during the year. The estimate is then sent in to be approved
by the Lukiko Finance Committee, composed of the three ministers and
the chief luwalo inspector. This latter inspector frequently goes on tour
inspecting the work of the other luwalo inspectors in connection with
roads and buildings. British officials also check the cash books which
control the receipts and expenditures of the luwalo estimates. The central
funds, comprising sixty per cent of the total tax, are handled by the Kabaka
and his ministers, without any control or audit being imposed by the
British authorities.

About one hundred thousand shillings out of the three hundred and
forty-eight thousand shillings obtained by the central government are ex¬
pended on “personal emoluments.” The provincial luwalo inspector re¬
ceives an annual salary of six thousand six hundred shillings, while four of
the district luwalo inspectors receive two hundred shillings per month.
The fifth receives a hundred and fifty.

Furthermore, grants totalling thirty thousand shillings go to missionary
societies, seven thousand shillings to hospitals in the counties, and seven
thousand shillings towards payment of survey fees for poor people. The
1925 Estimates also appropriated sixty thousand shillings for a new house
for the Kabaka, about 5200 shillings for the upkeep of motor cars be¬
longing to the Lukiko and the Kabaka and 12,500 shillings for repairs to
various enclosures. Petrol for motor vehicles of the Luwalo inspectors
and of chiefs amounted to nearly thirty-four hundred shillings. Stationery,
vouchers, and revenue tickets for counties cost the treasury 27,240 shill¬
ings, while ten thousand shillings are set aside as an entertainment allow¬
ance for the chiefs. Five thousand shillings go as an “alimentary allow-

THE NATIVE KINGDOM OF BUG AN DA

587

ance for certain of the Kabaka’s relatives,” while 7110 more go as upkeep
for the Kabaka’s entertainers.

Some of these items look suspicious, especially when we remember that
the expenditure of these funds is not subject to any outside audit. It
would appear, also, that the percentage of the luwalo money expended on
the central headquarters is disproportionate. Money raised from a com¬
muted road tax should be returned for the most part to the district where
the labor was to have been applied.

IO. The Second Budget

The Buganda Government has a second budget which, in 1925, had
an income of 152,347 shillings. The two largest items in this budget con¬
sist of forty-six thousand shillings derived from the fees and fines of the
saza and gombolola courts, and seventy thousand shillings from market
dues collected at every native market throughout the kingdom. This bud¬
get also receives fees from the registration of native land, beer licenses, and
administrative fines. Nearly thirty-four thousand out of the one and fifty-
two thousand shillings collected are expended on maintaining the offices
of the three ministers and the Kabaka, while about nine thousand shillings
are expended on the Lukiko prison, about nine thousand four hundred more
on stationery for the counties, and five thousand five hundred shillings on
celebrating the Kabaka’s birthday and in entertaining Lukiko guests—
items which are, to a certain extent, duplicated by the luwalo expenditures.
Forty-eight thousand four hundred and forty shillings are returned to the
landowners and market collectors as a share in fees collected by them.
The only items of a really social nature are four hundred shillings for the
leper settlement, and four hundred and forty shillings as a grant for
Makerere college scholarships.

It is a remarkable fact that these two budgets have come into existence
without the assistance, consent, or control of the British authorities. Here
is a government expending more than seven hundred thousand shillings a
year in complete independence of even an auditor. Neither of these two
Estimates is even submitted to the approval of the Lukiko before going into
effect. The Buganda Government has probably been more free in this
respect from European control than any other government in Africa.

While the cost of maintaining the administrative machinery of the
kingdom is necessarily great, it should be remembered that the salaries of
the native officials are paid not out of these budgets, but out of the
British treasury. It therefore appears that largely because of the absence
of the accounting control to which every European business and govern-

588

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

ii. Demand for Reform

33 Cf. Vol. I, pp. 96, 694.

THE NATIVE KINGDOM OF BUG AN DA

589

duty to state, also, that the progress of the Buganda province is retarded
by the existence of the Uganda Agreement, 1900, which in certain re¬
spects is entirely unsuitable to present-day needs. . . .” 34

94 Report of the Uganda Development Commission, paras. 325, 326.

588

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

ii. Demand for Reform

THE NATIVE KINGDOM OF BUGANDA

589

34 Report of the Uganda Development Commission, paras. 325, 326.

626

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

Kampala. A large number of natives deposit money with the missions,
without interest, for safe keeping. Bankers assert that from thirty to fifty
per cent of the sterling that leaves the bank to pay for cotton never returns,
which apparently indicates that the natives are burying a good deal of
money.

While both in Kenya and Uganda, facilities for native savings should
be improved, the experience of West Africa would seem to demonstrate
that the quality of thrift can best be promoted through some form of co¬
operative society, in which sums contributed by natives may be used for
the purchase of tools and other instruments of production, the results of
which may be immediately visualized. The Lukikos should be encouraged
to set up native hand ginneries and coffee pulpers and to distribute cotton
seed by means of such funds.

Whether or not as a result of this wealth, there has been a tremendous
demand for education, while native family life is better to-day than it has
been before. Chiefs have secretaries with typewriters. But this increased
wealth in Uganda has also its dark side. Sudden riches have produced the
same results here as in any other country afflicted with a nouveau riche
class. The Muganda has spent his money in many cases extravagantly.
In other cases, wealth has led to the acquisition of new vices, or at least
to the increase of old ones. Drinking, not only of native liquor, the sale of
which the Lukiko attempts to control, 14 but also of European liquor, has
increased. The latter is prohibited by law to the native, but there is a
good deal of illicit trading. This has led to increased drunkenness which
is not only bad in itself, but leads to increased crime. Most of the native
murders are due to drunkenness. Chiefs set a bad example in this respect,
and native police are loath to arrest such dignitaries. There is also a
good deal of gambling. The Annual Report of the Police for 1924 says:
“There has been a wave of discontent throughout the whole Force during
the year” due to the increased wealth of the peasants in which the Force
has not shared. Non-commissioned native officers at Soroti and Kabale
were found guilty of gambling and engaging in an illicit liquor traffic,
which was due, however, to the lack of proper European inspection. In
1924, a total of 3690 complaints were made to the police, an increase of
five hundred and sixty-six over 1923 and of seven hundred and twenty-six
over 1922. The amount of serious crime is, however, still low, most of
the offenses being the violation of such police measures as the Highway
Ordinances, for which there were two hundred and thirty convictions in
1924.

There is no doubt, moreover, that a growing spirit of indiscipline and
“Native Liquor Law, 1917.

NATIVE PRODUCTION AND ITS RESULTS

627

demoralization has come into Uganda as a result of this wealth and the
methods of obtaining it. This is felt in the government departments where
the efficiency of native artisans has declined. Three years ago, a native
bricklayer would do three hundred to three hundred and fifty bricks a day,
but now does only seventy, despite the fact that his wage is fifteen shillings
a month higher than three years ago. This deterioration is due in part to
wages which, comparatively speaking, are still low and which have driven
the better artisans into independent trade. An Indian bricklayer can
do the work of three natives. In 1925, the Uganda Government decided
to import Indian artisans to perform work which natives had hitherto
been doing. The Post Office Department has experienced similar diffi¬
culties with native telegraph operators. All of these difficulties are found in
any community, whether industrialized or primitive, which has suddenly
acquired great riches. They may eventually be overcome by a proper
educational system.

5. The Labor Situation

The most noticeable effect of this increased native production is the
labor shortage, which has nearly stifled European agricultural enterprise
and has affected the cotton industry itself. Some ginneries have been unable
to work full time because of lack of labor, and cotton has lain exposed to
the elements on the pier at Jinja, Mjanji, and Kampala for want of labor
to load it on boats or trains. There are about one hundred and sixty
European planters in Uganda to-day, who own nearly 86,000 acres of
land of which they cultivate 23,586 acres. There are also about twenty-
one Indian plantations, covering an area of 13,842 acres of which 5,997
acres are cultivated. 13 While Uganda has its Highlands, they are more
restricted and less accessible than those of Kenya. At the same time, the
areas in the vicinity of the Ruzenwori mountains and elsewhere are capable
of supporting a much larger white population than they do to-day. The
European planters, most of whom cultivate Arabica coffee and Para rubber,
depend, like their brothers in Kenya, upon native labor. But there are
few natives who wish to go miles away to live under unnatural conditions
when they can make more by growing cotton at home. Consequently, the
labor supply of the European planters has fallen off to such an extent that
several hundred acres of land have gone out of cultivation 18 and numbers
of planters have been on the verge of bankruptcy.

It appears that before and during the World War, the administrative
officials exerted “pressure” upon natives so that they would work on

“ Annual Report of the Department of Agriculture, 1924, Appendices 10, 11.

M Report of the Uganda Development Commission, 1920, p. 13.

630

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

labor. They all now sturdily assert that increased wages would not increase
the supply since the wants of a native are fixed and since he will work only
long enough to satisfy those wants. This reasoning certainly under-esti¬
mates the native’s acquisitive capacity, which is rapidly becoming that of the
white man. At the present time, there is no incentive for a native to go
out and perform steady labor for a white employer at twelve shillings a
month (which is about seven dollars a year), living under an industrial
regime, when he can make anywhere from ten to one hundred dollars a
year growing cotton on his shambas by working several hours a day during
five or six months of a year, and being assisted by his womenfolk. What
white man under these circumstances would prefer to work for an alien
employer ?

APPENDIX XV

The Uganda Agreement, 1900.

We, the undersigned, to wit, Sir Henry Hamilton Johnston, k.c.b., Her
Majesty’s Special Commissioner, Commander-in-Chief and Consul-General
for the Uganda Protectorate and the adjoining territories, on behalf of Her
Majesty the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, Empress of India, on the
one part; and the undermentioned Regents and Chiefs of the Kingdom of
Uganda on behalf of the Kabaka (King) of Uganda, and the chiefs and people
of Uganda, on the other part: do hereby agree to the following Articles rela¬
tive to the government and administration of the Kingdom of Uganda. 1

1. The boundaries of the Kingdom of Uganda shall be the following. . . .

2. The Kabaka and chiefs of Uganda hereby agree henceforth to renounce
in favour of Her Majesty the Queen any claims to tribute they may have had
on the adjoining provinces of the Uganda Protectorate.

3. The Kingdom of Uganda in the administration of the Uganda Pro¬
tectorate shall rank as a province of equal rank with any other provinces into
which the Protectorate may be divided.

4. The revenue of the Kingdom of Uganda, collected by the Uganda
Administration, will be merged in the general revenue of the Uganda Pro¬
tectorate, as will that of the other provinces of this Protectorate.

5. The laws made for the general governance of the Uganda Protectorate
by Her Majesty’s Government will be equally applicable to the Kingdom of
Uganda, except in so far as they may in any particular conflict with the
terms of this agreement, in which case the terms of this agreement will con¬
stitute a special exception in regard to the Kingdom of Uganda.

6. So long as the Kabaka, chiefs, and people of Uganda shall conform to
the laws and regulations instituted for their governance by Her Majesty’s
Government, and shall co-operate loyally with Her Majesty’s Government in
the organisation and administration of the said Kingdom of Uganda, Her
Majesty’s Government agrees to recognise the Kabaka of Uganda as the
native ruler of the province of Uganda under Her Majesty’s protection and
over-rule. The King of Uganda shall henceforth be styled His Highness the
Kabaka of Uganda. On the death of a Kabaka, his successor shall be elected
by a majority of votes in the Lukiko, or native council. The range of selection,
however, must be limited to the Royal Family of Uganda, that is to say, to
the descendants of King Mutesa. The name of the person chosen by the
native council must be submitted to Her Majesty’s Government for approval,

1 Now known as Buganda: proclamation of 27th June, 1908.

6 3

634

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

and no person shall be recognised as Kabaka of Uganda whose election
has not received the approval of Her Majesty’s Government. The Kabaka
of Uganda shall exercise direct rule over the natives of Uganda, to whom
he shall administer justice through the Lukiko, or native council, and through
others of his officers in the manner approved by Her Majesty’s Government.
The jurisdiction of the native Court of the Kabaka of Uganda, however,
shall not extend to any person not a native of the Uganda province. The
Kabaka’s Courts shall be entitled to try natives for capital crimes, but no
death sentence may be carried out by the Kabaka, or his Courts, without the
sanction of Her Majesty’s representative in Uganda. Moreover, there will be
a right of appeal from the native Courts to the principal Court of Justice
established by Her Majesty in the Kingdom of Uganda as regards all sentences
which inflict a term of more than five years’ imprisonment or a fine of over
£100. In the case of any other sentences imposed by the Kabaka’s Courts,
which may seem to Her Majesty’s Government disproportioned or inconsistent
with humane principles, Her Majesty’s representative in Uganda shall have the
right of remonstrance with the Kabaka, who shall, at the request of the said
representative, subject such sentence to reconsideration.

The Kabaka of Uganda shall be guaranteed by Her Majesty’s Govern¬
ment from out of the local revenue of the Uganda Protectorate a minimum
yearly allowance of £1,500 a year. During the present Kabaka’s minority,
however, in lieu of the above-mentioned subvention, there will be paid to the
master of his household, to meet his household expenditure, £650 a year,
and during his minority the three persons appointed to act as Regents will
receive an annual salary of £400 a year. Kabakas of Uganda will be under¬
stood to have attained their majority when they have reached the age of 18
years. The Kabaka of Uganda shall be entitled to a salute of nine guns on
ceremonial occasions when such salutes are customary.

7. The Namasole, or mother of the present Kabaka (Chua), shall be
paid during her lifetime an allowance at the rate of £50 a year. This allow¬
ance shall not necessarily be continued to the mothers of other Kabakas.

8. All cases, civil or criminal, of a mixed nature, where natives of the
Uganda province and non-natives of that province are concerned, shall be
subject to British Courts of Justice only.

9. For purposes of native administration the Kingdom of Uganda shall
be divided into the following districts or administrative counties:—

1. Kiagwe.

2. Bugerere.

3. Bulemezi.

4. Buruli.

5. Bugangadzi.

6. Buyaga.

7. Bwekula.

8. Singo.

9. Busuju.

10. Gomba (Butunzi).

11. Butambala (Bweya).

12. Kiadondo.

13. Busiro.

14. Mawokta.

THE UGANDA AGREEMENT, 1900

635

15. Buvuma. 18. Koki.

16. Sese. 19. Mawogola.

17. Buddu. 20. Kabula.

At the head of each county shall be placed a chief who shall be selected
by the Kabaka’s Government, but whose name shall be submitted for approval
to Her Majesty’s representative. This chief, when approved by Her
Majesty’s representative, shall be guaranteed from out of the revenue of
Uganda a salary at the rate of £200 a year.’ To the chief of a county will be
entrusted by Her Majesty’s Government, and by the Kabaka, the task of
administering justice amongst the natives dwelling in his country, 3 the assess¬
ment and collection of taxes, the up-keep of the main roads, and the general
supervision of native affairs. On all questions but the assessment and col¬
lection of taxes the chief of the county will report direct to the King’s native
ministers, from whom he will receive his instructions. When arrangements
have been made by Her Majesty’s Government for the organisation of a
police force in the province of Uganda, a certain number of police will be
placed at the disposal of each chief of a county to assist him in maintaining
order. For the assessment and payment of taxes, the chief of a county shall
be immediately responsible to Her Majesty’s representative, and should he fail
in his duties in this respect, Her Majesty’s representative shall have the
right to call upon the Kabaka to dismiss him from his duties and to appoint
another chief in his stead. In each county an estate, not exceeding an area
of eight square miles, shall be attributed to the chieftainship of a county,
and its usufruct shall be enjoyed by the person occupying, for the time being,
the position of chief of the county.

10. To assist the Kabaka of Uganda in the government of his people he
shall be allowed to appoint three native officers of state, with the sanction
and approval of Her Majesty’s representative in Uganda (without whose
sanction such appointments shall not be valid):—A Prime Minister, otherwise
known as Katikiro; a Chief Justice; and a Treasurer or Controller of the
Kabaka’s revenues. These officials shall be paid at the rate of £300 a year.
Their salaries shall be guaranteed them by Her Majesty’s Government from
out of the funds of the Uganda Protectorate. During the minority of the
Kabaka these three officials shall be constituted the Regents, and when
acting in that capacity shall receive salary at the rate of £400 a year. Her
Majesty’s chief representative in Uganda shall at any time have direct access
to the Kabaka, and shall have the power of discussing matters affecting Uganda
with the Kabaka alone or, during his minority, with the Regents; but ordinarily
the three officials above designated will transact most of the Kabaka’s busi¬
ness with the Uganda Administration. The Katikiro shall be ex officio the
President of the Lukiko, or native council; the Vice-President of the Lukiko
shall be the native Minister of Justice for the time being; in the absence of

2 See the Uganda (Payment to Chiefs) Agreement, 1908.

3 See The Uganda Agreement (Judicial), 1905.

636

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

both Prime Minister and Minister of Justice, the Treasurer of the Kabaka’s
revenues, or third minister, shall preside over the meetings of the Lukiko.

11. The Lukiko, or native council, shall be constituted as follows:—

In addition to the three native ministers, who shall be ex officio senior
members of the council, each chief of a county (twenty in all) shall be
ex officio a member of the council. Also each chief of a county shall be per¬
mitted to appoint a person to act as his lieutenant in this respect to attend
the meetings of the council during his absence, and to speak and vote in his
name. The chief of a county, however, and his lieutenant may not both appear
simultaneously, at the council. In addition, the Kabaka shall select from each
county three notables, whom he shall appoint during his pleasure, to be
members of the Lukiko or native council. The Kabaka may also, in addition
to the foregoing, appoint six other persons of importance in the country to
be members of the native council. The Kabaka may at any time deprive any
individual of the right to sit on the native council, but in such a case shall
intimate his intention to Her Majesty’s representative in Uganda, and re¬
ceive his assent thereto before dismissing the member. The functions of
the council will be to discuss all matters concerning the native administration
of Uganda, and to forward to the Kabaka resolutions which may be voted by
a majority regarding measures to be adopted by the said administration. The
Kabaka shall further consult with Her Majesty’s representative in Uganda
before giving effect to any such resolutions voted by the native council, and
shall, in this matter, explicitly follow the advice of Her Majesty’s representa¬
tive. The Lukiko, or a committee thereof, shall be a Court of Appeal from the
decisions of the Courts of First Instances held by the chiefs of counties. 4 In
all cases affecting property exceeding the value of £5, or imprisonment ex¬
ceeding one week, an appeal for revision may be addressed to the Lukiko.
In all cases involving property or claims exceeding £100 in value, or a sentence
of imprisonment exceeding five years, or sentences of death, the Lukiko shall
refer the matter to the consideration of the Kabaka, whose decision when
countersigned by Her Majesty’s chief representative in Uganda shall be final.*
The Lukiko shall not decide any questions affecting the persons or property of
Europeans or others who are not natives of Uganda. No person may be
elected to the Lukiko who is not a native of the Kingdom of Uganda. No
question of religious opinion shall be taken into consideration in regard to
the appointment by the Kabaka of members of the Council. In this matter
he shall use his judgment and abide by the advice of Her Majesty’s representa¬
tive, assuring in this manner a fair proportionate representation of all recog¬
nised expressions of religious belief prevailing in Uganda.

12. In order to contribute to a reasonable extent towards the general
cost of the maintenance of the Uganda Protectorate, there shall be established
the following taxation for Imperial purposes, that is to say, the proceeds of
the collection of these taxes shall be handed over intact to Her Majesty’s

4 See now The Uganda Agreement (Judicial), 1905.

*Cf. Article 6, the Uganda Agreement (Judicial), 1905, Article 4.

THE UGANDA AGREEMENT, 1900 637

representative in Uganda as the contribution of the Uganda province towards
the general revenue of the Protectorate.

The taxes agreed upon at present shall be the following:—

(a) A hut tax of three rupees, or 4s. per annum, on any house, hut, or
habitation, used as a dwelling place. 0

( b) A gun tax of three rupees, or 4s. per annum, to be paid by any person
who possesses or uses a gun, rifle, or pistol.

The Kingdom of Uganda shall be subject to the same Customs Regulations,
Porter Regulations, and so forth, which may, with the approval of Her
Majesty, be instituted for the Uganda Protectorate generally, which may be
described in a sense as exterior taxation, but no further interior taxation, other
than the hut tax, shall be imposed on the natives of the province of Uganda
without the agreement of the Kabaka, who in this matter shall be guided by
the majority of votes in his Native Council. This arrangement, however, will
not affect the question of township rates, lighting rates, water rates, market
dues, and so forth, which may be treated apart as matters affecting muni¬
cipalities or townships; nor will it absolve natives from obligations as regards
military service, or the up-keep of main roads passing through the lands on
which they dwell. A hut tax shall be levied on any building which is used as a
dwelling place. A collection of not more than four huts, however, which are
in a separate and single enclosure and are inhabited only by a man and his
wife, or wives, may be counted as one hut. The following buildings will be
exempted from the hut tax: temporary shelters erected in the fields for the
purpose of watching plantations; or rest houses erected by the roadside for
passing travellers; buildings used solely as tombs, churches, mosques, or
schools, and not slept in or occupied as a dwelling: the residence of the Kabaka
and his household (not to exceed fifty buildings in number; the residence of
the Namasole, or Queen Mother (not to exceed twenty in number); the
official residences of the three native Ministers, and of all the chiefs of
counties (not to exceed ten buildings in number); but in the case of dispute
as to the liability of a building to pay hut tax, the matter must be referred
to the Collector for the province of Uganda, whose decision must be final.
The Collector of a province may also authorise the chief of a county to
exempt from taxation any person whose condition of destitution may, in the
opinion of the Collector, make the payment of such tax an impossibility. By
Collector is meant the principal British official representing the Uganda
Administration in the province of Uganda. The representative of Her
Majesty's Government in the Uganda Protectorate may from time to time
direct that in the absence of current coin, a hut or gun tax may be paid in
produce or in labour according to a scale which shall be laid down by the
said representative. As regards the gun tax, it will be held to apply to any
person who possesses or makes use of a gun, rifle, pistol, or any weapon dis¬
charging a projectile by the aid of gunpowder, dynamite, or compressed air.

°Poll tax has now been substituted for Hut tax. See Uganda Agreement (Poll
Tax) 1920.

638 THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

The possession of any cannon or machine gun is hereby forbidden to any
native of Uganda. A native who pays a gun tax may possess or use as many
as five guns. For every five or for every additional gun up to five, which he
may be allowed to possess or use, he will have to pay another tax. Exemptions
front the gun tax will, however, be allowed to the following extent:—

The Kabaka will be credited, with fifty gun licenses free, by which he
may arm as many as. fifty of his household. The Queen Mother will, in like
manner, be granted ten free licenses annually, by which she may arm as
many as ten persons of her household; each of the three native ministers
(Katikiro, Native Chief Justice, and Treasurer of the Kabaka’s revenue) shall
be granted twenty free gun licenses annually, by which they may severally
arm twenty persons of their household. Chiefs of counties will be similarly
granted ten annual free gun licenses; all other members of the Lukiko or
native council, not chiefs of counties, three annual gun licenses, and all landed
proprietors in the country, with estates exceeding 500 acres in extent, one free
annual gun license.

13. Nothing in this agreement shall be held to invalidate the pre-existing
right of the Kabaka of Uganda to call upon every able-bodied male among
his subjects for military service in defence of the country; but the Kabaka
henceforth will only exercise this right of conscription, or of levying native
troops, under the advice of Her Majesty’s principal representative in the
Protectorate. In times of peace, the armed forces, organised by the Uganda
Administration will probably be sufficient for all purposes of defence; but
if Her Majesty’s representative is of opinion that the force of Uganda should
be strengthened at any time, he may call upon the Kabaka to exercise in a
full or in a modified degree his claim on the Baganda people for military
service. In such an event the arming and equipping of such force would be
undertaken by the administration of the Uganda Protectorate.

14. All main public roads traversing the Kingdom of Uganda, and all
roads the making of which shall at any time be decreed by the native council
with the assent of Her Majesty’s representative, shall be maintained in good
repair by the chief of the Saza (or county) through which the roads run.
The chief of a county shall have the right to call upon each native town,
village, or commune, to furnish labourers in the proportion of one to every
three huts or houses, to assist in keeping the established roads in repair,
provided that no labourers shall be called upon to work on the roads for
more than one month in each year. Europeans and all foreigners whose lands
abut on established main roads, will be assessed by the Uganda Administra¬
tion and required to furnish either labour or to pay a labour rate in money
as their contribution towards the maintenance of the highways. When circum¬
stances permit, the Uganda Administration may further make grants from
out of its Public Works Department for the construction of new roads
or any special repairs to existing highways, of an unusually expensive character.

15. The land of the Kingdom of Uganda shall be dealt with in the fol¬
lowing manner:—

THE UGANDA AGREEMENT, 1900 639

Assuming the area of the Kingdom of Uganda, as comprised within the
limits cited in this agreement, to amount to 19,600 square miles, it shall be
divided in the following proportions:—

Square

miles.

Forests to be brought under control of the Uganda Administration... 1,500
Waste and uncultivated land to be vested in Her Majesty’s Govern¬
ment, and to be controlled by the Uganda Administration. 9,000

Plantations and other private property of His Highness the Kabaka

of Uganda . 350

Plantations and other private property of the Namasole. 16

(Note .—If the present Kabaka died and another Namasole were ap¬
pointed, the existing one would be permitted to retain as her per¬
sonal property 6 square miles, passing on 10 square miles as the
endowment of every succeeding Namasole.)

Plantations and other private property of the Namasole, mother of

Mwanga . 10

To the Princes: Joseph, Augustine, Ramazan, and Yusufu-Suna,

8 square miles each. 32

For the Princesses, sisters, and relations of the Kabaka. 90

Square

miles.

To the Abamasaza (chiefs of counties) twenty in all, 8 square

miles each (private property) . 160

Official estates attached to the posts of the Abamasaza, 8 square .

miles each . 160

- 320

The three Regents will receive private property to the extent

of 16 square miles each. 48

And official property attached to their office, 16 square miles
each, the said official property to be afterwards attached

to the posts of the three native ministers. 48

- 96

Mbogo (the Muhammedan chief) will receive for himself and his

adherents . 24

Kamswaga, chief of Koki, will receive. 20

One thousand chiefs and private landowners will receive the estates
of which they are already in possession, and which are computed
at an average area of 8 square miles per individual, making a

total of . 8,000

There will be allotted to the three missionary societies in existence
in Uganda as private property, and in trust for the native churches,

as much as .. 92

Land taken up by the Government for Government stations prior to

the present settlement (at Kampala, Entebbe, Masaka, etc., etc.) .. 50

Total 19,600

640

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

After a careful survey of the Kingdom of Uganda has been made, if
the total area should be found to be less than 19,600, then that portion of the
country which is to be vested in Her Majesty’s Government shall be reduced
in extent by the deficiency found to exist in the estimated area. Should,
however, the area of Uganda be established at more than 19,600 square miles,
then the surplus shall be dealt with as follows:—

It shall be divided into two parts, one-half shall be added to that amount
of land which is vested in Her Majesty’s Government, and the other half
will be divided proportionately among the properties of the Kabaka, the three
Regents or Native Ministers, and the Abamasaza, or chiefs of counties.

The aforesaid 9,000 square miles of waste or cultivated, or uncultivated
land, or land occupied without prior gift of the Kabaka or chiefs by bakopi
or strangers, are hereby vested in Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain
and Ireland, Empress of India, and Protectress of Uganda, on the under¬
standing that the revenue derived from such lands shall form part of the
general revenue of the Uganda Protectorate.

The forests, which will be reserved for Government control, will be, as a
rule, those forests over which no private claim can be raised justifiably, and
will be forests of some continuity, which should be maintained as woodland
in the general interests of the country.

As regards the allotment of the 8,ooo square miles among the 1,000 private
landowners, this will be a matter to be left to the decision of the Lukiko,
with an appeal to the Kabaka. The Lukiko will be empowered to decide
as to the validity of claims, the number of claimants and the extent of land
granted, premising that the total amount of land thus allotted amongst the
chiefs and accorded to native landowners of the country is not to exceed 8,000
square miles.

Europeans and non-natives, who have acquired estates, and whose claims
thereto have been admitted by the Uganda Administration, will receive title-
deeds for such estates in such manner and with such limitations, as may be
formulated by Her Majesty’s representative. The official estates granted to
the Regents, Native Ministers, or chiefs of counties, are to pass with the
office, and their use is only to be enjoyed by the holders of the office.

Her Majesty’s Government, however, reserves to itself the right to carry
through or construct roads, railways, canals, telegraphs, or other useful public
works, or to build military forts or works of defence on any property, public
or private, with the condition that not more than 10 per cent, of the property
in question shall be taken up for these purposes without compensation, and
that compensation shall be given for the disturbance of growing crops or of
buildings.

16. Until Her Majesty’s Government has seen fit to devise and promulgate
forestry regulations, it is not possible in this agreement to define such forest
rights as may be given to the natives of Uganda; but it is agreed on behalf
of Her Majesty’s Government, that in arranging these forestry regulations,
the claims of the Baganda people to obtain timber for building purposes,

THE UGANDA AGREEMENT, igoo

641

firewood, and other products of the forests or uncultivated lands, shall be
taken into account, and arrangements made by which under due safeguards
against abuse these rights may be exercised gratis.

17. As regards mineral rights: The rights to all minerals found on
private estates shall be considered to belong only to the owners of those
estates, subject to a 10 per cent, ad valorem duty, which will be paid to the
Uganda Administration when the minerals are worked. On the land outside
private estates, the mineral rights shall belong to the Uganda Administration,
which, however, in return for using or disposing of the same must compensate
the occupier of the soil for the disturbance of growing crops or buildings, and
will be held liable to allot to him from out of the spare lands in the Pro¬
tectorate an equal area of soil to that from which he has been removed. On
these waste and uncultivated lands of the Protectorate, the mineral rights shall
be vested in Her Majesty’s Government as represented by the Uganda
Administration. In like manner the ownership of the forests, which are not
included within the limits of private properties, shall be henceforth vested in
Her Majesty’s Government.

18. In return for the cession to Her Majesty’s Government of the right
of control over 10,550 square miles of waste, cultivated, uncultivated, or
forest lands, there shall be paid by Her Majesty’s Government in trust for
the Kabaka (upon his attaining his majority) a sum of £500, and to the three
Regents collectively, £600, namely, to the Katikiro £300, and the other two
regents £150 each.

19. Her Majesty’s Government agrees to pay to the Muhammedan
Uganda chief, Mbogo, a pension for life of £250 a year, on the understanding
that all rights which he may claim (except such as are guaranteed in the
foregoing clauses) are ceded to Her Majesty’s Government.

20. Should the Kingdom of Uganda fail to pay to the Uganda Administra¬
tion during the first two years after the signing of this agreement, an amount
of native taxation, equal to half that which is due in proportion to the number
of inhabitants; or should it at any time fail to pay without just cause or
excuse, the aforesaid minimum of taxation due in proportion to the population;
or should the Kabaka, chiefs, or people of Uganda, pursue, at any time, a
policy which is distinctly disloyal to the British Protectorate; Her Majesty’s
Government will no longer consider themselves bound by the terms of this
Agreement.

On the other hand, should the revenue derived from the hut and gun
tax exceed two years running a total value of £45,000 a year, the Kabaka and
chiefs of counties shall have the right to appeal to Her Majesty’s Government
for an increase in the subsidy given to the Kabaka, and the stipends given
to the native ministers and chiefs, such increase to be in the same proportional
relation as the increase in the revenue derived from the taxation of the natives.

21. Throughout this Agreement the phrase “Uganda Administration’’
shall be taken to mean that general government of the Uganda Protectorate,
which is instituted and maintained by Her Majesty’s Government; “Her

642

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

Majesty’s representative” shall mean the Commissioner, High Commissioner,
Governor, or principal official of any designation who is appointed by Her
Majesty’s Government to direct the affairs of Uganda.

22. In the interpretation of this agreement the English text shall be the
version which is binding on both parties.

Done in English and Luganda at Mengo, in the Kingdom of Uganda, on
the ioth March, 1900.

SECTION VII

NIGERIA

CHAPTER 36

GENERAL ADMINISTRATION
I. Population

As it exists to-day—a vast territory extending from Lagos to Lake
Chad—Nigeria is the largest colony in Africa, having a total area in
the neighborhood of 365,000 square miles—about as large as the British
Isles, France, and Belgium together—and a population of 18,000,000 or
19,000,000 people. Next to India, Nigeria is the most populous British
possession in the world.

In the north one find comparatively civilized Moslem peoples, such
as the Hausa, the Fulani, the Kanuri, and the Nupe, together with two
hundred and fifty animist pagan tribes. The most widely distributed of
these people, the Hausas, dominate the social and economic life of the
country. Except for the Fulani which have kept their Hamitic blood
comparatively free from negro mixture, and of the Kanuri who are of
Berber extraction, the other tribes of the north belong to the negroid
group. 1

In southern Nigeria, the population is composed largely of negroes or
Sudanese. The two largest tribes are the Ibos who total almost 4,000,000,
and the Yorubas who number 2,ii4,ooo. 2 The Northern Provinces—
formerly the protectorate of Northern Nigeria—now have a population of
about 10,300,000; while the Southern Provinces have about 8,147,000.
These figures, however, are tentative because of the tremendous difficulties
in conducting a census over such an area. An early estimate placed the
population of Northern Nigeria at about 20,000,000, but it was soon
reduced to 9,161,700 in 1904 and to 7,164,751 in 1906. The 1911 census
put the figure at 8,115,981, which was changed to 9,274,98 i. 3 The first
serious census was only taken in 1921, showing a population of 9,998,314,
so that it is impossible to state whether the population of northern Nigeria

1 The two main racial divisions in Africa are the Bantus who occupy Africa
as far north as the Cameroons, and the negroes proper who extend between the
Sahara desert and the Cameroons. The physical differences between the races
are slight. But there is a difference in language and in institutions, i.e. most of
the leading native states are found among the negroes.

a P. A. Talbot, The Peoples of Southern Nigeria, London, 1926, Vol. IV, p. 18.

*C. K. Meek, The Northern Tribes of Nigeria, London, 1925, Vol. II, p. 169.

645

646

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

has increased or decreased during the last twenty years. Partly because of
epidemics, particularly the influenza epidemic of 1918, it is probable that
the population of southern Nigeria is to-day about the same as in 1911. 4

In contrast to northern Nigeria and, for that matter, to the rest of
Africa, southern Nigeria is notable because about five-eighths of the native
inhabitants live in towns. There are eighty-four towns in southern
Nigeria having a population of between 10,000 and 20,000. Nineteen
towns have between 20,000 and 50,000 inhabitants each. Ibadan is the
largest town, having in 1921 a population of 136,705. Lagos comes next
with 99,690. The existence of these large towns is due apparently to a
desire of the people originally for mutual protection, and also to their
strongly developed social life. Most of the people are farmers having their
fields located a few miles from the city. Whatever advantage the city may
possess from the standpoint of administration, the dense population makes
it difficult to combat disease. For some reason the population of these
towns has fallen off considerably since 191*1. Thus the population of
Abeokuta has dropped from 51,255 to 28,941, and of Ibadan from 175,000
to 136,705.“

2. Administrative Organization

The present colony and protectorate of Nigeria was constituted only
in 1914. Before that date this part of Africa was divided into the colony
and protectorate of Southern Nigeria, and the protectorate of Northern
Nigeria, each independent of the other. The British government annexed
Lagos in 1861, and it established the protectorates in 1900. 6

Owing to financial difficulties and to conflicts over railway policy, the
British government instructed the Governor-General, Sir Frederick Lu-
gard, to bring about an amalgamation, which was accomplished in 1914..
The whole of Nigeria was, thereupon, placed under the control of a
governor 7 with a Lieutenant-Governor in charge of the northern and
southern provinces. The Lieutenant-Governor also acted as the adminis¬
trator of the Colony. 8 The capital of the northern provinces is Kaduna,
while Lagos is the capital of the southern provinces and the seat of the
central government. Plans have been made, however, for moving the
capital of the southern provinces to an inland point.

Before 1920, the Governor-General ruled through the two Lieutenant-

* Talbot, cited, Vol. IV, p. 7. 5 Ibid., p. 13.

“Before 1906 the colony of Lagos was independent of the protectorate of
Southern Nigeria, but in that year they were merged.

7 Sir Frederick Lugard, however, bore the personal title of Governor-General.

8 The two Lieutenant-Governors and the administrator are granted certain
specific powers under various proclamations or Ordinances. Nigeria General
Orders I and II (19x5), pp. 457 if. See also Laws of Nigeria, 1923, Vol. Ill, p. 2.
Hereafter cited as Laws,

GENERAL ADMINISTRATION

647

Governors, having also directly under him a Central Secretariat which
dealt with the word of certain combined departments, such as railways
and treasury. But so many differences arose that in that year a Nigerian
Secretariat was established, headed by an official called the Chief Secre-
try, ranking next to the Governor. The business of the secretariat is to
overlook the whole administrative machinery. Having no executive powers,
the Chief Secretary is the principal adviser of the Governor. Orders
emanating from the Governor are transmitted through the Chief Secre¬
tary. 9

In every government in Africa difficulties frequently arise between the
conflicting jurisdiction of the political officers, who perform general ad¬
ministrative duties, and departmental experts, such as officers in the Public
Works Department and in the Department of Public Health. The Gov¬
ernor is, of course, supreme over both the political and the departmental
services. But the question arose in establishing a federal type of govern¬
ment in Nigeria whether separate departments should be created responsible
to the Lieutenant-Governor of each province, or whether all departments
should continue to be directed from Lagos, under the immediate control
of the Governor. Except for education and police, the latter alternative
was adopted. But, according to the Governor, the plan at first led to an
undesirable centralization of public business at Lagos which is “exercising
a paralyzing effect upon the members of the Public Service and upon the
efficient transaction of administrative affairs. A system has sprung up
of rigid severance between the Political and Non-Political Branches of the
Administration. Heads of Departments have shown a tendency to resent
what they have learned to regard as the interference of Political Officers
with the Officers of the Departments serving in the Provinces which are
under the administrative charge of the former; and in some instances,
information of local interest and importance has been denied to Depart¬
mental Officers by Residents” and vice versa. 10 In order to decentralize
administration, the Governor issued an order to the effect that . . . “It
will be the business of the Lieutenant-Governor to overlook the entire
administrative machine and to supervise in the interests of the Government
and of the public, every branch of political or departmental activity in
the group of Provinces under their administration . . . and save in purely
departmental or technical matters they will be at liberty should the neces-

8 Cf. Nigerian Council, Address by the Governor, December 29, 1920, p. 5. The
Nigerian Secretariat also has a Secretary for Native Affairs who, together with
the Chief Secretary, advises the Lieutenant-Governors upon matters of policy.
A Lieutenant-Governor, wishing to communicate with the Governor, does so
through his own secretariat and through the- Chief Secretary. If necessary,
however, he may address the Governor direct.

* Ibid., p. 14.

648

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

sity arise, to give direct orders to officers belonging to the Non-Political
Departments, who for the time being are serving in those Provinces. Any
such orders, together with a statement of the reasons for them, should
in every case be immediately reported by the Secretariat of the Lieutenant-
Governor concerned to the Head of the Department to whose officers they
have been given. . . . Orders issued by Lieutenant-Governor in the Prov¬
inces under his administration, however, must not be cancelled by a Head
of a Department without first being referred to the Chief Secretary to
Government for decision.” 11 These instructions have not, however, en¬
tirely removed conflicts between the political and departmental authorities,
especially in regard to native administration. 12

There are twenty-two provinces in Nigeria, eleven in the south and
eleven in the north. 13 Each province is in turn divided into “divisions,”
of which there are eighty-one. There is one political officer on duty to
every hundred thousand people in northern Nigeria, while there is one
such officer for every seventy thousand people in the south. There are
fewer officers per population in Nigeria than in any other well-adminis¬
tered colony in Africa. It is possible to administer units of this large size
because of the extent to which the government utilizes native insti¬
tutions. 14

The federal principle is found not only in the relation of the Lieu¬
tenant-Governors to the Governor, but also within the provinces. Each
province is headed by a Senior Resident or a Resident, responsible to the
Lieutenant-Governor, who receive a salary of 1400 pounds and 1200
pounds respectively, plus several hundred pounds “duty pay.” 16 Each
division is headed by a district officer in turn responsible to the Resident
of the Province.

“The Resident of a Province is, within the limits of that Province, its
Principal Executive Officer of Government, and is personally and directly
responsible to the Lieutenant-Governor under whom he is serving, for
the peace, tranquillity and good order of his Province, and for the efficient
execution of all public business which at any time is being carried on
within it. In case of emergency, of which the Resident must be accepted
as the sole judge, when immediate action is necessary, and reference cannot
be had to higher authority, a Resident may, on his own responsibility, issue

“Minute of Governor, November 21, 1920, revised, Nigeria Gazette, Extraor¬
dinary, March 12, 1925.

13 Cf. Vol. I, p. 725.

13 The number of provinces in the north was reduced from twelve to eleven in
1926. Annual General Report, Nigeria, 1926, p. 5.

14 Cf. Vol. I, p. 688.

“The Lieutenant-Governors receive 2400 pounds and the Governor, 6500
pounds, plus 1750 pounds duty pay. Quarters are furnished all officials

GENERAL ADMINISTRATION

649

orders designed to meet the situation, and these must be accepted and
acted upon by those to whom they are addressed.” 16

As a rule, European traders in Nigeria live in especially established
townships of which there are three classes. 17 Lagos is the only first class
township; but there are seventeen second class and thirty-five third class
townships throughout Nigeria. 18

While the Government may establish elective councils in the first class
townships, a specially appointed officer, called the Station Magistrate, ad¬
ministers the second and third class townships. Townships come under
British and not native law, and the officer in charge is usually a Commis¬
sioner of the Supreme Court. Legislation for Nigeria is enacted, as far
as the colony and southern provinces are concerned, by a Legislative Coun¬
cil, 19 subject to the control of an official majority, the veto of the Gover¬
nor, and the disallowance of the Crown. Legislation for northern Nigeria
is enacted by the Governor.

3. The Judicial System

Judicial power is invested in three classes of courts, each of which
has original and complete jurisdiction within the limits assigned to it—the
Supreme Court, the Provincial Courts, and the Native Courts. The Su¬
preme Court consists of the Chief Justice and four “Puisne” judges of
Nigeria. 20 With certain exceptions, its jurisdiction is limited to the
Colony and certain important trading centers in the protectorate. The
Supreme Court takes various forms, the first of which is the Full Court,
consisting of the Chief Justice and two or more judges, which forms a
Court of Appeal from the decisions of the Divisional Courts. While the
jurisdiction of the Full Court is final in criminal matters, appeals in civil
cases may be taken to the Privy Council. The Supreme Court is divided
into two divisional courts, one for the Eastern provinces, i.e., those lying
east of the Niger and south of the Benue; and one for the Western
provinces. Assizes are held by different justices twice a year in each division
at places designated by the Chief Justice. By this means political officers are
relieved of much judicial work which has little to do with native affairs.
Moreover, each Station Magistrate is a Commissioner of the Supreme
Court—i.e., he may try civil cases where the debt or claim does not exceed
50 pounds, and criminal cases where the sentence is not more than six
months imprisonment, a fine of 50 pounds or twelve strokes. An appeal

18 Minute of Governor, cited.

? T Townships Ordinance, 1917, Chap. 57, Laws.

18 The Nigeria Handbook, 1925, Lagos, p. 192. “Cf. Vol. I, p. 738.

“The Chief Justice and Puisne judges of the Gold Coast are ex officio puisne
members.

650

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

may be taken from the Commissioner’s Court to the Divisional Court;
while monthly lists of criminal cases are transmitted to the Chief Justice . 21

In contrast to this Supreme Court system is what is called the Provin¬
cial Court system. Except in the local limits of the Supreme Court a
Provincial Court has complete jurisdiction over all natives and non-natives.
The Resident of the Province is President of the court; and district
officers are commissioners. A Resident not in charge of the Province has
jurisdiction in civil cases up to £100—a District Officer or Assistant Dis¬
trict Officer, up to £50, and other commissioners up to £25. 22 A Criminal
Code defines this jurisdiction. 23 These three classes of officials may re¬
spectively impose (a) £100 fine, five years’ imprisonment and flogging;
(b) £50 fines, two years’ and flogging; and (c) £25, three months and
twelve strokes. There is no limit to the number of officers who may be
appointed commissioners of the Provincial Court. Sessions may be held
at any place within the province, except in the Supreme Court areas.
Monthly lists of criminal cases of each court must be returned to the Gov¬
ernor;—which operates as an appeal of each court and no sentence of death
(if, indeed, the power is granted to the Provincial Court), imprisonment
over six months, fine over £50, or flogging over twelve strokes, or judgment
in a civil suit between natives involving rights over land exceeding ten acres,
or any privilege of a native chief, can be carried out by a Provincial Court
until confirmed by the Governor who may delegate these powers to the
Chief Justice. A party to a civil case has a right to appeal 24 to the Su¬
preme Court, and a case may be transferred from the Provincial to the
Supreme Court.

No legal practitioner is allowed to appear before the Provincial Court
(Sec. 33) or on appeal to the Supreme Court without the consent of the
Chief Justice. It is the duty of the judge—an administrative officer—to
watch the interests of the accused. “The object of this restriction is to
check the fomenting of litigation by lawyers’ touts which, by a consensus
of opinion, has become a public scandal in the Southern Provinces, with
the natural corollary of rendering litigation extremely costly, to the detri¬
ment of litigants and the benefit of lawyers. It also aimed at reducing the
delays which in the former Supreme Court were stated by the Chief
Justice to be largely due to Counsel.” 25 African lawyers and various

21 Sec. 41, Supreme Court Ordinance.

23 Sec. 12, Provincial Courts Ordinance, Chap. 4. M Chap. 21, Laws.

24 Sec. 23, Provincial Courts Ordinance, Chap. 4, Laws.

25 F. D. Lugard, Revision of Instructions to Political Officers, on subjects Chiefly
Political and Administrative, 1913-1918, London, 1919, p. 88. Hereafter cited as
Political Memoranda. See also the memoranda of the Attorney-General and Chief
Justice. Report by Sir F. D. Lugard, Amalgamation of Northern and Southern
Nigeria, and Administration, 1912-19IQ, Cmd. 468, (1919) pp. 75 ff.

GENERAL ADMINISTRATION

651

members of the House of Commons have severely criticized this exclusion
of counsel from the Provincial Courts—a system which went into effect
only in southern Nigeria in 1914—on the ground that it deprives natives
of a guaranty recognized in all civilized countries. In Nigeria they assert
that natives are sentenced to death without being allowed the assistance of
counsel. Between 1922-1924 out of such 382 persons tried for murder,
247 were executed, 82 were pardoned, and 54 cases were discharged or
otherwise dealt with. 28 If the district officers or native courts had final
authority to administer capital punishment, these complaints might be
justified. But all death sentences imposed by the Provincial Courts (and
this jurisdiction is vested only in the Resident) are subject to confirmation
by the Chief Justice and by the Governor, upon the basis of the record—
which is virtually equivalent to an appeal. If the defendant is unsatisfied
with this type of appeal he has the right to have his case transferred from
the Provincial to the Supreme Court where he may employ counsel. Few
natives exercise this choice, preferring to trust their fate to an administra¬
tive officer in whose fairness and knowledge they have more confidence
than in a severe judicial officer.

In criticizing the present regime African barristers are apparently more
concerned about land cases than about murder cases. Persons charged with
murder, as a rule, have no money with which to employ counsel. It is
quite otherwise with land cases where the parties play for large stakes and
where fat fees are the rule when the cases manage to get to the Supreme
Court. 27 The ordinary native, living under tribal conditions, does not
appear to want the presence of lawyers. In the Judicial Agreements of
1904 between the Egba and the Oyo kingdom and the British Government,
both the native kings declared “that it is their strong desire that bar¬
risters and solicitors should not be allowed to practice” in the courts
authorized in the Agreements. During the World War, the kings of the
Yoruba states, when asked for their opinion, again denounced in no un¬
certain terms the ideas of lawyers practicing in the courts. 28 Lawyers in

"Reply to Question by Mr. Briant, March 8, 1926, House of Commons, Vol.
192, col. 1949.

• Mr. Ormsby-Gore, in his Visit to IVest Africa, Cmd. 2744 (1926) cites one
case where a native, “although there was no doubt as to his being the proper
occupier of his land, had been compelled to find no less than £700 in legal expenses
in order to defend himself against a claim made against him by a stranger egged
on by an unscrupulous advocate,” p. 118.

“The Natal Native Affairs Commission reported that natives with “remarkable
unanimity,” declared that “lawyers should be debarred from appearing in civil
cases.” . . . The report further stated: “The ethics of the bar, based on the
subtleties of our own law and practice, are beyond the comprehension of these
simple people, with the result that the profession, as a whole, bears an evil rather
than a good reputation among them. They ‘fleece us and teach us lies’ is one of
their direct and forcible, yet humiliating, expressions toward some members of a

652

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

Africa, whether native or European, have been trained in European law.
It would appear that with the growing jurisdiction of native courts the
need for trained European advocates will diminish in favor of advocates
learned in native law. Already the bulk of the judicial work in Nigeria is
performed neither by the Supreme Court nor by the Provincial Court,
but by a third set of tribunals—the native courts which are discussed else¬
where. 29

4. Revenue and Trade

From the absolute standpoint, Nigeria has the largest trade of any
territory in Central Africa—about 25,409,000 pounds in 1925. Its trade
exceeds that of French West Africa and of the Belgian Congo. 30 But be¬
cause of its unusually large population and area, the per capita trade of
Nigeria is, with the exception of Nyasaland and Northern Rhodesia, the
lowest of any British territory in central Africa. While Nigeria has the
largest absolute revenue, its per capita revenue is lower even than that of
Northern Rhodesia, and it outranks only Nyasaland.

Nigeria’s revenue comes largely from the customs, which produce about
3,300,000 pounds, and the railways, which produce 2,385,000 pounds. 31
The government imposes direct taxation on the natives of Nigeria, except
those in parts of the eastern provinces, according to a system described
elsewhere. Half of these taxes are turned over to native treasuries, and
the other half goes to the British Government. The 1926-27 Estimates
placed the latter sum at seven hundred and thirty thousand pounds, which
is about ten per cent of the total estimated revenue for 1927 of 7,788,670
pounds. 32 This sum is more than three times the revenue of 2,490,000
pounds in 1911.

The increased export trade and revenue is shown in the following
table:

profession which does so much to preserve its honour and dignity. As touching the
personal aspect, it should not be overlooked that professional advocacy is something
which has been imported for individual and private ends into Native juridical
practice, to which it is wholly unknown. Natives have, consequently, a false
conception of what the engagement of Counsel really means, it being a common
belief among them that the payment of a lawyer’s fee is something akin to th«
purchase of justice, and the higher the fee, the more likely they are to get what is
being purchased. But, apart from all this, the customary and legitimate fees for
such services are much beyond the means of these people, who have frequently
to borrow the amount or dispose of property in order to meet such demands.”
Report of the Natal Native Affairs Commission, 1906-7, Natal, Cd. 3889, p. 25.

* Cf. Vol. I, p. 689.

30 Cf. Vol. I, p. 942.

31 The railways absorb more than half of the latter figure—1,500,000 pounds—
in expenditures.

“Excluding railway revenue, the revenue is 5,430,670 pounds. The loans, etc.,
of Nigeria are given in the table in the Appendix.

GENERAL ADMINISTRATION

653

TONNAGE OF EXPORTS—1900-1925
and

GOVERNMENT REVENUE—NIGERIA

6 i

Percent

Per cent

Principle

Increase

Revenue

Increase

Year

Exports (Tons) over 1900

over 1914

1900.

. I 3 U 934

1905.

. 161,259

22.3

1910.

. 255.63°

9+.0

*913 .

. 287,697

118.0

19*4 .

101.4

2,948,381’

1918.

. 368,321

179.2

3.963,987’

34-5

1925.

. 588,898

346.5

6,989.759 1

i 37 -i *

1 Revenue figures

do not include

grants-in-aid

from the Imperial

Government

as follows:

1914 £100,000

1918 50,000

1925 Nil

All revenue figures include revenue from operation of railways.

‘Trade— Annual Report of the Customs Department of Nigeria, for 1925, p. 12.
Revenue— Nigeria Estimates, 1926-27, p. 3.

5. Taxation

In return for the 730,000 pounds which the natives pay into the Nige¬
rian Treasury in the form of direct taxes, the government expends on the
natives the following sums:

Provincial

Administration

Education

Medical

work

Agriculture

Total

£522,000

180,000

403,000

83,000

1,118,000 1

1 Nigeria Estimates, 1926-27, p. 10.

Thus the government returns directly to the natives four hundred and
fifty-eight thousand pounds more than the direct taxes which they pay into
the general treasury. The excess comes out of indirect taxation, railway
revenue, and export and import duties.-

In relation to total revenue, expenditures of the Nigerian government
on education, medical work, and agriculture are as shown in the table on
the following page.

6. Medical Service

Despite the fact that about six per cent 33 of Nigeria expenditures go to
medical service, the situation in regard to public health is serious. The
Nigerian Estimates call for 125 medical officers, but in 1924 there were
“In comparison with 11% in the Belgian Congo.

654

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

NIGERIAN EXPENDITURE ON NATIVE WELFARE 1926-1927

Expenditures

Percentage
of Total
Expenditures

Amount

per 100

Inhabitants

Education

Government .

180,093

2.42

•977

No. Prov. Native Administration...

34.564

•47

.187

So. Prov. Native Administration...

4,906

.06

.027

Total.

219,563

2.95

i-i 9 i

Agriculture, Veterinary, and Forestry

Government Agriculture.

Government Veterinary.

83.030I
73,679 [

•969

Government Forestry.

No. Prov. Native Administration...

21,826]

13,188

.071

So. Prov. Native Administration...

4 .o *9

.05

.022

Total.

* 95.742

2.63

1.062

Medical and Sanitary

Government .

403,059

5-43

2.188

No. Prov. Native Administration...

9,687

■*3

.052

So. Prov. Native Administration...

6,416

.08

.035

Total.

419,162

5.64

2.275

Total.

834,467

n.22

4.528 *

1 The total expenditures of the government were £6,484,284 (exclusive of ex¬
penditures on railways); of the Northern Provinces Native Administration,
£709,295; of the Southern Provinces Native Administration, £234,381. These
figures make a total of £7,427,960, upon which the percentages given above are
based. Cf. Nigeria Estimates, 1926-27, pp. 10-11; Northern Provinces Native
Administration Estimates, 1926-1927, p. 209; Southern Provinces Native Adminis¬
tration Estimates, 1926-27.

thirty-five vacancies. 34 Even when this quota is filled, there is only one
doctor for every one hundred and sixty thousand people. Under ordinary
circumstances, this personnel would be inadequate. But the burden is
made unduly great by the epidemics which have recently scourged Nigeria—
not only plague, in Lagos, but also cerebro-spinal fever and relapsing fever
which have swept across northern Nigeria in the last few years, and as a
result of which, according to some estimates, several hundred thousand
natives have lost their lives. The medical report for 1924 says: “In
Kano and Katsina, where records of deaths are maintained by the Native
Administrations, the mortality can be stated to have been appalling. . .

84 Annual Report of the Medical and Sanitary Department and Medical Re¬
search Institute, 1924, Sessional Paper No. 6 of 1925, p. 5.

GENERAL ADMINISTRATION

655

While Lagos had a death rate of 23.8 per thousand a year, the death rate
in Kano was, largely because of these epidemics, 130 per thousand. 35

This matter was brought to the attention of the Legislative Council
in 1926 by the member from Kano (a European merchant) who said: “I
venture to say that if such an appalling state of affairs were made known
to the general public both here and at home there would be a general
outcry. . . . Cannot something be done for our suffering friends in the
north? I do not wish to labour this point, but if we do not take up this
question seriously we shall not be doing our duty and we shall be failing
to carry out those traditions which are characteristic of the British Colonial
Service.” 38 The government defended itself by saying that it had made
every possible effort to obtain doctors, but without success. 37 But even
with a thousand medical officers, no progress can be made until the people
are induced to take preventive measures. 38 Medical attention is necessarily
a plant of slow growth; it is essential that doctors learn the language of
their district and remain continuously within that district. The idea of
employing foreign doctors in the colony apparently has not been considered
by the British authorities, as it has by the French and the Belgians. 39 Such
employment would necessitate the amendment of existing regulations, and
it would introduce an alien influence into the colony. But neither of these
considerations outweighs the fact that such a policy would result in the
saving of human lives which are now being lost.

No one believes, however, that even with foreign help, a sufficient
number of European doctors can be persuaded to come to Africa to meet
its needs. The natives must learn to save themselves. Recently, a Confer¬
ence of the West African Medical Staffs agreed to the following state¬
ment:

“The conditions in West Africa which call for remedy are much the same
in each of the Colonies and Protectorates and also the same as are found in
the different countries of French West Africa. Depopulation has occurred by
inter-tribal slave raiding and strife as well as by disease. The latter cause
is alone operative now and is delaying recovery throughout the countries as a
whole, and causing depopulation to extend in some areas. The average density

** Ibid., p. 46.

33 Legislative Council Debates, fourth session, 1926, p. 95.

37 The salary of a medical officer, according to the Estimates (p. 42), begins at
six hundred and sixty pounds and rises to eleven hundred and fifty pounds. A
few also receive seniority pay of one hundred pounds. These salaries are low
compared with the highest administrative officers. An increased stipend might
make the service more attractive.

33 Chief Secretary, Debates, cited, p. 118. In the face of this great need, the
government assumes a heavy responsibility in excluding medical missionaries from
the Moslem areas of northern Nigeria. Cf. Vol. I, p. 737.

88 Cf. Vol. II, pp. 36, 577 -

656

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

of population varies from about twelve to one hundred fifty per square
mile, and may safely be said to be considerably below that which the soil and
resources of the countries can support. The people of the country are
naturally fertile but this is widely and seriously impaired by venereal diseases,
and to this is attributed the low birth rate which is assumed from experience
to be the case. The infant mortality is known to be high, as also the general
death rate, and of late years epidemics have swept over large tracts of
country causing deaths running into hundreds of thousands in area after area.
The health of the people as a whole is a long way below what it should
be, and in many areas the bulk of the population is C3, probably due in part
to nutritional deficiency.

“These conditions are largely preventable, but in order to bring into
operation the modern means for combating disease and improving health,
a very large staff of skilled workers is required. It is impossible to meet
this need by increasing the European highly skilled staff for they could never
be recruited in sufficient numbers nor could governments afford to meet the
cost.

“At the same time, it must be recognized that we have among the African
people a sufficiently large proportion of intelligent youth, both male and
female, capable of absorbing the necessary scientific knowledge and of becoming
skilled in its use. The problem, therefore, resolves itself into one of the
organisation and development of facilities for training the African youth in the
different branches of activity required.” 40

As a result of the recommendations of this conference, an African
medical school is now being established at Accra, Gold Coast, which will
be supported jointly by the four colonies. 41 In the first few years, this
school will devote its energies to the training of medical assistants, but a
definite arrangement has been made to train fully qualified African doctors
and grant full medical degrees. 42

In talking to medical officers both in Nigeria and the Gold Coast, one
gets the impression that despite the theoretical acceptance of the principle
of medical assistants, they believe that an African, before being intrusted
with responsibility of a medical kind, should have a thorough scientific
education, and in fact should really be an African doctor. They appar¬
ently are unwilling to intrust any such work as the giving of intravenous
injections to medical dispensers who do not know the chemical composition

*'Proceedings of the Third Conference of the Senior Members of the JVest
African Medical Staff, December, 1925, p. 3.

41 With the establishment of this medical school in view, the Gold Coast medical
officer has made a study of the French medical school for natives at Dakar. Cf.
Dr. J. M. O’Brien, An Account of the School for the Training of Africans in
Medicine and Surgery.

43 Cf. Address of the Governor of the Gold Coast. A Review of the Events
of 1925-1926 and The Prospects of 1926-1927, p. 138.

GENERAL ADMINISTRATION

657

of the drugs involved. In contrast to this highly professional attitude,
the medical services in Uganda, French West Africa, and the Belgian
Congo intrust natives having only an elementary education with the
responsibility for administering to the simple needs of hundreds of their
compatriots. Obviously, the high professional standard of British West
Africa, to which only a very few natives can attain, means a low social
return. To a layman, a dispenser who can save twenty lives while losing
but one is of much more value than no dispensers at all. It is to be hoped
that the West Africa governments will, under the influence of this social
rather than professional point of view, take steps to train a large number
of dispensers such as are found elsewhere in Africa and assign a sufficient
number of European doctors to inspect their activities. 43

7. Compulsory Labor

Under certain circumstances, the administration of every colony in
Africa obliges the natives to work for public purposes. Under the Roads
and Rivers Ordinance in Nigeria 44 the Governor could direct that any
road or river should be kept clean by native authority, and a native authority
could require all able-bodied natives under his jurisdiction to work on such
road or river for not more than eight days in any quarter. Moreover,
while in practice the government obliged the native authorities to keep up
only minor roads, it had the power, under the ordinance, to place the
maintenance of the entire road system of Nigeria upon native authority,
by means of a system of compulsory and unpaid labor. In the Eastern
Provinces, where direct taxation has not yet been imposed, this labor ap¬
pears to have been used not only for maintenance but also for construction
purposes. The government exercised no control to see that the labor burden
was evenly distributed.

The administration did not apply the compulsory provisions of this
ordinance to the British Cameroons, held under mandate presumably because
of the belief that the provisions of the mandate in regard to forced labor
would be violated. 4 ®

43 The educational and agricultural activities of the government are discussed
in Vol. I, p. 728.

** Chap. 107, Laws, 1923.

45 Cf. the First Schedule to the British Cameroons Administration, Ordinance,
1926 Supplement to the Laws of Nigeria, hereafter cited as 1926 Supplement,
p. 106, which says, "Sections 3 to 6 [of this ordinance] shall not apply to the
British Cameroons.”

Another interesting exemption is Article 4 of the General Minerals Regulations
of Nigeria (Chap. 93) providing for an export duty of 50 per cent on tin, unless
it is smelted within the British Empire. While the remaining articles of these
Regulations are applied to the Cameroons, this article is omitted, presumably on
account of the open door provisions in the mandate. A number of other modifica¬
tions in the Nigerian ordinances are made. See the Schedule cited above.

658

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

In 1927, apparently because of the considerations just discussed, it
repealed the Roads and Rivers Ordinance altogether. Nigeria is one of
the few territories in British Central Africa which does not rely upon
unpaid labor for the maintenance of local roads.

Compulsory labor is sometimes still exacted in Nigeria in connection
with public works. The obligation to work on the construction of a
railway is seldom if ever laid down in an ordinance of the government.
From the legal standpoint, a system of voluntary labor prevails. But in
practice, the government frequently resorts to so-called “political labor”
for construction purposes. When it is unable to secure voluntary labor, the
administration estimates the number of men required and then assigns a
contingent to each province concerned. Thus in 1925, about 12,500 men
were employed in railway construction in the Northern Provinces, 38 per
cent of whom were “political” and the remainder voluntary laborers. The
38 per cent was divided between Nassarawa, Bauchi, and Zaria provinces,
according to population. The Resident of each province divides up the
contingent between the native authorities.

This “political” labor is not popular. Following the protests of the
people of Zaria against this burden in connection with the construction of
the Eastern Railway, the government decided during 1924-25 to resort
only to volunteers. But despite the efforts of recruiters, sufficient volun¬
teers were not forthcoming, and the government was obliged to return to
compulsion.

Political labor is usually employed on gang task work set day by day.
A political officer attached to construction work sees that the tasks are
reasonable and that the labor is otherwise well treated. A gang completes
its task in eight hours. The rule is laid down that a gang shall not work
after 4 P. M., even if the task is unfinished. About eighty per cent of
the laborers finish their tasks each day. The men are paid nine pence a
daily task. Payment is always made to the individual, and not to his
headman. Laborers coming from long distances are paid four pence per
twenty miles for subsistence. It appears that the same working regime
applies to voluntary as to “political” labor. But the political la¬
borers are never obliged to work more than a month, when they are sent
home. The laborers usually feed themselves, purchasing food from the
camp markets. In order to keep prices down, the construction authorities
usually furnish free transport for produce. The food is prepared either
by wives who accompany the laborers or by local market women.

Under this system, food shortages have occasionally occurred. This
was particularly true in Nassarawa province in 1924. There are few if
any colonies in Africa outside of Nigeria which oblige railway construction

GENERAL ADMINISTRATION

659

laborers to buy and cook their own food. It must be admitted, however,
that the effect on the death rate has not been markedly noticeable. The
mortality rate per thousand from all causes in 1925 was 24 (300 deaths
among 12,452 men). This rate was higher than usual because of out¬
breaks of epidemics of cerebro-spinal meningitis and relapsing fever. This
death rate of 24 per thousand compares favorably with the death rate of
80 per thousand in Kenya and in the French Cameroons, but unfavorably
with the eight per thousand in the Belgian Congo. 48

As long as men are obliged to use their nine pence a day in the purchase
of food, it would appear that they are underpaid in comparison with
natives working on the open market. If this be true, political labor con¬
stitutes a type of labor tax—and a tax which does not rest on the authority
of law. Even if it is adequately paid, compulsory labor should be imposed
only on the basis of a statute. Otherwise the imposition of this obligation
on the native community is illegal. Moreover, it is only when the system
is openly legalized that the burden can be evenly distributed. At present,
the administration has no means of preventing a chief from sending out
to work only his enemies. Inasmuch as the obligation to supply this labor
ends within a month, these abuses in Nigeria are reduced to a minimum.
Nevertheless, the Nigeria system is based on the wrong principle, which
other colonies in Africa, justifying themselves by Nigeria’s example, have
applied to the point of excess. 47

49 Cf. Index—death rates.

47 An official disagrees with the above passage as follows:

“Were the Government to rely solely on such labour as can be recruited indi¬
vidually at current labour rate, it would be impossible to build railways or to
undertake any other public work of magnitude. We are endeavouring to secure
free labour where possible or voluntary labour recruited by contractors; but in
the present state of development of the country the only efficient contractors are the
native administrations and chiefs. It is through them that labour is recruited and
the difference between them and private contractors is simply that, whereas the
private contractor reckons to make a profit on his contract, the native administra¬
tions do not expect to receive any consideration from the government for recruiting
their peoples for work. Labour is employed at the normal daily wage which
applies to voluntary labour in the district in question.”

CHAPTER 37

THE COLONY OF LAGOS

Ever since the 16th century, British merchants have traded with the
Niger coast. Before 1885, the people to whom they sold their wares were
independent of European rule. A number of circumstances led to the
gradual termination of their independence, the chief of which was that
native authorities proved unable, in the eyes of foreigners, to keep the peace
between natives and white men, as the case of Nigeria will show.

1. King Docemo

Originally it appears that Lagos was ruled over by some ten White-
Cap Chiefs, the sons of a native sovereign called the Alofin. But about
1630, this King was overwhelmed by an army from Benin, as a result of
which an emissary from the King of Benin—Asipa—founded a new line
of kings, which exists to the present day. By 1850 Lagos had become
the center of the slave trade on the West Coast. 1

At this time a dispute over the throne of Lagos arose; and one claimant
told the British, represented by a hovering man of war, that he would
promise to put down the slave trade and human sacrifice, in return for their
support for the throne. Accepting this offer, the British warship bombarded
the town and placed Akitoye on the throne. In return, he made a treaty
in 1852 promising to abolish slave-trading, human sacrifice, and the mur¬
der of prisoners of war, and to protect missionaries and freedom of trade. 2
A British consul was thereupon established at Lagos. Docemo soon suc¬
ceeded Akitoye as king; but he apparently proved unable, according to a
British consul, 3 to carry out the terms of the treaty. According to the
Foreign Secretary, Lord John Russell, Lagos should be annexed since “the
permanent occupation of this important point in the Bight of Benin is
indispensable to the complete suppression of the Slave Trade in the Bight,
whilst it will give aid and support to the development of lawful commerce

1 J. B. O. Losi, History of Lagos, C. M. S. Bookshop, Lagos, 1921.
a British and Foreign State Papers, Vol. 41, p. 734. Kosoko, the deposed chief,
was expelled from Lagos but allowed to reside at Epe. Hertslet, The Map of
Africa by Treaty, second edition, London, 1896, Vol. I, p. 405.

a There was, however, a difference of opinion as to this point. Cf. remarks
of Sir Francis Baring, H. C. Debates, June 12, 1862, Vol. CLXVIII, 3rd Series,
col. 503.

660

THE COLONY OF LAGOS

661

and will check the aggressive spirit of the King of Dahomey, whose bar¬
barous wars, and encouragement of slave-trading, are the chief cause of
disorder in that part of Africa.” 4 Apparently under pressure, Docemo
was obliged to sign a treaty in 1861 ceding the port and islands of Lagos
to the Queen of Great Britain. Docemo would still be allowed to use
the title of “King” and to decide disputes between the natives of Lagos
with their consent, subject to appeal to British courts. In place of his for¬
mer income, he would receive a pension equivalent to the “net revenue
hitherto annually received by him,” later fixed at twelve hundred bags of
cowry shells a year.

To-day the Colony of Nigeria has an area of 1469 miles and a popula¬
tion of about 225,000. It is divided into three administrative districts,
Lagos, Epe-Ikorodu and Badagry, each in charge of a district officer, with
a Resident at Lagos who supervises the colony as a whole. The colony is
under the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. Neither the Native Au¬
thority nor the Native Courts Ordinance applies.

2. Lagos Town Council

Lagos itself, having a native population of about one hundred thousand
people, is the only first-class township in Nigeria. Its administration is
extremely important, not only because of the size of its population, but
because it is the leading port and commercial center of the whole territory
of Nigeria. It is, therefore, really more of a European than a native
center. Nevertheless, the city of Lagos is the home of thousands of natives
who have received a form of European education, who are now completely
divorced from their tribes, speaking for the most part English, and who are
employed as clerks or engaged in the practice of law or medicine, or, in a
very limited number of cases, as independent merchants. In order to
satisfy the demand of this class for some share in the administration, the
government has established a partly elective Town Council. While this
Council has an official majority, it also has three African members elected
for three years. A voter must occupy a house having an annual rental
value of fifteen pounds, as determined by assessment officers. 5 Eyery
ratepayer is automatically enrolled on the election list. In the first election
for the council, held in May, 1920, only fifteen per cent of the electorate
voted. In the election of June, 1923, the proportion was 11.71 per cent.
The total number of voters enrolled in 1*923-24 was 2,231. The propor¬
tion of non-voters is especially great because of automatic registration.

The Town Council levies, with the approval of the government, an
“improvement rate” on houses benefiting from light, roads, or drainage fixed

4 Hertslet, cited, p. 407. 8 Lagos Township Ordinances, Ch. p. 59, Laws.

662

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

at five per cent of the annual value, and also a general water rate. There
are, however, no general taxes collected from any of the inhabitants of the
colony. When the Governor attempted, in 1895, to levy a house and land
tax on the island of Lagos, about 5,000 citizens went up to Government
House and protested so strongly that the tax was never enforced. Even
greater resistance was made in 1915 to the imposition of a water rate in
Lagos, to help pay for the cost of installing a sanitary water supply. A
mass meeting was held, attended by several thousand people, at which the
chiefs again protested against this rate, one of them saying, “Since the
Assessment Committee distributed the Blue Notices, we have all become
dead men. When His Excellency, Sir Walter Egerton, started the work,
the people including the chiefs went to him and said they did not want
water. We are saying the same thing to-day and that is we do not want
your water. We would rather die than admit taxation among us. Taxa¬
tion is against our national tradition.” In reply, the Administration said,
“The Government is the father and the people the children. The father
has seen that the water his children are drinking is not good.” 6 The
courts proceeded to enforce the collection of the rate—which is five per
cent of the annual value of houses within the township—which the Lago-
tian population, after a riot in Tinubu Square, finally agreed to pay.

The administration of the city is really in the hands of a European
Town Clerk together with a Town Engineer and Officer of Health, ap¬
pointed by the Governor. In fact, all the administrative activities as well
as the judicial work are in the hands of Europeans. The central govern¬
ment retains control of the electric light plant and police. In an effort to
clean up the “tenement” districts of Lagos, which have been plague centers,
the Town Council is now building a model native village at Yaba, a
suburb.

3. The Eleko Question

Despite the annexation* of Lagos in 1861, the position of Eleko or king
of Lagos still remains. But in recognizing a new Eleko in 1901 the Gov¬
ernor said, “I have made it abundantly plain that the successor to Oyekan is
only head of the Family; that he has no ruling function; and that he has
with regard to the Government no official position beyond that of chief
of the Docemo-Oyekan house”—an attitude which is still maintained. 7

* Report of the Proceedings at an Interview on the Water Rate Question, May
6, 1916. This meeting was attended by about 15,000 people. Cf. also Despatch
of the Secretary of State, Nigeria Gazette, 1915, p. 500. Hereafter cited as
Gazette.

’Cf. Gazette, Extraordinary, December 8, 1920. While the Treaty of 1861
granted Docemo the title of King and recognized a certain judicial power, it
appears that these privileges were personal to Docemo, and did not apply to his
successors.

THE COLONY OF LAGOS

663

Notwithstanding this position, the government has imposed obligations
on the “King” of a semi-political nature. During the Water Rate agitation
in 1915, the government asked the Eleko to cause his bell to be rung
throughout the town asking the people to pay the Rate. Upon the Eleko’s
refusal, the government was indignant. In 1904, the administration estab¬
lished a Native Central Council, composed of the Eleko, the White Cap
Chiefs and other nominated members. This body held regular sessions at
which it discussed with the government important native questions. Since
1912 it has met only irregularly.

The Eleko has also been allowed to appoint the different chiefs and
headmen of native quarters, subject to the approval of the British authori¬
ties. But when the Eleko appointed, in I 9 I 9 > some Mohammedan headmen
without notifying the acting Governor, the latter official, upon the advice
of thirteen Africans, suspended the Eleko from office. Following a meeting
of the natives of Lagos, who said the Governor had been misinformed, the
administration reinstated the Eleko on condition that the appointments
be cancelled. 8

In addition to the Eleko, the White Cap Chiefs—the descendants of
the kings who ruled Lagos before the establishment of the Docemo rule—
still hold minor positions. The forty-nine White Cap Chiefs are divided
into four classes each of which bears a different title. 9

Frequent controversies over the title and precedence of these chiefs
have arisen. 10 They have no administrative power, however, and they
receive no stipend.

Following the World War, one of the White Cap Chiefs of Lagos,
Olowa, went to England in connection with the Apapa land case 10a ac¬
companied by a well-known African, Mr. Herbert Macaulay. Unknown
to the British authorities, the Eleko—who remained in Lagos—entrusted

* Nigerian Council, Address by the Governor, 1920, Appendix II.

® In the first class there are twelve titles, including the Eleko; apparently the
chiefs in this category came to Lagos with the original House of Docemo. The
second class, or Ideyo, have eleven titles; they were, it appears, the original land
owners of Lagos. The third class, having five titles, are the religious heads—the
Ifa Priests; the fourth class, having seventeen titles, are the War Chiefs; and
the fifth class, having four titles, are the “King Makers.”

10 In 1919, the Lieutenant-Governor of Southern Nigeria held a meeting with the
Eleko and White Cap Chiefs, in which he insisted that then and there the
Eleko should tell him the precedence of these Chiefs. When the Eleko said he
didn’t know, the Lieutenant-Governor said, “It is absolutely absurd that the Eleko
should sit there and tell me that you do not know the order of precedence of
your Chiefs and expect me to believe it.” At this remark, the Eleko finally drew
up an order of precedence, which, however, the other chiefs disputed. The Eleko
said the matter was intricate and some places were in dispute. But the Governor
wanted “to know tonight.” While he later relented, the incident is a good example
of administrative impatience.

10 * Cf. Vol. I, p. 755.

664 THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

his Staff of Office 11 to Mr. Macaulay, which, in the eyes of the natives,
made him the accredited spokesman of the chief. During their sojourn in
England, it was reported in Nigeria that “Chief Olowa and Mr. H.
Macaulay, who had accompanied him to England, had been giving out
‘irresponsible vapourings’ claiming ‘that the Eleko was acclaimed by all
Nigeria’ and by 16,000,000 Africans as their King and that the revenue
of this Dependency—placed by him at 5,000,000 pounds sterling—is
rightly regarded, the personal income of the Eleko.” 12 This statement
was made by the Governor upon the basis of an interview given by Mr.
Macaulay to the London Daily Mail. As reported in this article, how¬
ever, 13 Mr. Macaulay did not call the Eleko king of Nigeria but merely
the king of Lagos, acclaimed as such by the seventeen million people of
Nigeria—quite a different thing. Nevertheless, the Nigerian Government
persisted in its accusation, and asked the Eleko publicly to repudiate all such
claims and advised him to telegraph for the return of the Staff. After stat¬
ing that Mr. Macaulay had acted without authority, the Eleko asked what
other form his repudiation should take. In reply, the government said that
a Bellman should be sent through the town repeating a statement, part of
which said that “these words were lies.” When the Eleko asked that action
be postponed until the return of Chief Olowa, the government published
a notice “ceasing to recognize” Eshugbayi as head of the House of Docemo
or as holding any position which might entitle him to official recognition. 14

Despite a petition signed by 17,000 natives in November, 1922, 16 the
government declined to restore its recognition to the ex-Eleko, who there¬
after received neither stipend nor invitations to government social func¬
tions.

It soon became evident that despite this boycott, the Eleko had a social
position and influence in Lagos that could not be ignored. Without his
aid, the capping of the White Cap Chiefs and the holding of the Adamu
’orisha funeral ceremonies and other customs could not be carried out.
Consequently, the-government decided that some one should be recognized
as Eleko. The Docemo family thereupon proceeded to depose Eshugbayi—
the Eleko who had met with government disfavor—a deposition “sanc¬
tioned” by the British authorities who now deported Eshugbayi, 16 after

11 A symbol of authority granted Nigerian chiefs by the government.

& Nigerian Council, Address by the Governor, 1920, p. 48.

13 July 8, 1920. Cf. also the Humble Petition of Prince Eleko to the King,
asking for reinstatement.

14 Gazette, Extraordinary, Dec. 8, 1920.

^The text of the petition was printed in the Lagos tVeekly Record, January 20,
1923. The Governor called this “an utterly worthless document.” Nigerian
Council, Address by the Governor, 193, p. 32.

16 It exercised this authority under the Deposed Chiefs Removal Ordinance,
Chap. 78, Laws.

THE COLONY OF LAGOS

665

“satisfying” itself that the family had acted in accordance with native
custom. Shortly afterward, the Gazette published another notice stating
that the majority of the family had elected a successor, whose appointment
the government sanctioned. 17 It proposed to pay him a stipend of 300
pounds on the understanding that “your position as Eleko does not invest
you with any ruling function or jurisdiction over any of the inhabitants of
Lagos. . . In view of the suspicious circumstances under which the
former Eleko was deposed and the new one elected, it is not surprising
that part of the House of Docemo refused to recognize the successor.
With one exception, all of the White Cap Chiefs absented themselves
from the ceremonial leave-taking of Governor Clifford in 1925; and when
the new Eleko went to greet the new governor, Sir Graeme Thomson, at the
boat, the Eleko was hissed and booed. The Nigerian Democratic party in
the meantime had asked the Supreme Court—but without success—to set
aside the order deporting the former Eleko; while a native circulated a
bogus telegram, purporting to have come from the Secretary of State, to
the effect that the appointment of the new Eleko had not been approved,
which caused great excitement. For this offense, the native concerned
was given nine months in jail. During two months, the African editor of
the Lagos Record kept him company, because he intimated that the judges
in the case had been dominated by the executive. 18

This controversy over the Eleko is related to internal divisions in the
native population of which 50,000 are Moslems and 30,000 Protestants. 10

Curiously enough, more antagonism has existed between different
Moslem sects than between Moslems and Christians. In 1914, differences
arose over the appointment of the officers in the principal Mosque. The
head Lemomu, who came from the north, had stricter ideas than the
Yoruba Moslems. He also opposed the resistance of the people to the
water rate in 191$. Consequently a Jamat sect, which soon included a
majority of the Moslems, started a movement to depose him. The Eleko,
who was not a Moslem, was persuaded to appoint as officials certain Mos¬
lems from the Jamat sect to positions already held by the followers of the

1T Gazette, 1925, pp. 369, 473. About twenty questions were asked the govern¬
ment in regard to the Eleko affair in the session of the Legislative Council in
October, 1925. Cf. Legislative Council Debates, 3rd Session, 1925, pp. 11 ff.

18 His offense was contempt. Rex. vs. Jackson, Nigerian Law Journal, Novem¬
ber, 1925, p. 107.

“Of the 100,000 people of Lagos, 50,579 are Mohammedans, 31,124 are Protes¬
tants, and 8,092 are Roman Catholics, while 9,895 are pagans. Census, 1921.
P. A. Talbot, The Peoples of Southern Nigeria, Vol. IV, p. 105.

While the majority of the hundred thousand natives of Lagos belong to the
Yoruba race, they contain, nevertheless, a number of extraneous elements, one of
the most important being the “Brazilians”—the descendants of slaves repatriated
from Brazil where they had been carried by the Portuguese in the 17th century.
Many of these “Brazilians” are now prominent traders and professional men.

666

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

Lemomu—which led to the temporary suspension of the Eleko in 1919. 20
Upon the death of the Lemomu, the Jamat party brought an action ; n the
Supreme Court for the control of the Central Mosque, which the Court
awarded to them. The minority or “legitimist” party thereupon set up a
Lemomu and mosque of their own. Disputes also arose over separate
praying grounds and regalia, during the Ramadan festivals. It is be¬
lieved that African barristers stimulated these differences out of which,
according to some estimates, they made about 5,000 pounds in fees. In
return for past support, the Jamat—or majority—Moslems now support
the deposed Eleko, while the minority Moslems support the new appointee.
The situation is therefore still tense; and the government is in an unpopular
position since it based its reason for deposing the Eleko on an inaccurate
statement of the claims of a spokesman whom the Eleko had not recognized.

Another cause of difference of opinion between the “King” of Lagos and
the British Government has been his annual stipend, which has varied be¬
tween 200 and 400 pounds a year. The last Eleko was paid only 300
pounds. In 1913, a native deputation, in asking for an increase, told the
government that the King could not possibly support his family and main¬
tain an establishment on such a sum. 21 Consequently, he was obliged to
resort to “dashes” which some people regarded as bribes. These requests
for an increased stipend were repeated following the World War; but so
far the government has declined to grant them, partly because of the
political situation in which the Eleko is involved.

It is somewhat astonishing to find that while the most highly developed
native governments in Africa are found in Nigeria, the administration
of the colony should thus ignore native institutions. In Lagos, the
government has learned, however, that these institutions cannot be alto¬
gether abolished because they play an important part in the life of the
people. As long as the Eleko and the White Cap Chiefs are allowed to
exist without power or responsibility, and without any financial means to
maintain their social position, they will probably remain objects of intrigue.
Certainly some steps could be taken to give them something to do. The

20 Cf. Vol. I, p. 662.

21 These and other documents are printed in H. Macaulay, Justitia Fiat, The
Moral Obligation of the British Government to the House of King Docemo of
Lagos, 1921. This brochure argues that the British government has violated the
treaty of 1861 under which it agreed to pay King Docemo a pension equal to the
net revenue hitherto received by him, which, it asserts, amounted to 2,000 pounds.
But in “violation” of this agreement, the government paid Docemo only a thousand
pounds, and his successors much less. This position appears, however, to be un¬
sound, since by an additional article, the two parties agreed that the pension
should be 1200 bags of cowry shells. Likewise, the pension was personal to
Docemo; i.e. the treaty does not bind the government to pay a pension to his
successors.

THE COLONY OF LAGOS

667

cities of Accra, Freetown, and Dakar are all 22 doing much more in
giving the natives a share in municipal government than Lagos. While
so far these experiments have not proved a success, they do justify the
belief that some form of native tribunals and police could be satisfactorily
established in the native areas of Lagos. Outside the township, the task is
comparatively simple. Tribes still exist; and in the Lagos District there are
sixteen Bales and assistant Bales who receive from eight to twenty-four
pounds a year from the government. At Epe and at Badagry, unofficial
“Councils of chiefs” already act as advisory bodies. The establishment
of native courts and treasuries in these areas would not apparently meet
with greater difficulties than in the protectorate of southern Nigeria—
and it is a measure which the natives would presumably welcome. It is
understood that in 1927 the government introduced legislation establishing
native courts and imposing direct taxes in the colony.

“Cf. Vol. I, pp. 833, 882, Vol. II, pp. 958-963.

CHAPTER 38

THE PROTECTORATE OF SOUTHERN NIGERIA
1. The Yorubas

Southern Nigeria, excluding the Colony, is divided into the Western
Provinces which lie on the right bank of the Niger as it winds its way to
the sea, and the Eastern Provinces, lying between the Niger and the
Cameroons. The leading people in the Western Provinces are the Yorubas,
and in the Eastern Provinces, the Ibos. At present, the Yoruba people
are divided into a number of independent states all of which were at one
time part of the Yoruba Kingdom founded at the city of Ife which
lay between the Kingdom of Dahomey on the west and the Kingdom of
Benin on the south. 1 The Alafin of Oyo in early times came to be
regarded as the head of all the Yorubas, except the Egbas who recognized
only their king, the Alake. Another native state, Ibadan, obtained its inde¬
pendence from the Alafin in 1862, following a war over the succession
to the Alafin’s throne. Nevertheless, the Bale of Ibadan still recognizes the
suzerainty of the Alafin.

Inhabiting large cities, the Yoruba people have an amazingly complex
form of social existence. They believe in Olorun, the Lord of Heaven,
in future rewards and punishments, and in the transmigration of souls. 1
Likewise, they worship minor dieties and fetishes. The Alafin, the lineal
descendant of the founder of the nation, is usually elected by a body of
nobility, called the Oyo Mesi, or councillors of state. Native law obliged
the eldest son—called the Aremo—to commit suicide upon the death of
his father in order to remove from the son the temptation of regicide. 2
At the present time, the Oyo Mesi may choose a king from any member
of royal family. The Coronation ceremonies are lengthy and elaborate,
and before the coming of the British they were accompanied by human
sacrifice. Once the king is crowned, he is forbidden to appear in public

1 According to tradition, the Yoruba kingdom at one time extended as far as
Accra on the Gold Coast; until comparatively recent times the Popos and Da-
homians paid regular tribute to the Yoruba king. At one period the Kingdom is
said to have had 1060 vassals or provincial kings dependent upon it. Samuel
Johnson, The History of the Yorubas, London, 1921, pp. 15, 41. Rev. Johnson is
an African historian.

3 The rule was repealed in 1858. Ibid., Chaps. Ill and IV.

668

THE PROTECTORATE OF SOUTHERN NIGERIA 669

by day except on extraordinary occasions; but he may stroll about at
night incognito. At festivals, the king appears in state, seated upon a
throne covered over with velvet, and wearing a crown of costly beads
and robes of silk or velvet. The Alafin is surrounded by a large number
of various palace officials, including a body guard, Ladies of the Palace,
and a bevy of wives. The King’s Council is headed by a Prime Minister,
called the Bashorun. The Crown Prince (the Aremo) is mayor of Oyo;
while outlying districts are governed by district heads or Bales, each having
a distinctive name. Within each district are found a number of village
heads. Originally, the government was financed by a system of tribute
and tolls levied on commerce. 3

In some ways, the organization of the native state of Ibadan is similar.
The Bale, however, recognizes allegiance and pays from the native treasury
a tribute now fixed at 2,400 pounds to the Alafin at Oyo; and his powers
are controlled somewhat rigorously by an influential Council of sixteen
members—the “Right Hand and Left Hand” Bales, the “Right Hand
and Left Hand” Baloguns or war chiefs, and others. Under the Chief
Bale are district and ward heads, together with a series of native courts.

Originally, the Egba kingdom at Abeokuta—lying between Ibadan and
Lagos—was composed of four provinces, each having a king. Powerful
societies or guilds, such as the Ogboni Society, composed of statesmen,
the Olorogun Society, composed of war chiefs, the Parakoyi, or Chamber of
Commerce, and the Ode, composed of hunters, controlled the king in many
actions. Some of these organizations, especially the Ogboni Society, are
powerful to-day. 4 Following wars in the early 19th century, the native
government of the Egba people was centralized under the Alake at Abeo¬
kuta, becoming known as the Egba United Government.

Before the coming of the Europeans, these three states of Oyo, Ibadan,
and Abeokuta warred against each other; while constant fighting with other
states, such as Ilorin, Dahomey, and Benin, took place. After the advent
of European traders, the combatants procured disastrous weapons in the
form of guns and powder which they purchased with slaves taken as prison¬
ers of war. Europeans wishing to do a legitimate trade with the interior
were obliged to pay excessive tolls. In an attempt to end these conditions,
a British naval officer in 1852 signed a treaty with the Abeokuta chiefs in
which they promised to stop the slave trade and human sacrifice, open the
country for commerce, and protect missionaries. 5 But this treaty failed

8 Cf. A. K. Ajisafe, The Laws and Customs of the Yoruba People, London,
1924, Chap. IX. He is also an African writer. Cf. also Talbot, cited, Vol. Ill,
pp. 566 ff.

*Cf. A. K. Ajisafe, History of Abeokuta, Suffolk, 1924, Chap. 8.

“Talbot, cited, Vol. I, p. 34.

670

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

in its object, and local wars continued. 8 The British soon learned that
their sympathetic aid given to the Egba people in resisting the attacks of
Dahomey had been misplaced, inasmuch as these attacks had really been
provoked by the treatment which the Egbas accorded to the Dahomey
villages along the frontier. Ungrateful for British assistance, the Para-
koyi, or chamber of commerce of Egba, which formerly had a monopoly
of trade with Lagos, vented their feeling toward the European traders
who now competed with them by plundering their property. This grow¬
ing unfriendliness led the British government for a time to forbid trade
between Abeokuta and Lagos, in 1863. Four years later, all Europeans,
whether missionaries or traders, were expelled from Abeokuta, partly at
the instigation of disaffected natives from Sierra Leone. Meanwhile, in¬
vasions from Dahomey periodically continued, and in 1877 war broke out
between Ibadan and Abeokuta, accompanied by several epidemics of
smallpox. 7

2. The Agreements of 1893 and 1904

Governor Carter of Lagos finally brought an end to these difficulties
in 1893 by negotiating treaties with Oyo, Ibadan, and Abeokuta, providing
for freedom of trade, the protection of missionaries, the abolition of human
sacrifice, and the non-cession of territory without British consent. The
Alafin of Oyo promised not to make any treaties with other governments
without the consent of the British, and to refer disputes to two arbitrators,
one chosen by the governor of Lagos and the other by the Alafin. The
agreement with the Ibadan Bale and Council included the same terms.
The Bale also agreed to provide land for the construction of a railway.
In 1899 and 1900, Railway Agreements were entered into with Ibadan
and with Abeokuta, the capital of Egbaland, in which these native govern¬
ments respectively agreed to lease land for 99 years at a distance of one
hundred yards on both sides of the proposed railway, within which area
British courts should have jurisdiction over offences against British sub¬
jects. 8 The British government agreed to pay to Ibadan the sum of

# J. B. O. Losi, History of Abeokuta, Lagos, 1923, p. 20. In 1850, the people of
Dahomey attacked the people of Abeokuta, but were repulsed with heavy losses.
Partly on account of this attack, the Egba chiefs applied to the British for a treaty
to open up the road to Lagos, in return for which they promised to stop the slave
trade. Meanwhile, a British Consul and missionaries had taken up their residence
at Abeokuta and showed the natives how to protect themselves with modern guns.
Talbot, cited, Vol. I, p. 133 ff.

7 Between 1884 and 1894, the Ijebu people, located between Abeokuta and
Lagos, also obstructed commerce and stole the property of traders. After sub¬
mitting to repeated affronts the British authorities finally subjugated the Ijebus,
in 1892.

8 The Egbas at first objected to the passage of the railway through Abeokuta.
Consequently, the line was laid several miles west of the town. The Egbas later

THE PROTECTORATE OF SOUTHERN NIGERIA 671

twenty pounds and to the Egba nation the sum of 200 pounds annually.
In view of the services which the natives obtain from the Nigerian rail¬
way, the native governments later agreed to forego this annual rent. 9

Unlike the Oyo and Ibadan agreements of 1893, the agreement with
the Egba government provided that “so long as the provisions of this
Treaty are strictly kept, no annexation of any part of the Egba country
shall be made by Her Majesty’s Government without the consent of the
lawful Authorities of the country, no aggressive action shall be taken
against the said country, and its independence shall be fully recognized.”
The obligations of the Egbas to protect trade and suppress human sacri¬
fice did not arise out of the treaty, but merely out of a declaration. 10
In early years, these states had agreed to the presence of British Residents,
who exercised what amounted to consular powers.

Following the construction of the railway, large numbers of British
traders came into these native cities, and, in theory, outside of the railway
zone, became subject to native courts and authority. But so many com¬
plications arose between the traders and the chiefs that in 1904, Ibadan,
Ife, and Oyo agreed to sign Judicial Agreements in which British courts
were authorized to hear all cases between non-natives and natives and all
offenses of non-natives. In 1908, a similar agreement was made with
Jebu Ode. 11 In 1904, the British also made a Judicial Agreement with the
Egba government, which had, however, more restricted terms. The life
of the agreement was limited to twenty years, during which period the
Alake ceded jurisdiction in his territory to the British government in
cases involving non-natives charged with indictable crime and where the
subject-matter of a civil dispute exceeded fifty pounds. Furthermore, non¬
indictable offenses committed by non-natives would be heard by a Mixed
Court, composed of the president, appointed by the British government,
and two members named by the Egba Council, acting by majority. This

recanted, however, and today a branch line conveys passengers into the city from
the junction.

'The text of the 1893 and the Railway Agreements are printed in Johnson,
cited. Appendix A, pp. 658 ff. At the suggestion of the British government, the
Ijesa, Ekiti, and Ife nations passed enactments abolishing human sacrifice in 1886.

10 “The said King and Authorities having promised that the practice of offer¬
ing human sacrifices shall be abolished in the one township where it at present
exists, and having explained that British subjects have already freedom to occupy
land, build houses, and carry on trade and manufacture in any part of the Egba
country, and likewise that there is no possibility of a cession of any portion of the
Egba country to a foreign Power without the consent of Her Majesty’s Government,
it is desired that no special provision be made in regard to these subjects in this
Treaty.”

**The texts of these agreements are printed in the Schedule to the Egba
Jurisdiction Ordinance and to the Ibadan-Oyo and Ife Jurisdiction Ordinances,
etc., Laws of the Colony of Southern Nigeria, 1908, Vol. I, pp. 256 ff. Cf. also the
Jebu Ode Jurisdiction Ordinance, No. 22 of 1909.

672 THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

court would also hear civil disputes between natives and non-natives in¬
volving sums of less than fifty pounds, subject to an appeal to the British
court when the value of the subject under dispute was above five pounds. 12
The British government also secured jurisdiction over all persons what¬
soever charged with the crime of murder or manslaughter. Thus this
agreement gave the British authorities jurisdiction over the more serious
cases involving non-natives. But it did not take away the jurisdiction of
native courts over natives except in murder cases.

In the greater part of the western provinces of Nigeria, British policy
before the War was to control native states on this treaty basis. The
government did not collect taxes nor apply legislation to these treaty
states. Thus the Native Courts Ordinance, passed in 1906, did not apply
to the western provinces. 13 The government simply exercised judicial
power over Europeans and, through the Residents, assisted the native kings
in keeping peace.

3. Egba Independence

Despite the guarantee of independence given the Egba government in
the agreement of 1893, the British representatives at Abeokuta exercised
considerable influence over the native authorities. Upon their advice, a
National Council of chiefs and other representatives was established in
1898. At this time, the main source of revenue consisted of tolls collected
on Lagos trade. When the Lagos government proposed that these tolls
should be commuted in favor of a fixed sum, the Egba people not only
refused to accept the proposal but boycotted the merchants who had
favored it. The Secretary of State for the Colonies, Mr. Chamberlain,
decided in favor of the Egbas, and the tolls were collected until after the
annexation of Egbaland in 1914.

Under the influence of natives educated in European schools, the Egba
government now remodelled itself on European lines. An Inhabitants’
Protection Association brought about some improvements in the administra¬
tion of justice in 1903; and in the next year, the Egba Government started
the publication of a Gazette, modelled after the Gazette published at Lagos.
In the same year, a police force was organized and a government secre¬
tariat erected. The King even had a “Colonial Chaplain.” Minute papers,
circulars, voucher forms, and other documents copied from British proced¬
ure were introduced. 14 The Alake’s Council passed laws in the form of

“For the provision in regard to lawyers, cf. Vol. I, p. 651.

13 Cf. Native Courts Ordinance, Chap. 123, 1906, Laws of the Colony of
Southern Nigeria.

“For example, the Gazette of 1911 contains “leaves of absences,” appointment
and dismissal of officials, and vaccination, treasury and customs returns. Egba
Government Gazette, No. 1, 1911, printed in Yoruba and English.

THE PROTECTORATE OF SOUTHERN NIGERIA 673

British Orders in Council. 15 Natives were appointed to the positions of
Surveyor, Health Officer, and Auditor. 10 African engineers and surveyors
undertook the construction of roads and public works. Finding that
Africans did not possess sufficient training for some of these positions, the
government appointed a European as head of the Police and Inspector of
Prisons who also acted as Crown Prosecutor in the Native Courts; and
another as Road Engineer. Meanwhile, a Financial Advisory Board was
established.

With this aid, the Egba Government installed a good system of roads,
a remarkable water works, and an electric lighting plant.

This was not so much a native government, as existed at Oyo or in the
northern Emirates, as a government in which semi-educated Africans tried
their best to follow European methods. It was a government in which
the native intellectuals, led by the chief secretary, named Edun, came to
dominate the Alafin and the traditional framework of native authority.

Difficulties now arose, particularly in regard to finances and the admin¬
istration of justice. In order to remedy these difficulties, the Lagos govern¬
ment, in 1907, offered to pay the Alake an annual sum of 300 pounds
and to spend 2,000 pounds on the Egba roads if it could appoint a European
to be president of the Egba court, if the British Commissioner could sit
on the Egba Council, and if a British auditor could go over the Egba
accounts. While these proposals were at first indignantly refused, the
Egba government finally agreed to employ a British auditor, but on condi¬
tion that he should be paid only from the Egba treasury! In order to
obtain money for the construction of a water works system and of roads,
the Alake also made a Financial Agreement with the Lagos Government
in 1910 providing for a loan of 30,000 pounds at one per cent. To
provide a secure revenue to meet the service of this loan, the Egba Govern¬
ment increased the duty on spirits a penny a gallon. Two-thirds of this
additional duty was placed in a separate loan account in the Bank of

16 For example, in 1911, Orders in Council were passed licensing public letter
writers who are educated or semi-educated natives scattered throughout the West
Coast who write letters for illiterate natives. While these public letter writers
are supposed to be merely translators, they really advise natives, in return for
(fat) fees, what action to take in complaints against Europeans. In this respect,
they have in some places supplanted the lawyer. In an effort to control the abuses
of these letter writers, the Nigerian Government has enacted an ordinance called
the Illiterates Protection Ordinance (Chap. 81) providing that letter writers should
write their own names and addresses on the letters written for someone else, and
the amount of the fee, if any, should be attached, and . a receipt given. The rate
for letter writers is also fixed—at 2s 6d for every letter of a hundred words or
part thereof, and is for the first extra copy, 3d for the second and subsequent
copies.

Likewise, an Order in Council imposed a wheel tax, bicycle and motor licenses,
and fixed duties on spirits, light drinks, gun powder, kerosene oil, and tobacco.

18 Ajisafe, History of Abeokuta, cited, pp. 170 ff.

674

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

British West Africa at Lagos, and the remaining third went to the Egba
government. The loan was expended under the control of a Financial
Committee of the Egba government on which the British representative
had a seat. Accounts were subject to British audit.

Partly because of a growing antagonism between the old-school natives
and the new intellectuals in control of the government, the Egba govern¬
ment also had difficulty in maintaining order. To put down opposition,
the native authorities in 1909 passed a drastic ordinance for the suppres¬
sion of sedition, following which serious disturbances took place, directed
against the Alake and his secretary, Edun. To protect themselves, these
officials negotiated an agreement ceding to the British Government juris¬
diction over the punishment of sedition. 17

Despite this increased control, conditions did not improve. The situa¬
tion was defined by Sir Frederick Lugard as follows:

“The Egba Government was conducted in the name of the Alakie—a
loyal and well-disposed but wholly illiterate Chief—by an able and educated
native. It was a hybrid, with an exterior pleasing to those who reckon
progress among natives to consist in imitating European methods. Side by side
with a Secretariat, and minute papers which only the Secretary and a few
clerks could read, with Estimates prepared on the Colonial Model, and
Orders in Council and Regulations passed by an illiterate body of conservative
Chiefs, practically all of whom were very old men who looked on these pro¬
ceedings probably with amused indifference, there existed the ancient regime
with all its abuses—extortionate demands from the peasantry, corruption
and bribery in the Courts, arbitrary imprisonment and forced labour. By
such methods, a large number of Chiefs of various grades—there were over
2,000 in Abeokuta, I believe—lived a life of idleness and sensuous indulgence.
Their power received the sanction of their Government, which was recognized
by the Suzerain Power on the one hand, and was rooted in the Fetish
observances of the Ogboni Society and native superstition on the other. In
virtue of the former, prisoners condemned by Courts, over which the Govern¬
ment exercised no control, were confined in prisons not subject to the Colonial
prison laws. ... If the people rebelled, Government troops were requisitioned
in the name of the Alakie. In virtue of the latter, the ignorant peasantry were
terrorized into acceptance of the demands of the Chiefs. . . .” u

Because of the conventional basis of its authority, the British government
had no power to put down abuses. Moreover, conflicts in jurisdiction on
other matters frequently arose.

Affairs reached a crisis in the so-called Ijemo incident in 1914* For

” Cf. Appendix E, ibid. 18 Cmd. 468, cited, para. 19.

THE PROTECTORATE OF SOUTHERN NIGERIA 675

some time, the Egb&s and the Ijebus had quarreled over a boundary line.
To stop this trouble, the British Commissioner, accompanied by Egba
officials, visited the spot of the quarrel—Ijemo. The local chief, who had
the reputation of being a Juju man or witch-doctor, told the Commissioner
that he, the Commissioner, had no authority over him since he was a
subject only of the Alake. The Commissioner thereupon ordered the
chief’s arrest. In the scuffle which followed, the chief received such rough
treatment that he later died. The Ijemo- people refused to accept his
corpse on the ground that death was due to foul play. They demanded
the dismissal of Edun, the secretary of the Egba government, who had many
enemies, and whom they blamed for the trouble. The demand for Edun’s
dismissal grew until a general meeting of chiefs at Abeokuta told Edun
that if he did not resign in five days, they would forcibly eject him. In
the midst of this trouble, British troops arrived from Lagos, apparently
requisitioned by the Alake. The British officer commanding these troops
called the natives together in a “palaver meeting” to talk over the diffi¬
culties. But instead, the troops, apparently without provocation, opened
fire on the crowd and killed a large number of women and children.
The British government appointed a Commission of Inquiry to determine
the facts concerning the Ijemo trouble; but so far it has declined to
publish the findings. It seems clear, therefore, that the “massacre” was
due to an irresponsible and hot-headed officer.

This incident, coming at the end of a series of difficulties, led the
British authorities to believe that for the sake of the natives as well
as the Europeans, the independence of Egbaland should be brought to an
end. On September i6, 1914, a new agreement was made the preamble of
which said: “. . . Whereas the King (Alake) and Authorities of Abeo¬
kuta desire the assistance of the government of the Colony and Protec¬
torate of Nigeria to maintain Law and Order” the treaty of 1893
should be annulled in favor of a new Agreement “placing the Egba King¬
dom unreservedly under the Government of the Protectorate of Nigeria.” 10
The new Agreement not only annulled the treaty of 1893 but also the
Judicial Agreement of 1904. The whole of the Egba kingdom thereupon
came under the courts and laws of the British government. No legis¬
lative measure could be enacted in the future by the Alake and his Council
without the express sanction of the Governor, who, however, continued to
recognize the Alake as the head of the Egba people. The treaty terminat¬
ing the independence of Egbaland was received with resentment by some
of the natives, one of whom wrote, “The Country’s independence has

“Text in Appendix G, Ijisafe, History of Abeokuta, cited.

676

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

been lost by an ignominious treaty coercively entered into with the British
Government.” 20 The steps by which the “autonomy” of the Egba govern¬
ment has been restored will be discussed later.

With the amalgamation of northern and southern Nigeria in 1914, the
British government terminated the judicial agreements not only with
Egbaland but also with Yorubaland, the province of Ife, and the territories
of the Awujale of Jebu Ode, 21 and also extended to these territories the
native and provincial courts ordinances.

4. The Kingdom of Benin

In the eastern provinces of southern Nigeria, another great native
state, the kingdom of Benin, existed between the middle of the 14th cen¬
tury and 1897. At one time, it extended as far as Lagos in one direction
and Bonni in the other. Following the arrival of Europeans, the kingdom
of Benin, because of the practice of human sacrifice, became known as
the City of Blood. 22 In 1892, the British concluded a treaty with the
king at Benin City in which the latter granted facilities of trade, but the
king did not live up to the terms of the treaty, and, in 1897, some of his
soldiers ambushed and killed a party of Europeans. 23 As a result of this
action, the British, after a severe struggle, subjugated the city. After
exiling King Overami and executing a number of chiefs, the British
soon established a direct administration. Further investigation showed
the cruelties of the Benin kingdom were not as great as originally
pictured. 24 In an effort doubtless to overcome past misconceptions of
native practices, the British government reestablished the kingdom and
restored the Oba of Benin to power in 1915. At the same time, the
system of native treasuries, found elsewhere in Nigeria, was introduced.
It appears, however, that this system was introduced without sufficiently
studying the old system of native government, so that instead of reviving

30 A. Folarin, The Demise of the Independence of Egbaland, Part II, Lagos,
1919, p. 24.

This was done by the Jurisdiction of the Courts Extension Ordinance, 1915
(Chap. 6, Laws) which repealed the Jurisdiction Ordinances of 1904 and 190S
applying to these territories.

23 Cf. R. H. Bacon, Benin, The City of Blood, New York, Ch. VII.

33 Papers relating to the Massacre of British officials near Benin, C. 8677

(* 97 ).

An official historian says, “All the human victims were said to consist of
murderers, wizards, and witches, and anybody else condemned to death for serious
crimes—and, occasionally ... of severely wounded prisoners captured in war.
No innocent slave, and no native Bini, who bore the Iwu marks—except a murderer
—was ever offered up in sacrifice. . . . The idea of the Benin rule, therefore, as
one of bloodstained despotism appears at variance with the truth, and in fact the
Bini customs were mild in comparison with those prevailing in much of the rest
of the country.” Talbot, cited, Vol. Ill, p. 861.

THE PROTECTORATE OF SOUTHERN NIGERIA 677

an indigenous growth rooted to the past, the government at first proved
an exotic plant. 28 An attempt was made to correct these errors, and it is
understood that native administration in Benin now commands greater
respect. The Oba rules his kingdom, assisted by a Council of nine chiefs.
He is paid a salary of 1,500 pounds a year, while the total revenue of the
Benin native treasury in 1926-1927 amounted to 14,392 pounds.

5. The Eastern Provinces

Elsewhere in the eastern provinces, particularly among the Ibo people,
there are no Paramount Chiefs, the only form of organization being the
clan. For a while, the Ibos were dominated by a sub-tribe, called the Aro
people, organized into nineteen towns, each ruled over by an hereditary
President and a council of eight members, whose consent was necessary for
any important action. A priesthood, having nine head priests, also had a
powerful influence. The Aros at one time established a powerful fetish
over this part of the country, called the Long Juju, which terrorized
the natives. The British finally suppressed these practices by military
operations in 1899.

A curious form of organization called “House Rule” also existed along
the mouths of the Niger in the first part of the twentieth century. The
chiefs in this area originally excluded European merchants from the
interior, and thus became wealthy as middlemen. They organized great
commercial houses, upon a feudal basis. The practice was to advance
goods to members of the “House” who would carry them up the creeks
in canoes to the interior tribes and bring back native produce. The
members of these Houses were usually slaves. In 1901, the government
of Southern Nigeria passed a Native House Rule Ordinance 28 which
made any member who refused or neglected to submit to the authority
of the head of the House liable to a year’s imprisonment or a fine of fifty
pounds. No further evidence than the oath of the head of the House
was sufficient for arrest. Any person, including a European, who employed
a member without the consent of the Head of the House was liable to a
year’s imprisonment and a fine of twenty pounds. This law, originally
enacted to maintain intact a valuable trading organization, was not com¬
patible with the Slavery Law of Southern Nigeria. Consequently, in
1914, it was repealed. 27 Although this action did not abolish House Rule,
it removed its chief support, and the system began to disintegrate. While
the destruction of House Rule did away with a form of domestic slavery,

45 Nigerian Council, Address by the Governor, 1920, p.35.

38 Chap. 121, Lavjs of Southern Nigeria, cited, p. 1258.

” No. 15 of 1914; Ordinances.

678

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

a number of political officers believe that, purged of abuse, it' should have
been retained, in order to give otherwise disorganized native groups a
form of political organization. Sir Frederick Lugard, when Governor-
General, proposed to reconstitute the Houses as Native Trading Corpora¬
tions, consisting only of free members, but the idea did not meet the favor
of the Secretary of State. 28

The establishment of political control over the eastern provinces was
as typically haphazard as in the west. Following the conclusion of several
hundred treaties with local chiefs by the Royal Niger Company, 29 the
British government in 1885 declared a protectorate over the many mouths
of the Niger Delta, called the Oil Rivers Protectorate. In 1891, a
Commissioner and Consul-General was stationed at Old Calabar, with
Deputy Commissioners and Vice-Consuls at the Benin, Bonny, Brass, and
Forcados rivers, and in the districts of Warri and Sapelo. In 1893, the
protectorate was extended into the hinterland under the name of the
Niger Coast Protectorate. In 1900, the Crown extended its jurisdiction
to territories hitherto occupied by the Royal Niger Company; and in the
same year it merged the Niger Coast Protectorate into the Protectorate of
Southern Nigeria. District Commissioners were scattered about the
country and in 1906, a Native Courts Ordinance was enacted authorizing
the establishment of “native” courts, with the district commissioner as
president and natives as members. 30 It appears that the European official
dominated the decisions of these mixed tribunals, which were based on
the principle found in the French colonies to-day. 31 The government did
not, nor does it to-day, require the natives of the western provinces, outside
of Benin, to pay direct taxes. It is understood that the Government
intends to introduce such taxes at the same time that it establishes native
treasuries.

” Political Memoranda, p. 245. "Hertslet, cited, Vol. I, pp. 450 ff.

*° Native Courts Ordinance, Chap. 123 (1906) Laws of Southern Nigeria, 1908.
This ordinance did not apply to the western provinces; cf. Vol. I, p. 670.

n Cf. Vol. I, p. 1005.

CHAPTER 39
NORTHERN NIGERIA
I. Its History

Just south of the Sahara lies what is, from the historical stand¬
point, probably the most fascinating part of Africa—the Sudan. Following
the Mohammedan invasion of Egypt and Northern Africa in the seventh
century, communications between the Mediterranean and the interior of the
Sudan were established, which led to the development of highly civilized
empires in the very heart of Africa. Even before the arrival of the
Arabs, the kingdom of Ghana was founded about 300 A.D. and reputed
to have had “white” rulers. In the thirteenth century, its preeminence
was successfully challenged by the Empire of Songhai and by the Mandingo
Empire of Melle. Probably the greatest figure in the history of the
interior of Africa, at least in the sixteenth century, was Askia the Great,
who made the Songhai kingdom renowned not only in the Sudan but
along the Mediterranean. In 1500 this leader shattered the Melle King¬
dom. But the Songhai kingdom was itself finally overthrown by the
Moroccans in 1591, following which the shattered bits have become subject
to the Hausas, Tauregs, and Fulani. 1 When the Moors were driven
out of Spain, they took their revenge in breaking up these Sudan Empires,
and in cutting off the contact between Central Africa and the Mediter¬
ranean. For two centuries the Land of the Blacks was cut off from
communication with the outside world.

For the next two centuries, the peoples of the Sudan were ruled by
Hausa Kings. But following a pilgrimage to Mecca, at the end of the
eighteenth century, a Fulani leader, named Othman dan Fodio, returned
to the Sudan where he had been living among the indigenous Hausa
people, and started a crusade. He wrote letters to the rulers of Timbuktu,
Bornu, and of the Hausa States, commanding them in the name of the
Prophet to stamp out abuse, to enforce the laws of the Koran, and
especially to abolish strong drink and the wearing of ornaments. When
a pagan king, alarmed at the activities of this reformer, administered a

1 Meek, cited, Vol. I, p. 68. Probably the best description of the fifteenth century
empires of the Sudan is contained in Lady Lugard, A Tropical Dependency, Lon¬
don, 190$.

679

680

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

severe reprimand, Othman dan Fodio raised the standard of revolt and
declared a jihad or Holy War. “The movement has been always described
in history as a Fulani conquest, sometimes an invasion. It was in no
sense the latter, and can hardly be called the former, for the Fulanis
formed but a small part of the conquering forces, though in nearly every
case they provided the leadership. Priests who had for many years been
settled in the various Hausa States, preaching the doctrines of Islam, and
attracting to themselves the most intelligent and ardent elements of the
Hausa race, flocked to Sheik Othman’s camp and received from him a
flag wherewith to return to their districts and rouse their followers
to the Holy War. ...” 2 Successful in vanquishing Hausa chiefs who had
become corrupt in the Faith, Othman now established himself at Sokoto
and sent out “mallams” or priests to rule over the Hausa States. Each of
these Fulani “mallams” became the founder of a dynasty. All of them,
however, looked to the Sultan of Sokoto—Othman and his successors, as
their spiritual and, for a time, their political chief. For many years the
Empire of Sokoto covered a large part of the Sudan, excluding the Emirate
of Bornu, which has existed since the 13th century.

A recent writer describes the history of the Empire as follows:
“Founded as a theocracy, it [the Fulani empire] soon developed into a
mere tax-collecting sultanate, whose power was based primarily on military
supremacy. The Empire was divided into two halves—Gando and Sokoto
(or Wurno). Each half consisted of a number of provinces, ruled usually,
but not always, by a Fulani governor who was responsible for the good
government of his province to the Sultan of Sokoto or Gando, to whom
a certain proportion of taxes was forwarded each year. Levies had also
to be furnished in time of war. Apart from these requirements of the
central government the provinces were left to manage their own affairs.
The power of the governor was qualified by (a) a central council, com¬
posed of the chief ministers and territorial officials, and (b) the right of
every subject, in theory at least, to appeal to the Sarkin Musulimi or Sultan
of Sokoto. Unsatisfactory governors could be, and not infrequently were,
deposed by the Sultan. In the early days of the Fulani empire it was
said that the administration was so efficient that a woman could in safety
traverse the whole of the empire with a basket of gold on her head. But
these good days must soon have passed, for it is generally true to say that
the administration of the governors was of a summary and arbitrary char¬
acter, the chief end being the replenishment of their dissipated resources.
The methods adopted for this end were the wholesale plunder of the popu¬
lace. Slaves were the general currency, and under the extensive system of
* C. W. J. Orr, The Making of Northern Nigeria, London, 1911, p. 71.

NORTHERN NIGERIA

681

slavery there was an absence of social cohesion, the mass of the subject
pagan peoples being reduced to a state of complete economic and moral
paralysis.” 3

In 1893 the people of Kano defied Sokoto and chose their own Emir.
About the same time, the other governors gained their freedom from Sokoto>
and became independent Emirs—such as the Emir of Kano and Katsina.
Except for the Shehu of Bornu 4 they still look to Sokoto as a spiritual
authority. In sending out these new governors, who founded new
dynasties, Othman had scarcely touched existing methods of political
organization. 5

An Emirate remained divided into districts in charge of a Fulani fief-
holder representing the feudal interests of the Emir. These fiefholders
were obliged to pay the Emir an annual tithe. Usually the fiefholders
were the biggest officers in the state, one of them holding eighteen different
fiefs. They resided, not in their districts, but at the capital. They were
represented in the districts by chief aj?les or tax collectors who lived by
extortion and were generally detested. 6 Fifty per cent of the tribute
which the ajeles collected went to the Emir; twenty-five per cent to the
fiefholders; and the remainder was divided between the ajele and sub¬
ordinate officers. In most of the Emirates, a highly developed judicial
system was in existence, the courts of which applied Moslem law and
were presided over by professional judges, called Alkalis, over whom in
each Emirate a head Alkali acted as a court of appeal.

While the majority of the inhabitants of northern Nigeria were and
are Mohammedans, the Animists constitute about thirty-three per cent
of the population. They are particularly strong in the province of Mun-
shi, Nasarawa, Ilorin, Yola, and Bauchi. The Moslems predominate in
Kano, Sokoto, Bornu, and to a lesser extent in Nupe. 7 In some cases
Moslem chiefs ruled pagan tribes. It is a striking fact that despite Moslem
domination few if any of these animist people have accepted Mohammedan¬
ism during the last fifty years. Half a dozen times the British, after
their occupation of the country, attempted to place Moslem chiefs over
pagan people—but in each case without success.

The re-discovery of these people of the Sudan, a Mohammedan
civilization and system of government, was made by venturesome ex¬
plorers, the first of which was Mungo Park, who started on his eventu-

* Meek, cited, Vol. I, p. 257.

4 Cf. A. Schultze, The Sultanate of Bornu, translated by P. A. Benton, London,
* 9 * 3 -

5 Gazetteer of Kano Province, compiled by W. F. Gowers, 1921, p. 10.

4 Colonial Reports, Northern Nigeria, No. 409, 1902, p. 80.

7 Meek, cited, Vol. II, p. 246.

682

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

ally fatal quest for the Niger in 1797. A large number of other explorers
tried and failed, death being, in most cases, their reward. In 1821 the
British government sent an expedition led by Major Denham and
Captain Clapperton out across the desert from Tripoli—an expedition
which succeeded in reaching the kingdom of Bornu, and in visiting the
Fulani kingdoms of Kano, Katsina, and Sokoto. In 1830 Lander discov¬
ered the source of the Niger. In 1850 the British Government sent out
another expedition via Tripoli, of which the notable German explorer,
Dr. Barth, was a member. This expedition visited the Hausa states.

Because of the feeling at home against further expansion 8 the British
government did nothing to establish political control over this territory,
despite the fact that inter-tribal war and slave-trading not only were
disrupting the life of the people, but were also obstructing trade.

2. The Royal Niger Company

In 1886 the British government granted a charter to what later
became the Royal Niger Company for the purpose, not only of carrying
on a commercial business in the valley of the Niger, but also of exercising
administrative powers.” This Company made treaties with the Sultan
of Sokoto in 1885 and 1890, who agreed to the establishment of trading
stations. But despite the protests of the Company, the Sultan of Nupe,
who was under the suzerainty of Sokoto, continued to make slave raids into
pagan areas. In 1897 Sir George Goldie headed a Company force against
the Emir of Nupe who was finally deposed. Following this expedition,

* Cf. the Resolution of the House of Commons, 1865, Vol. I, p. 790.

9 Hertslet, cited, Vol. I, p. 446. The Company then called the National African
Company acquired the basis of its jurisdiction by the negotiation of 306 treaties
with various native chiefs. The Emir of Katsena signed a treaty in the following
form: “AGREEMENT made on the day of „ 188 , between the King and
Chiefs of and the National African Company (Limited) of London.

We, the Undersigned King and Chiefs of with a view to the bettering

of the condition of our country and people, do this day cede, with all sovereign
rights, to the National African Company (Limited), for ever, the whole of our
territory extending from

We also agree that all disputes arising between British or foreign traders or
neighboring tribes shall be submitted to the said National African Company
(Limited) for settlement.

We also understand that the National African Company have sole power to
mine, farm, and build in any portion of our territory.

We also give the National African Company the power to exclude all or any
foreigners from our.country.

In consideration of the foregoing, the said National African Company bind
themselves not to interfere with any native laws or customs of the country con¬
sistent with the maintenance of order and good government.

The National African Company agree to pay native owners of land a reason¬
able amount for any portion they may require.

The National African Company also agree to pay the said King and Chiefs
the value of per annum.” . . . Ibid., pp. 472-473.

NORTHERN NIGERIA

683

the Emirs of Nupe and Ilorin signed treaties with the Company, agreeing
to suppress slave raiding. 10 Growing difficulties with these Emirs, whose
exactions the Company could not control, and fear of the activities of the
French on the northwestern border, finally led the British Government to
send out Colonel Lugard, who arrived in northern Nigeria in 1900 to
organize the West Africa Frontier Force and to take over the government.
At this time an agreement was made whereby the government acquired
the administration from the Royal Niger Company, including all its land
and mining rights, in return for which the government would assume the
interest on a debt of 250,000 pounds. It undertook to pay 150,000 pounds
as compensation for the Company’s withdrawal, and another 300,000
pounds for advances made in excess of revenue in the development of the
territory. The government undertook also to impose a royalty on all min¬
erals within the greater part of the Protectorate, half of which would be
paid to the Company for a period of ninety-nine years. 11

3. The Protectorate

On January 1, 1900, northern Nigeria became a British protectorate,
administered by a High Commissioner. 12

The first task confronting the administration was the pacification of
the country. This was quickly accomplished, and 'ale Emirs were given
to understand that the final word was now in British hands, in contrast
to the treaty policy being followed in southern Nigeria. But instead of
overthrowing the native institutions headed by these Emirs, Sir Frederick
Lugard decided to maintain the status quo and to use the Emirs as
vassal rulers.

Each Emir who loyally came to terms with the British was given a
Letter of Appointment which provided that he should rule justly and in
accordance with the laws of the protectorate and that he should be guided
by the advice of the Resident. 13 The Letter stipulated that minerals and
waste lands belonged to the Crown. These Letters of Appointment are
still given to new Emirs. Subject to the sole right of the British gov-

10 Orr, cited, pp. 35 ff.

In 1900, the Royal Niger Company reverted to a trading concern. Following
the World War, it was acquired by the Lever interests.

11 Northern Nigeria Order in Council, 1899, Northern Nigeria Laws, 1905, p. 5.

“The quaint dignity of the most belligerent of these rulers is shown by the

following translation of an Arabic letter from the Sultan of Sokoto to the High
Commissioner. “From us to you. I do not consent that any one from you should
ever dwell with us. I will never agree with you. I will have nothing ever to do
with you. Between us and you there are no dealings except as between Musulmans
and Unbelievers—War, as God Almighty has enjoined on us. There is no power
or strength save in God on high.

“This with salutations.”

Colonial Reports, Northern Nigeria, 1902, p. 159.

684

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

ernment to raise and control armed forces, to impose taxation, to make
law, and dispose of land, “it was the declared policy of the Government
to restore to the Chiefs the prestige and authority which they had lost
by the British conquest, or forfeited by their own previous mal-administra-
tion.” In adopting this policy, Sir Frederick Lugard apparently had the
native states of India in mind. The European political staff available for
this vast territory could never adequately rule it without the aid of native
machinery; nor could any system be established which did not meet with
the approval of the people, attached as are all Africans to their traditional
rulers. 14

Consequently the British Government simply recognized the existing
Emirates and courts, submitting them to a type of control to be described
later. Likewise it continued the existing system of taxation, except that
it placed assessment in the hands of European officers. Half of the money
thus raised was placed in native treasuries from which native officials are
paid salaries. This system—of indirect administration—will be discussed
soon in detail.

14 Political Memoranda, p. 298.

CHAPTER 40

THE BRITISH CAMEROONS

Only a word can be said about the administration of the British
Cameroons—an area held by the British Government under mandate from
the League of Nations. It contains about 31,150 square miles of terri¬
tory and a population of 650,000 people living along the eastern frontier
of Nigeria. The northern part of this area is administered as a part of
the Nigerian Provinces of Bornu and Yola, while the southern parts are
administered as a separate Cameroons Province under a Resident at Buea.
The land regime existing in the northern provinces has been applied to the
north Cameroons, while the southern land regime has been applied to the
south. The Government is now considering the desirability of turning
back to native communities in the south land which the former German
government considered to be Crown land. 1 Native treasuries and native
courts are being introduced throughout the territory, and Nigerian prin¬
ciples of administration are being generally followed.

The German Government had introduced plantations of cocoa, palm,
and rubber at the base of Mt. Cameroon, alienating some 300,000 acres
for this purpose. 2 It appears that the German Government made itself
responsible for the labor required by these fifty-eight plantations. “Fol¬
lowing the British occupation of the country, though it would have resulted
in economic chaos if the system of Government recruiting had been sud¬
denly stopped, it was decided as a general policy, which was also strongly
supported by the plantation’s management, gradually to abolish that
system of recruiting labor.” 3 This has now been done, and it appears that
the plantations, which employ about 11,000 natives from the interior, rely
wholly upon voluntary sources of supply. 4

l Cf. Vol. I, p. 486. The German government followed the policy of natfve re¬
serves on the basis of six hectares for each adult male. The natives generally com¬
plained that the reserves were not large enough and that the worst land was
allotted to them. In the northern districts no native reserves were created. Re¬
port on the British Sphere in the Cameroons, Cmd. 1647 (1922) para. 55.

* The cocoa exports from the Cameroons increased from 2,700,000 marks in
1907 to 4,200,000 marks in 1912—a small increase compared with that of the Gold
Coast under native production. Cf. Vol. I, p. 856. Deutsches Kolonial-Lexikon,
Vol. II, p. 204.

3 Cmd. 1647, cited, p. 67.

4 The report for 1922, appendix, says that as a result of working on European
cocoa plantations, laborers have returned home to become farmers themselves.

685

686

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

Following the practice in all Allied countries, the government seques¬
trated German property during the World War. But unlike British
policy in Tanganyika and French policy in Togo and the Cameroons, the
Nigerian administration allowed Germans to bid in the auctions of these
plantations, held in November, 1924. As a result, most of these planta¬
tions are now being operated by their former owners. Despite the over¬
crowding of reserves, the government made no effort to purchase some of
these plantations for natives, as did the government of Tanganyika.

While the northern Cameroons has so far paid its own way, the
southern Cameroons has experienced a deficit since 1916, which up to 1922-

1923 totaled 179,809 pounds. The annual expenditure on the mandate
now amounts to a hundred and twenty thousand pounds a year. In 1923-

1924 the deficit was 53,338 pounds. A deficit has existed partly because
direct taxation was imposed only in 1922, and also because at least fifty
per cent and in some cases seventy-five per cent of the total tax is returned
to the native treasury. Moreover, the revival of trade, upon which
revenue depends, has been difficult because of the disorganization of the
plantation system produced by the war. Native agriculture can be much
more quickly revived than European plantations. Likewise, part of the
trade of the Cameroons comes overland from Nigeria, and consequently,
it is difficult to estimate what proportion of the customs revenue on this
trade should be credited to the Cameroons.

Under ordinary circumstances, colonial deficits are borne by the home
government. But the Cameroons may, according to the text of the man¬
date, be administered as “an integral part” of the territory of the mandatory
government. 6-6 The British government has apparently interpreted this
provision to mean that the adjoining government—Nigeria—may assume
the deficit of the mandated area—and such has been the practice. The
assumption of this deficit has been criticized by unofficial members of the
Nigerian Legislative Council, one of whom said: “It is a Mandated Terri¬
tory for which the British Government has a Mandate, and I for one
am unable to see why the Nigerian government should be saddled with
this expenditure.” An African member also said that the Imperial
Government should be asked to make a grant-in-aid for that purpose. 7
In reply, the Chief Secretary of the Government recalled the fact that

“The well-planned and attended native cocoa-farms established throughout the
principal labor-recruiting districts, so different to the primitive cocoa-farms seen
in Nigeria, offer striking testimony to the value of experience and example.”
Ibid., p. 68.

B '°The obligations of this mandate are practically identical with those in the
other B mandates in Africa. Cf. Vol. I, p. 546.

7 Legislative Council Debates, first session, 1923, pp. 89, no, 131.

THE BRITISH CAMtROONS

687

in 1915, the Nigerian Council offered to assume liability for 6,000,000
pounds of the War debt of the Empire. But it was found that this
burden, amounting to 360,000 pounds a year for thirty-seven years, would
be almost impossible for the local budget to bear. “It was not a pleasant
position for Nigeria having to withdraw in this way, but we were at
the same time contributing a not insignificant sum towards the admin¬
istration of the Cameroons Province, and Your Excellency’s feel¬
ing was that having had to withdraw in the larger matter, it was not
the proper time to press for relief from the burden of administering the
Cameroons Province.” A motion to hold up the Cameroons Estimates
was defeated.

The assumption of part of the War debt of a European government
by an African colony would appear to violate the principles of trusteeship.
While perhaps the assumption of the Cameroons deficit by the Nigerian
government may be legal under the wording of the B mandate, it would
appear that according to the spirit of the mandates system, any such
advance should be borne by the mandatory government at home. 8 The
Nigeria Estimates for 1926-1927 do not carry a vote for such a deficit
because the Cameroons province is now self-supporting.

* For a different aspect of the same policy, i.e., the Togo loan to the Cameroons,
cf. Vol. II, p. 284.

CHAPTER 41

INDIRECT ADMINISTRATION

Native administration in Nigeria is based on the principle of recogniz¬
ing and developing native institutions, subject to British control so as to
prevent shocking abuses. The constitutional framework of this system,
worked out first in Northern Nigeria, now rests upon a number of ordi¬
nances: the Native Authority Ordinance, the Native Courts Ordinance,
and the Native Revenue Ordinance, which will be briefly discussed.

I. The Native Authority Ordinance 1

A “Native Authority” under the 1916 Native Authority Ordinance
is any Chief or other Native formally recognized by the government. It
is the duty of such a Native Authority to maintain order and to appoint
native police to assist in this purpose. He is authorized to prevent the
commission of any offence and if necessary to arrest the intending offender.
He may compel a native to appear before court. He may issue orders
on a certain number of subjects not inconsistent with Nigerian Statutes.
These orders may be cancelled by the administrative officer. But when
once confirmed, orders of the Native Authority must be obeyed, subject
to punishment of a fine of twenty pounds or imprisonment for two months,
or both. When the authority of native courts is defied in enforcing
orders of the Native Authority, and when persons intrigue against a
Chief, the British courts may step in to support the tribal authority.

The Chiefs, thus recognized by the British government, are treated
as an integral part of the machinery of the administration. “There are
not two sets of rulers—British and Native—working either separately
or in co-operation, but a single Government in which the Native Chiefs
have well-defined duties and an acknowledged status equally with the
British officials.” 2 It is the policy to urge the Head Chief to delegate
authority to District Headmen. Moreover, Chiefs are divided into first
and second grade Chiefs, according to the importance of their tribes. The
highest rank is borne by the Sultan of Sokoto, the Shehu of Bornu, and
the other leading Emirs of the northern provinces, and by the Alafin of
Oyo, the Oba of Benin, the Alake of Egbaland, and several other rulers
in the south. In recognizing these Chiefs and other native officials, the
1 Chap. 73, Laws, 1923. 'Political Memoranda, p 208.

C88

INDIRECT ADMINISTRATION

689

government almost invariably follows the wish of the people and the
native rules of succession. A short time ago, the Wazir, or prime minister
of Sokoto, had a quarrel with the Emir and resigned. The Sultan thereupon
nominated another member of the family in which the office of Wazir was
hereditary. But since the man was a nonentity the Resident tried to argue
with the Emir about the appointment, and the Lieutenant-Governor came
to Sokoto and told the Emir that this man would never do. Finally it
was agreed that if all the members of the Emir’s Judicial Council favored
the man, objections would be withdrawn on condition that he serve on
probation for one year. It turned out that the wisdom of the Sultan
counter-balanced the deficiencies of the new Wazir and that the decision
to let the Sultan have his own way was a wise one.

Great ceremony is followed in recognizing a Nigerian Chief. A First
Grade Chief is given a Letter of Appointment and a Staff of Office sur¬
mounted with silver; in the case of a Second Grade Chief, it is surmounted
with a brass headpiece. 3 Meticulous attention to native etiquette is
also paid by administrative officers in dealing with Head Chiefs. Thus
when an official interviews a subordinate chief, the Head Chief is asked
to be present, and when an official goes on a tour, he is accompanied by
a representative of the Head Chief who acts as his mouthpiece to transmit
orders to village heads. Thus the first principle of Nigerian native policy
is the recognition of Native Authority. 4 In southern Nigeria, 224 native
authorities have been recognized; in northern Nigeria, 151 6 —a total of
375. In theory, these native authorities represent tribal units existing at
the time that British control was established.

2. Native Courts

In the second place, Nigerian native policy rests upon a framework of
Native Courts controlled by the Native Courts Ordinance of 1914.°

’On installation, the Chief takes an oath of allegiance on the Koran (if a
Moslem) as follows: “I swear in the name of God to well and truly serve His
Majesty King George V. and his representative the Governor-General of Nigeria,
to obey the laws of Nigeria and the lawful commands of the Governor and the
Lieutenant-Governor, provided they are not contrary to my religion. ... I will
cherish in my heart no treachery or disloyalty, and I will rule my people with
justice and without partiality, and as I carry out this oath so may God judge me.”
Ibid., p. 308. First and Second Grand Chiefs are appointed by the Governor; the
more important District Headmen and some Chiefs occupy the third grade, and
the less important, the fourth and fifth grade, as the Resident may recommend.
These sub-chiefs receive their staff of office from their Paramount Chiefs, in the
presence of the Resident and the people.

4 Where no recognized Chiefs exist, the native court may be gazetted as the
Native Authority. Thus about 135 native authorities in Nigeria are also native
courts.

6 1926 Supplement, p. 216. These figures do not include the chiefs subordinate
to these native authorities. 8 Chap. 5, Laws.

690

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

These courts are composed entirely of native judges, who, in the case of
Moslem tribes, are usually professional judges, independent of the Emir,
but who in pagan tribes are usually chiefs and headmen who also have exe¬
cutive authority. These courts administer Mohammedan or native law and
custom, together with such English law as may be embodied in “Rules”
drawn up by the Court or Chief and approved by the Governor. Thus in
1918, the Kano Emirate adopted six native court rules in regard to slavery,
the concealment of taxes, the assumption of judicial functions, the disposal
of rubbish, and the suppression of gambling. Persons violating these rules
became liable to penalty. 7

Four classes of courts are recognized under the Native Courts
Ordinance:

1. Grade A courts, usually a “Judicial Council”—which is the
tribal council found in the larger native states. When such a council
is recognized as a Grade A court, it is given full judicial power in all
civil and criminal cases; 8 but no sentence of death may be carried out
until it has been confirmed by the Governor. In all of the three Class A
courts recognized in southern Nigeria, however, the power of capital
punishment has been expressly withheld.

2. Grade B courts have jurisdiction in civil actions in which the debt
or demand does not exceed fifty pounds; and in criminal cases where the
offense is punished by not more than two years’ imprisonment, twenty-
four lashes, or a fine of fifty pounds or the equivalent in Native Law of
Custom.

3. Grade C courts have a civil jurisdiction where the claim does not
exceed, in the northern provinces, twenty pounds, and in the southern
provinces, ten pounds, and criminal jurisdiction where the punishment does
not exceed six months’ imprisonment or a fine of ten pounds.

4. Grade D courts have civil jurisdiction up to ten pounds in the
northern provinces and five pounds in the southern provinces, and criminal
jurisdiction up to three months’ imprisonment, twelve lashes, or five
pounds. 9

T In 1925, an amendment to the Native Authority Ordinance was enacted pro¬
viding: “If a native authority or a judicial council exercising executive functions
with the approval of the Governor shall make any lawful and proper order, or if
any native tribunal shall make any order, and any such order shall not be com¬
plied with or shall be disobeyed, it shall be lawful for any Magistrate to enforce
the said order and to inflict upon the person who shall have disregarded the order
such penalty as to him shall seem proper.” Chap. 73 of ibid.

8 A number of Judicial Councils are allowed to remit the sentence of imprison¬
ment of any prisoner serving a sentence of two years or more—one-fourth of his
sentence for good conduct, etc., IQ26 Supplement, p. 154.

* Laws , Vol. Ill, p. 209.

INDIRECT ADMINISTRATION

691

The Native Courts in Nigeria are as follows:

i. NORTHERN NIGERIA

Province

A Grade

B Grade

C Grade

D Grade

Bornu.

Ilorin .

Kabba .

Kano .

Niger .

Plateau .

Sokoto .

Zaria .

176

193

SOUTHERN NIGERIA

Province

Grade A

Grade B

Grade C

Grade D

1. Abeokuta .

2. Benin .

3. Calabar .

4. Cameroons .

5. Ijebu .

6. Ogoja .

7. Ondo .

8. Onitsha .

9. Owerri .

10. Oyo .

11. Warri .

184

78 10

These courts derive their authority from a warrant issued by the
Resident of the province, approved by the governor and notified in the
Gazette.

Fees are fixed at ten per cent of judgment debts, paid either by the
winner or the loser, at the discretion of the court. A fee of five shillings
is charged for the issue of a summons to a witness in a civil matter where
the claim does not exceed ten pounds, or of ten shillings in excess of ten
pounds. Each court has a clerk who keeps a record of the proceed¬
ings in the northern provinces. These records are kept in Hausa, and in
the south they are kept in English. As a result, the majority of the latter
10 Gazette, 1922, p. 330.

692 THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

courts must employ clerks recruited from semi-educated youths who have,
in many cases, usurped the authority of the real chiefs. It would be more
in keeping with the idea of native authority if native court records
were kept in the native language, which the British official is already
supposed to know.

Strictly speaking, there is no appeal from a native to a provincial
court. 11 The district officer has, however, the power at his discretion
to transfer a case from the native to the provincial court, and the Resi¬
dent may revise judgments upon the basis of the monthly returns of criminal
cases which each court must submit. Usually, the native may also appeal
from a lower to a higher grade native court, 12 particularly in the northern
Emirates. Thus at Kano, the Chief Alkali’s Court hears appeals from all
the native courts in the Emirate.

The tremendous amount of work done by the native courts in the
northern provinces is shown for 1925 as follows:

I. Total number of Criminal cases. 27,887

A. The most important offenses were:

1. Assault . 3945

2. Offenses against native court rules. 3277

3. Stealing . 4019

4. Wounding . 2408

5. Murder . 30

6. Homicide . 86

II. Total number of Adultery cases. 1*727

III. Total number of Civil cases. 147,787

A. The most important civil offenses were:

1. Matrimonial offenses . 74.809

2. Administration of estates. 39.554

3. Debt . 18,055

IV. Total number of Criminal and Civil cases. 175,674

V. Total number of punishments imposed. 26,756

A. This number includes:

11 capital punishments

861 imprisonments for two years and over
1,153 imprisonments for between six months and two years
4,395 imprisonments for less than six months
23 fines of 20 pounds and over
14,479 fines under 20 pounds
4,791 floggings

1,043 stocks and other punishments

n When a person dissatisfied with the decision of a native court applies to a
provincial court, the provincial court cannot refuse to issue a process in any civil
matter; but the successful litigant in the native court may raise the plea of res
adjudicates. Legal Circular, No. 2, June 10, 1924.

12 Cf. Sec. 17, Native Courts Ordinance.

INDIRECT ADMINISTRATION

693

It thus appears that the court imposes fines in about half the criminal
cases. They also impose flogging and imprisonment for less than six
months with about equal frequency.

The following statistics are also of interest:

1. Average population per native court . 20,486

2. Average population per criminal case . 359

3. Average population per civil case (including adultery) 67

4. Average population per civil and criminal case. 56

In the south, there is one native court for each 26,000 people. Thus
a Nigerian native has much freer access to a tribunal than a native in the
French colonies, where the number of tribunals is limited to the number
of French administrators. 13

In the northern provinces, these native courts relieve the European
provincial courts of practically all judicial work. In Kano division, the
provincial court in 1925 tried only four civil and five criminal cases,
in contrast to the native courts, which tried 4,253 criminal and 44,297
civil cases. In Zaria province in 1925, the provincial courts tried only
twenty criminal and no civil cases, while the native courts tried a total
of 14,080 cases.

In the north, the professional judges, or Alkalis, are paid fixed salaries
out of the native treasury. The Alkalis at Kano receive 480 pounds a
year, while the sixteen district alkalis receive salaries ranging from ninety-
six to one hundred and twenty pounds. Criminal cases are inscribed as:
“The Native Administration versus Z.” The enforcement of the sentences
of a native court is in the hands of the police or messengers of the Native
Authority. These are called in the north, Dogari, and among the Yorubas
in the south, Olupas. A native court turns over a warrant or a summons
to the native chief for execution.

3. Native Prisons

Natives sentenced to imprisonment are confined in native administra¬
tion prisons. 14

The table on the next page shows that the mortality rate in native
prisons is greater than in the government prisons.

The number of inmates in native prisons in the north varies between
10,000 and 13,300, a number which is much greater than that in govern¬
ment prisons, which have less than 3,000. The high death rates in the
native prisons were due largely to epidemics which were much more difficult
to control in a large than in a small body of men. Nevertheless, it would

13 Cf. Vol. I, p. 1005. “For a description, Vol. I, p. 706.

694

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

Mortality in Prisons

Date

Mortality rate per 1000 persons
in Government prisoners

Mortality rate per 1000 prisoners
in Native Administration
Prisons

Northern

Provinces

Southern

Provinces

Average of both Provinces

1922

24.3

23.06

60. xo

1923

25.52

30.34

38.27

1924

5.58

34-39

108.9 15

appear that prisons rigidly directed by Europeans are healthier places
than those directed by natives, subject to European supervision. Even
if this is true, it does not necessarily follow that native prisons should
be abolished. This health factor is outweighed by the social and political
consideration that native prisons like native courts are part of the institu¬
tional life of the African which must be developed if Africa is to become
self-governing.

4. Native Treasuries

The third principle of native administration in Nigeria is the prin¬
ciple of Native Treasuries, which is based on the Native Revenue
Ordinance. 18 In the ordinary colony, a government imposes taxes on
the natives simply to balance the budget. But in Nigeria, taxation is used
also to support the Native Authority. In conquering the Emirs of northern
Nigeria in 1900, the British had it within their power to wipe out the
former exactions levied by the Emirs on the people. But the British
realized that if the chiefs were to be used as part of the administration, and
if the peasantry were to be spared illegal exactions, the chiefs should have
a regular income. Consequently, Sir Frederick Lugard decided to “retain
as far as possible the ancient tribute as sanctioned by Native law and
custom, and to preserve the individuality of the institutions of the country;
to utilize the Native machinery for the purpose; and to introduce some
uniformity and equality in the incidence of taxation in the different
provinces.” 17 In northern Nigeria and in some of the native states of
southern Nigeria, the government imposes a tribute or income tax instead of
the head tax found elsewhere in Africa. The object of the income tax

18 Annual Medical and Sanitary Report, Nigeria, 1924, p. 11.

ia Chap. 74, Laws. Extended so far to 12 divisions in the southern provinces.
Ibid., Vol. Ill, p. 510.

” Political Memoranda, p. 169.

INDIRECT ADMINISTRATION

695

is not only to follow the principle of capacity to pay, but to retain the
tithe system of the old days, and to place a unique kind of financial
responsibility upon the native authority. In addition to the income or
tribute tax, the northern Emirates also impose the jangali or cattle tax.
The assessment of these taxes is in the hands of European officers, but their
collection is done by the Native Authorities who give individual receipts.
The work of assessing these taxes is very arduous. For example, in the
Gwaram district, which has a population of 45,000, an administrative
officer assisted by half a dozen native clerks, took six weeks for this task
in 1924. He not only estimated the population of each village, but also
computed the total acreage under millet and other crops, together with
the average yield per acre. By multiplying the yield by the local prices,
he was able to estimate the income per acre. Through interviews with
representative natives, he likewise estimated incomes in various native
industries. By this means, the officer found that the gross average income
in agriculture was about 70 shillings, ten per cent of which would be
seven shillings. But since this figure was considered high compared with
that of the previous year, the average tax was fixed at six shillings. The
tax was then multiplied by the number of taxpayers in each hamlet and
village, and the district head notified the elders, in the form of a tax
slip, the lump sum due from their respective villages. The Assessing
Officer then determined the incidence of the tax, i.e., the limits within
which it might be varied in accordance with individual incomes, in this case,
between two and ten shillings.

The village headmen and elders now determine each individual tax,
after which they prepare complete tax lists for their villages, with the
name of each taxpayer and the amount due from him. This is done
under the supervision of the district head. When the latter official informs
the European Assessment Officer that every taxpayer has received a slip
stating his name and tax, the Assessment Officer checks a number of slips
to determine if unauthorized impositions have been made. He also hears
complaints about over-assessment. As a rule, the local village councils
assess individual taxes in a manner accepted by the natives as fair/ The
tax lists are revised annually. This method is called “lump sum”
assessment.

In more thickly populated districts, a more complicated system of
revenue assessment, called “taki,” is followed. Under this system, each
farm is measured and the value of the crop determined by taking into
consideration the average yield, the grade of the soil, and the distance from
market. A tax equal to ten per cent of the income thus arrived at is
then levied. At present, twenty districts in the Kano division are under

696

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

the “taki” system. Three others are under the “revenue” system, where
instead of simply pacing off the land, native surveyors trained in the
Native Survey School at Kano, mark it off by chain and compass. These
efforts to survey each man’s lands are so arduous that the plan is not
being extended in the less populated districts.

At Kano, the Judicial Council of the Emir has worked out a system
of classifying native industries, such as dyeing, weaving and tanning, into
four groups, with taxes fixed in accordance with the average income of
each. Unlike the other native rulers, the Shehu of Bornu takes full
responsibility for the assessment of taxes, a task which, according to
political officers, he performs remarkably well . 18 The collection of all
taxes is carried out by the district heads or chiefs who give individual
receipts to the taxpayers. Women as well as men pay taxes. One dif¬
ficulty with the income tax system is that taxes vary from one province
to another. In Kano, the incidence per male is six shillings, while in the
neighboring province of Zaria, it is only four. These differences some¬
times lead to migration from one province to another. They may,
however, be equalized by the Lieutenant-Governor.

Half of the money thus collected goes to the British Treasury at Lagos
where it is used to pay the salaries of British officials and for other purposes.
The other half is paid into what are called Native Treasuries. A native
treasury is a fund attached to a native state. In addition to receiving
half the taxes, the native treasuries receive fees and fines from native
courts and certain royalties and licenses. In the larger native states, a
native treasurer is responsible for the administration of this fund. Esti¬
mates are annually drawn up by the chief and his council, subject to
the advice of the British official concerned.

Out of these estimates the native officials are paid a salary. In some
cases, however, district heads and others are merely paid a commission
on taxes, a system which the Nigerian government is rapidly abolishing . 19

Funds are.deposited in a European bank; and the native treasurers can
draw on these funds upon a warrant signed by a European official.
However, the freedom of the treasurer varies with the native govern¬
ment . 20 Accounts are subject to the audit of the Resident.

18 Each Assessment Officer submits to the Resident of the province an assess¬
ment report of his district which is transmitted to the Lieutenant-Governor for
approval. Having been approved, it becomes an “approved assessment.”

19 Mr. H. R. Palmer, the Lieutenant-Governor of the northern provinces says:
“As long as the Chiefs took a share, it was almost impossible to lay stress on the
distinction between the Government share and the collector’s share; but, when they
are salaried, chiefs are bound to bring their full tribute to account, and it is more
difficult to conceal temporary financial expedients. They must now collect accu¬
rately and account accurately, or be found out.” Political Memoranda, p. 204.

30 Cf. Vol. I, p. 714.

INDIRECT ADMINISTRATION

697

The Emirs of Kano and Sokoto and the Shehu of Bornu each receive
an annual salary of five thousand pounds plus an establishment charge of
one thousand pounds—a total of six thousand pounds or thirty thousand
dollars. An Emir thus receives three times the salary of a British Resident,
and twice that of the Lieutenant-Governor. These salaries supposedly
represent the income received by these Emirs before the British conquest.
But in view of the removal of the uncertainties which constant warfare
formerly produced, it seems certain that the Emirs now receive more
than they did in the old days. But the expenses of maintaining an estab¬
lishment, and especially of providing for hundreds of guests, not to
mention wives, is still tremendous. 21

A large number of the native treasuries in the north pay some
form of stipend to the religious head of the community, the lemonou.
Great numbers of scribes and messengers are also employed.

While more than half of the funds in these native treasuries go to
native salaries, appropriations are also made for such social purposes as
the construction of wells, schools, and public works. In order that the
expenditure of these funds may be properly supervised, native administra¬
tions employ European officials, such as engineers or educators seconded
from the British government. These officials not only expend the money
but in theory try to educate the natives eventually to perform the task
of expending this money themselves.

After the native treasury Estimates are drawn up and approved by
the Resident and the Lieutenant-Governor, they are sent to Lagos to be
confirmed. Even having been confirmed, these Estimates may be altered
within limits by the local authorities. For this purpose, native treasuries
are divided into three groups, the first of which is called “fully organized.”
The fully organized Emirates have the power, subject to the consent of
the Resident, to reallocate approved expenditures in any way or to
increase fresh expenditure up to five hundred pounds for recurrent expendi¬
tures and a thousand pounds for extraordinary heads, provided that the
total expenditure does not exceed the total revenue for the year. The
remaining treasuries, classified as partially organized or unorganized,'may
change expenditures to a much more limited extent.

There are sixty-one native treasuries in the northern provinces of
Nigeria whose total annual revenue increased from 324,569 pounds
in 1915 to 723,679 pounds in 1924-25, a sum equal to 13.4 per cent of
the ordinary revenue of the Nigerian government. The estimated
surplus balance of these treasuries (in 1927), is 1,203,480 pounds, of
which some 420,000 pounds are invested in government securities. In the
“Cf. Vol. I, p. 701.

698

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

southern provinces, there are nineteen treasuries having a total revenue,
in 1926-27, of 245,522 pounds, 22 and an estimated surplus of 118,082
pounds.

5. Native Administration Estimates
The revenue of the northern provinces comes from the following
sources:

Revenue of the Southern Provinces, 1926-1927

Tribute

Tax

Jangali or
Cattle
Tax

Native

Court*

Interest on
invest¬
ments

Other

Receipts

Total

£482,164

135.183

,7,168

35,500

2 i, 43 *

711,446

The revenue of the southern provinces comes from the following
sources:

Revenue of the Southern Provinces, 1926-1927

General Tax

Native Courts

Other Receipts

Total

£130,140

80,705

34,677

245,522

The summary of leading expenditures in the northern provinces is
as follows:

Expenditure in Northern Provinces, 1926-1927

General

Public Works

Education

Medical and

Agriculture

Administration

Sanitary

and Forestry

£460,789

111,377

34,564

9,687

13,188 “

All of these sums are handled by native treasurers, many of whom
know no English, and who are subject only to the supervision of a political
officer. Thus the Treasurer of Bornu busily concerns himself with such
intricacies as “reallocation of votes.” These treasurers generally have
mastered the formulae of western accounting methods with amazing skill,
and during the last ten years there have been only three cases of embezzle¬
ment by native treasurers in Northern Nigeria. 24 A short time ago, the

“These figures are taken from Northern Provinces Native Administration
Estimates, 1926-1927, pp. 216 ff.; and Southern Provinces Native Administration
Estimates, 1926-27, p. 63.

“The detailed expenditure of the Native Treasuries of the Northern Provinces
for 1926-27 is as follows: a. Central, £88,302; b. District Heads, 127,996; c. Village
Heads, 107,328; d. Judicial, 45,537; e. Treasury, 8,827; Police, 52,495; g. Prisons,
30,304; h. Various, 13,815; i. Works Recurrent, 71,733; j. Capital Works, 39,644;
k. Education, 34,564; 1 . Survey, 9,992; m. Medical and Sanitary, 9,687; n. Agri¬
culture and forestry, 13,188; o. Miscellaneous, 12,153. The total is 665,565 pounds.

“But cf. Vol. I, p. 707.

INDIRECT ADMINISTRATION

699

native treasurer of Sokoto committed suicide in his Strong Room—as
would any honorable European cashier—because of a shortage of funds!
At the headquarters of these native treasuries there is remarkably little
leakage or corruption because of the tight control which British officials
impose. The real difficulties arise out in the districts where illegal
exactions more easily escape detection. Final judgment on these matters
must, however, be reserved until after a discussion of a few of the native
governments of Nigeria in actual operation.

CHAPTER 42

NATIVE SELF-GOVERNMENT IN NIGERIA
1. The Kano Emirate

Two days’ train travel from Lagos brings the visitor into the heart
of the Kano Emirate, a kingdom of a million souls, ruled over by a Fulani
Emir. The country over which he holds sway is heavily populated for
Africa; and its inhabitants, living in baked mud houses, till the soil
with a skill which is matched probably nowhere else in Africa. .Some of
these people, pressed by the limitation of land, have learned the use of
manure and of irrigation. The Hausa people live upon guinea-corn, millet
or maize flour which they store in bins or granaries. They also grow
some yams. Large quantities of groundnuts, shea nuts, and hides are
sold to traders for export across the seas. Tin smelting and the art
of tanning have been known to these people for many years. 1 Tradition
has it that they have originated the sandals worn throughout the Sudan.
Likewise one may see women inside the walls of Kano dyeing cloth,
woven out of native cotton, in bright colors of red, yellow, black, and
green. The making of pottery, spinning and weaving also occupies their
daily lives.

Kano is the capital of the Emirate which is divided into sixteen dis¬
tricts, each having a head appointed by the Emir. Each head keeps a
representative at the capital; while the Emir assigns one of his “dogaris”
to each district to bring to the capital prisoners convicted by the local
court. Under the old regime, these districts were arbitrarily divided up
among extortionate fiefholders. The people never gave to the district head
the traditional respect they paid to the Emir. Consequently, since the
British occupation, the problem of strengthening and controlling native
authority has been greater than that of controlling the central authority.
The city of Kano, occupied by 60,000 people garbed in the flowing robes
of Biblical times, is an immense beehive of picturesque mud houses and
compounds. The city is enclosed by a mud wall twelve miles in circum¬
ference and broken by some thirteen gates through which farmers drive

*At Bida, in Nupe Province, the Hausas have learned the art of glass-making.
They also manufacture silver wire from French five-franc pieces. Meek, cited,
Vol. I, pp. 56 ff.

700

NATIVE SELF-GOVERNMENT IN NIGERIA

701

their caravans of donkeys or of camels on the way to market, or through
which the gaily caparisoned horses of the Emir gallop, bearing the Emir’s
messenger to the house of the Resident a mile or so away. At the gates
of these walls the blind, the beggars, and the lepers sit and beg for alms.
Within the city, the visitor finds what is probably the largest market in
Africa. Here one sees salt from Lake Tchad being exchanged for dates
from Algeria. On one side of the street are the cheap trinkets of Euro¬
pean merchantdom; on the other, are delicately made native earthen ware
and highly dyed native cloth. In the dry season, naked youths carry
pigskins full of water into the city, drawn from wells several miles away,
to quench the thirst of the Kano inhabitants. At the market hundreds of
cattle and sheep are bought and sold; and native butchers do a flourishing
trade, despite the thousands of flies which swarm over the carcasses!
For some unknown reason, Arab traders have been allowed to establish
themselves within the city walls. No Europeans, however, whether
officials, missionaries or traders can live within the city. Along with
Syrians and “stranger” natives they must live outside in the European
reservation, where they are administered by a European magistrate.

In yet another part of the city is a picturesque mosque. And in the
official quarters, one notes an immense compound which guards the
Emir and his many wives from the vulgar eye. However, on Fridays
he regularly receives the children to whom he imparts fatherly advice.
The gate-way to his compound is guided by mounted horsemen and by
Dogari—police—who also patrol the town. Hitherto these Dogari have
lived at home and hence have suffered from a want of discipline. Their
inability to cope with the thieves of Kano led to the formation, in the
spring of 1926, of a Special Police Force composed of ex-soldiers and
ex-dogari, now housed in a separate barracks and living under military
discipline in command of a native chief of police.

Separating business from pleasure, the Emir conducts his administra¬
tive activities in a secretariat, located farther down the street from his
palace, in charge of a head Mallam. Here various records, most of which
are in Arabic, are filed. Nearby is a Revenue Office where an individual
tax register of every taxpayer in the Emirate is kept by another native
Mallam who hears all protests in regard to over-assessment. The most
modern building in Kano, however, is the Treasury—a building designed
on Moslem lines and built of baked mud. It is inhabited by a native
Treasurer and other dusty individuals who move noiselessly about in
sandaled feet and flowing robes. What a contrast to find bicycles reposing
in the corridor and a telephone and all the devices of European book-

702

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

keeping on the Treasurer’s desk! The Treasurer knows no English—he
keeps his books in Hausa. It is really amazing how successfully these
Native Treasuries, with the advice of British officials, learn the intricacies
of European accounting and assume the responsibility for the administration
of large sums. District heads bring in all taxes to this office where they
are entered on the books and then sent to a white man’s bank, located
in the European reservation—unless it is too late in the day, when they
are locked in the Treasurer’s Strong Room. The bank gives the
government a receipt for its share of fifty per cent, and the Native Admin¬
istration a similar receipt for its share. The Native Treasury enters
all revenue in a Treasury Cash Book. All expenditure must be authorized
by a Vote Service Ledger, based on the Estimates. These Estimates are
annually framed by the Emir and three waziris, or ministers, with the
advice of the Resident. 2 Vouchers for expenditures of a purely local nature,
such as salaries, are drawn and checks written by the Treasury. But if
the expenditures are made to Europeans, the voucher is usually coun¬
tersigned by a European official. The Treasurer also transmits to each
district head a lump sum with which to pay his clerks and laborers. The
estimates usually contain an appropriation for contingent expenditures,
likewise controlled by the native administration, although such items are
pretty carefully watched by the European officials.

The actual revenue of the-Kano Native Treasury amounts to about
126,000 pounds, 22,000 pounds of which comes from the Cattle Tax
(Jangali) and 83,376 pounds from the Tribute or income tax. The
remainder comes from fees and fines of native courts; interest on invest¬
ments; and such receipts as market dues and school fees. About 75,000
pounds out of the 125,000 pounds in the Kano treasury annually goes to
administrative expenses. 3 The Emir receives 6,000 pounds and his
Prime Minister and the “Madakin Kano” each receive a thousand pounds
annually; while the Sarkin Bai receives 800 pounds. About a hundred
messengers and twenty scribes are employed by the central government.
Salaries are also paid to the district heads—usually 480 pounds each—
who are given a number of messengers and mallams to assist them. The
Village Heads are not paid a salary as yet, but receive twenty per cent of
the Native Administration Share of the Taxes.

The Chief Alkali—the Alkalin Kano or chief justice—receives a salary

a The Resident of Kano Province lives in the European reservation four or five
miles away. But the Resident of Kano division, who is in immediate control of
the Emirate, lives at Nassarawa about a mile from the city gates.

8 As a result of the British occupation, the number of superfluous native office¬
holders on the payroll has been greatly reduced. Now there are only ten or fifteen
paid offices in the central government, excluding the clerks or mallams and mes¬
sengers.

NATIVE SELF-GOVERNMENT IN NIGERIA

703

of 540 pounds; while an Alkali—or judge—in each district usually
receives 96 pounds. The Treasurer receives the same salary as the Chief
Alkali. The Chief of Police, called a Sarkin Dogari, gets 60 pounds a
year; while the Chief Warden of the Prison, strangely enough, is paid more
—96 pounds.

The rest of the revenue goes to public works, education, survey, and to
sanitary work. The Native Administration keeps its building in repair, and
maintains the roads and workshops. It is now building a beautiful
Moslem library out of mud, along lines of Moslem art, yet in conformity
with European ideas of structure. At first glance one gets a shock in
seeing a native in a flowing robe and sandaled feet operating a steam
roller or driving a motor lorry. It is equally surprising to one who
believes that sanitation is only for the West to know that the Kano
administration is putting into force a system of town-planning. Originally
the people of Kano, content with the winding paths of their forefathers,
felt no need for streets. But difficulties in regard to sanitation, the detec¬
tion of thieves, and the promotion of trade arose when 60,000 people lived
huddled together without any system of roads. Consequently, at the
suggestion of the British officials, the Native Administration adopted a
town-planning scheme as a result of which broad streets have been cut
through the city and culverts and drains installed. This necessitated the
destruction of a number of native houses, for which compensation was
always paid, in some cases amounting to a hundred pounds.

Now the Emirs of Kano or of Katsina have never had the advantages
of a modern education, and they were naturally prejudiced against the
introduction of any of the contraptions of western industry. But having
learned the power of such instruments and the improvement they can
make in the life of the people, the Native Administrations have come to
welcome such things as machinery, education, and, to a lesser extent,
medical aid. But the construction of roads and of buildings along Euro¬
pean lines requires a technical knowledge and experience which no native
has. Consequently, the Native Administrations employ Europeans—
seconded from the general government—to direct these activities and
also to instruct natives how ultimately to direct these activities themselves.
Thus the Kano Emirate pays a European Foreman of Works and a
European surveyor each a salary of a thousand pounds. This development
has gone even further in some of the native states of southern Nigeria. 4
Likewise the Kano Estimates pay the salaries of native teachers in the
Art and Crafts School; and the plan is for these Estimates to assume the
full expense of native teachers and of school buildings in the future.

4 Cf. Vol. I, p. 713.

704

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

The central government will merely pay the salaries of European teachers
and inspectors.

So far, Kano has done little to provide medical aid for its people.
This has been due to native prejudice and apathy. This prejudice has
been partly the result of the fact that government doctors do not usually
remain at the Kano hospital (in the European reservation) long enough
to win the confidence of the people.

The Native Administration also supports eight native agricultural
instructors, seven stock inspectors, ten veterinary apprentices, and several
forest guards. A most ambitious project is now being undertaken to
supply the city with waterworks. As a result of the drought which annu¬
ally dries up the wells, Kano has been subject to recurrent water shortages.
Engineers have worked out a project of drilling wells in the nearby river
and building a dam which will cost about 100,000 pounds. Half of this
expenditure will be met by the reserves in the Kano Treasury, while half
will be borne by the British Treasury. The construction of these highly
technical works must necessarily be in the hands of the British Public
Works Department.

Probably the most interesting and most vital of the native institutions
at Kano is the native court. The Chief Alkali’s court is held in a court¬
house having a great arched room, with a mud floor, at the end of which
is a mud dais covered with mats and brightly colored native robes, upon
which the judge solemnly sits. The Chief Alkali, a kindly old man,
wearing a turban and a richly decorated gown, is assisted by five “mallams”
who sit at his left on the floor and keep minutes of the case in Arabic.
They may also be consulted on points in Mohammedan law. 5 In the
center of the room the plaintiff and defendant squat on the ground. Hov¬
ering over these parties is an official, whom we would call a sergeant-at-
arms, who orders them to speak up when they mumble their words.
Sitting to the right of the Alkali are the assessors—native officials who
go out and determine damage to property.

Women are not allowed to be seen in Mohammedan courts—in this
respect they are more favored by pagan tribunals. But back of the Al¬
kali’s dais is a woman’s room, constantly occupied by applicants for
divorce. A hole has been cut in the wall separating the court from
the room, about two or three feet above the ground, and a woman wishing
the intervention of the court shouts—when the time comes—through the
hole to the native sergeant-at-arms, standing at the other side, who
repeats her complaint to the judge!

“The Maliki rite is followed; cf. Ruxton’s translation of Perron’s Jurisprudence
Musalmane.

NATIVE SELF-GOVERNMENT IN NIGERIA 705

All of these proceedings are in the native language; and native Moslem
law and procedure are applied. These tribunals do not, except at Euro¬
pean insistence, strictly follow European rules of evidence. Several years
ago, the British Resident instructed the courts not to convict thieves without
evidence of the overt act of thieving. Now Kano is afflicted by a guild of
thieves who are said to be the richest people in the community. But as
a result of these instructions, the native courts could not convict a single
thief. The situation became worse and worse until thieves would openly
blackmail people in the market, telling them that if they did not pay a
certain sum, their house would be robbed that night! The situation became
so bad that the British Resident finally told the native courts to go back
to their own rules of evidence. A thief would now be brought in and
when a certain number of natives testified “Yes, we all know he is a
thief,” he was convicted. The native method was not lax but simply
adapted to the people for whom it had been framed. As a result, thieving
was soon materially reduced, and there were few or no complaints that
innocent individuals suffered in the process. 8

After listening to some of these cases, one is led to believe that what¬
ever the abuses of these courts may be—and they would be many unless
rigidly inspected by officials—a native secures more substantial justice and
greater satisfaction in being tried by judges of his own race, who know
his point of view and his language, and who are willing to sit for hours
over matters which a European would impatiently call a detail and would
not probably, for that matter, understand, than to be tried by European
officials, over-burdened with thousands of other duties. Of even more
importance, the exercise of judicial duties by native authorities is a most
fundamental means of training them in the art of self-government.

At Kano as elsewhere, the courts impose fines in about half the
criminal cases. But more severe punishments are also administered. The
court has power to impose capital punishment for murder, and after
the sentence is approved by the Governor of Nigeria, the native authority
carries out the execution. In Kano executions still take place in the
open market, the victim’s head being sliced off by a professional - execu-

a “Where the European, driven by the dictates of pure reason, would have to
dismiss 75 per cent of the cases for want of evidence, the Chiefs work on intuition
and the law of probabilities. Left to themselves, they would scarcely trouble to
call that fad of the white man’s, the witness, in whose value the parties concerned
are now coming to have a childlike faith, but whose parrot-like repetition of his
principal’s case would not deceive the most credulous. In dowry cases, it is almost
unknown for either side to tell the truth, and yet the Chiefs settle hundreds to the
apparent content of both parties.” As a result of the European innovation of the
witness, some natives now have become professional witnesses, hiring themselves
out to either party! Report on the Mandate of the British Cameroons, 1924, C.
45a (h) M 166 (h) 1925, p. 28.

706

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

tioner with a long knife! The British authorities attempted to persuade
the Emir to abolish this custom in favor of hanging, but the Emir and
his Council could see no advantage in adopting what to them seemed to
be a more cruel method. Outside the Kano gates one may see old-fashioned
stocks in which native prisoners are exposed to the derision of passers-by.
The courts not only administer flogging but in the past it was the custom
to whip women, guilty of adultery, on the buttocks. But the "humani¬
tarian” sentiment in England made such an outcry that this preventive
of immorality has been made taboo.

Prisoners sentenced by any of the district courts and by the Chief
Alkali’s court at Kano are imprisoned in the Kano native prison. This
establishment is surrounded by an immense double wall made out of sun-
dried mud. It holds about 800 prisoners, in charge of a Native Warden
and assistants, some of whom are women who look after the women
prisoners in a separate part of the enclosure. The British authorities do
not believe it is wise to allow the wardens to go armed. But in order to
prevent escape, the prisoners are obliged to wear light chains. 7 Even so,
prisoners escape—the story is told of a particularly notorious chief who
escaped so often that the despairing warden finally agreed to pay him
three-pence a day to stay in jail! Practically all prisoners, however, who
escape are sooner or later reported by natives and caught. A Good
Conduct gang may go unchained.

The Chief Warden admits no one to the prison except on a warrant
from the Alkali’s or Emir’s court. Upon entrance the name of every
prisoner is entered on a record book by the Warden, which is counter¬
signed by a political officer who determines whether or not the man wants
an appeal. The prisoner is then vaccinated for smallpox and his clothes
disinfected; his belongings and valuables are placed in a storeroom to
await his release. The Warden has no disciplinary powers; and if a
prisoner becomes unruly, he is brought before the Emir’s council for
sentence. A European medical officer inspects the prison once a week;
while political officers also make frequent visits to hear complaints.

A separate prison for lepers and also for debtors is maintained. Im¬
prisonment for debt still takes place at Kano as in many other African
communities—usually based on the principle of family responsibility. A
man who refuses to pay a debt is imprisoned on the theoiy that if he
does not “dig up,” his family will come to his rescue.

Without doubt, the finest native prison in Nigeria is at Zaria, a few

7 As a rule no prisoners in an ordinary British colonial prison are ever chained.
But they are watched by armed guards.

NATIVE SELF-GOVERNMENT IN NIGERIA

707

hours train ride from Kano. It is kept spotlessly clean, and its sanitary
arrangements are all that westerners could demand. A weaving estab¬
lishment, where prisoners weave cloth on Indian looms and a corn grinding
machine, enables them to pass some of their time in a worth-while way.
These native prisons would do credit to most European penitentiaries
and would put some American institutions to shame.

Thus, as far as these various activities are concerned, the native gov¬
ernment of Kano and of other native states in Nigeria is really
self-governing, subject only to the general control of Europeans. It is
inevitable under such a system that Emirs and lesser officials, who remem¬
ber the days when they lived on robbery and extortion, should be tempted
to make illegal exactions. This temptation has to a certain extent been
removed by the fact that they now receive regular salaries. But when the
vigilance of European supervision was relaxed, as it necessarily was during
the World War, these traits inevitably reappeared. In May, 1920, the
Resident of Kano wrote the Governor that “The Native Administra¬
tion has stepped back to what it was twelve years or so ago, and the
rapidity of the descent has been remarkable. Bribery and corruption to
some extent are certain to occur among the underlings of a Native Admin¬
istration: even the native agents and employees of a direct British
Administration are by no means exempt. But in Kano the bribery and cor¬
ruption are almost naked and quite unashamed. The peasantry, after some
years of light taxation and high prices, are ready to pay not only to avoid
illegal acts but to evade their lawful obligations. Village headships are
being bought and sold; taxes are being embezzled, the District Heads and
their satellites are having the time of their recent lives: Village Heads are
maintaining and protecting professional thieves, access to the Emir and his
court is largely at the mercy of a gang of ex-slaves and parasites.” 8

The Resident accounted for this state of affairs largely because of the
inadequate size of the British administrative staff. One district officer
had to look after a population larger than the entire colony of the Gold
Coast! In 1921 the activities of the Zaria Emir in connection with.slave¬
dealing led to his deposition.

An increase in the British staff and the deportation in 1925 of the
gang of ex-slaves who had gained control of the Kano Emir led to a
marked improvement of affairs. Unlike the old days, the peasants are

'Letter quoted, Legislative Council, Address by the Governor, 1925, p. 43. In
1921-22, one hundred and fifty-two village heads out of eight hundred and sixteen
village heads defaulted with their tax money. In 1922-23, ninety out of 1136 heads
defaulted. This improvement was due to the introduction of individual receipts
and the reduction in the Biae of the village units.

708 THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

not afraid to complain of mistreatment, and if they secure no redress
from their chiefs and the Emir, they go to British officers.®

2. The Yoruba States

This system of indirect rule was worked out first in Northern Nigeria
by Sir Frederick Lugard and his successor, Sir Percy Girouard. In the
Yoruba states of the south the British exercised little control over the
native states, and collected no taxes. 10 Until the amalgamation of northern
and southern Nigeria, thete was some jealousy between the two
governments over native policy. With the amalgamation of the two
protectorates in 1914, however, Sir Frederick Lugard decided to apply
the principles of indirect administration to the south. But as this involved
European supervision of native courts and the imposition of direct taxation
to provide funds for native treasuries, the establishment of indirect admin¬
istration led to considerable native opposition, especially in the conserva¬
tive kingdom of Oyo. The suppression of some native courts, the imposition
of direct taxation, the popular objection to the new police of the Alafin,
called “numbered men,” and the request for a contribution to the Red
Cross which the chiefs used as an excuse to exact funds from unwilling na¬
tives—which partly went into their own pockets—led to the Iseyn rebellion
in 1916. One of the first acts of the rebels was to burn down the new native
court houses and to kill one of the native judges. The Government sternly
repressed the revolt, hanging about fourteen of the ringleaders. 11

At the present time, however, the people and chiefs of Oyo seem to
be well content with the system of administration. The Alafin’s Council
is a class A court, save for capital punishment, and under it are eight
native courts, presided over in important cases by the district head who
was the old provincial governor. In contrast to the Alkali system in the
Moslem Emirates, pagan kingdoms and tribes combine executive and
judicial power in the chiefs.

In theory an income tax is imposed on the people of two and one-half
per cent of the gross income of the farmer; but in view of the equality of

°The conditions in the Kano and other Emirates following the War were criti¬
cally described by Captain J. F. J. Fitzpatrick (“late District Officer N.P. Nigeria”)
in an article “Nigeria’s Curse—The Native Administration,” The National Review,
December, 1924. The Governor of Nigeria declared that Captain Fitzpatrick was
a “discharged and discredited officer of Government—who, as it chances has
never served in an Emirate of the North, save for a few months at Ilorin.”
Nigerian Council, Address by the Governor, 1925, p. 50.

10 Cf. Vol. I, p. 672.

n One writer, apparently a native, says that the Asehin, the district head,
murdered children in order to obtain “medicine,” and that the people revolted
against him on this account. A. Folarin, The Oke Iho-Isehin Escapade, Lagos,
1918.

NATIVE SELF-GOVERNMENT IN NIGERIA

709

most such incomes, the tax really amounts to a poll tax of six shillings.
Native traders, however, are taxed five per cent; while natives possessing
unearned incomes, such as rents of land, are taxed six per cent. About
16,000 out of the 22,700 pounds in the Native Treasury is expended on
administration, the Alafin receiving 4800 pounds a year. 12 All checks
written by the Oyo native treasurer must be countersigned by a European
officer. About half of the roads in the kingdom are maintained by the native
administration, under the direction of seconded European engineers; while
the other half is maintained by the European public works department.
The Native Administration has installed a series of wells and pumps
throughout the town of Oyo, which are a boon to the native housewife.
It also is expending sums on the construction of cement culverts and rest
houses. Within the Alafin’s compounds two fine stone buildings, decorated
with native furniture and art, have been constructed, one of which is used
for a reception hall on public occasions. The budget also maintains a
Native Administration School, several vaccinators and forest guards. It
administers five native reserves. 13

The native government in Ibadan, as we have seen, recognizes the
suzerainty of the Alafin of Oyo. When the Bale and Council of Ibadan
make rules, it is with the concurrence of the Alafin. This form of native
legislative power is frequently exercised in Ibadan as in other states.
Thus in 1918 the Bale made a rule providing that a man wishing to build
a house should get a permit from the Native Administration. Likewise
in 1920 the Bale issued orders that every bicycle owner should take out a
license. Farmers here pay an income tax of two and one-half per cent
of their income, which amounts to about seven shillings. Traders pay
five per cent, and they are obliged to fill out regular income tax returns.
In the case of an illiterate trader, the district commissioner calls his
neighbors together to find out what the value of the man’s wealth is.
The highest tax paid in 1926 was thirty-five pounds.

It appears that European supervision is more severe in Ibadan than
in the other leading native states. Thus the British officer visits the jail
daily and no one is admitted without his consent. In the settlement of
a boundary dispute with the Egbas, the Alake and Council handled the
negotiations for the Egba government virtually independently of the Resi¬
dent; but the negotiations for Ibadan were handled by European officials.
It appears that in the past the Resident has presided at the meetings of
the Ibadan Council. 14 Under such a system, there is a danger that indirect
administration may become direct administration.

“Half of this is paid by the Ibadan government. ,s Cf. Vol. I, p. 759.

14 C. G. Elgee, The Evolution of Ibadan, Lagos, 1914, p. 29.

710

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

At the present time there are five different native states who are Yoruba
speaking and who belong to the Yoruba race—Oyo, Ibadan, Ife, Ijesha
and Ijebu. These at one time were united. Ilorin in the northern
provinces is also Yoruba. The future union of these different fragments
of the same race would naturally seem desirable. But it appears that the
prospects for union are more remote now than in the past. The Oni of
Ilesha feels that it is a reflection on his dignity to have only an assistant
district commissioner over him, and so he is demanding a Resident all his
own! Nevertheless, the British government might gradually promote this
sentiment of union by the convocation of an annual council of Yoruba
chiefs, just as it might convoke annual councils of Emirs in the north.

3. The Egba Government

Following the termination of the Egba “independence” treaty in 1914*
the British government gradually introduced the system of indirect ad¬
ministration. The Native Courts Ordinance was applied and a native
treasury established. For the first few years, however, it was financed by
the old system of tolls which were finally abolished in favor of direct
taxation in 1918. A number of difficulties beset the early years of the
administration. Educated clerks, brought in from Lagos and elsewhere for
the new native courts, committed a number of abuses. The people were
unfamiliar with the sanitary requirements imposed at the suggestion of
the British authority. Likewise the Alake made excessive demands for free
labor. These matters formed the object of a protest from the natives to
the Alake and the Council in 1917 16 . The people also resented the intro¬
duction of direct taxes in 1918—a period of abnormally high prices.
Protests were repeatedly made against Mr. Edun whom the British govern¬
ment had allowed to remain in office despite the Ijemo affair of 1914.
Hearing mutterings of revolt, the British Resident called a mass meeting
where he precipitately told the people that he was sending for troops,
which led the natives to begin a revolt called the Adubi War. The
leaders in this movement had apparently served in the Cameroons cam¬
paign, since they understood military methods, as evidenced by the fact
that they tore up the railway and pulled down the telegraph lines. One
European was deliberately killed. British troops quickly suppressed the
revolt; eleven natives were executed in connection with the murder of the
Osile, a district chief; while five others were each given five years’ imprison¬
ment for promoting the war. Following the trouble, the Lagos Egba
Society was formed for the purpose of protecting the rights of Egbaland.

1B Losi, History of Abeokuta, cited, pp. 140 ff. Ajisafe, History of Abeokuta,
cited, Chap. 82.

NATIVE SELF-GOVERNMENT IN NIGERIA

711

It is believed that Lagos natives inspired the Egbas to revolt out of spite
against the British who had stopped certain land transactions, and also
out of spite over the Water Rate episode in 1916. A Commission of
Inquiry investigated the Adubi War, but as in the case of the Ijemo report,
the government has declined to publish the findings. It is believed that
the Resident provoked the revolt by acting with undue haste. He later
left the Nigerian service. Thus through the Ijemo trouble and the Adubi
War, the Egba government had an inauspicious reformation.

While the Egba government is divided up into fourteen tribute dis¬
tricts, it has never had any traditional district heads as have Oyo or Ibadan.
Consequently the government is overcentralized; everything is done from
the capital at Abeokuta. Tax collectors of the Alake periodically tour the
country and gather in the taxes from village heads.

The head of the government is the Alake, a native king, who is
assisted by a Council organized on a traditional basis.

Before 1926, the Egba Council was composed of twenty-eight mem¬
bers, fourteen of whom represented the Alake and the other fourteen
represented the wards. These members held office for life. But an
agitation soon arose for a wider basis of representation in the Council.
According to the Alake, “Many chiefs of intelligence, having no chance
of admission into the arena of Council, feel themselves compelled
to remain outside wasting their precious gifts and valuable talents in the
desert air.” 18

After a discussion of four years, it was decided to change the basis
of the Council. The seven leading chiefs continue to hold office for life,
but the other twenty-one members are to hold their seats for a period of
three years. Members are to be nominated by the several divisions in Egba-
land and the names of the chiefs thus nominated are submitted to the Alake
and Council who will make the appointment.

Difficulties soon arose in applying the principle, primarily because so
many chiefs wished to become members of the Council. Despite the fact
that Ogboni Chiefs comprised fourteen out of the twenty-one members of
the Council, the Ogboni society stirred up a great deal of trouble over the
basis of representation, which was only quieted after a number of Council
meetings and public Barazas. 17

18 Speech at inauguration of New Council, Egba Administration Bulletin, April
16, 1926, p. 37.

11 Cf. Minutes of the Council, April 1, 8, 1926, ibid., May 15, 1926. It appears
that much of the agitation over this and other subjects was stimulated by disaffected
Egba natives living in Lagos. In an Address to the Chiefs, the Lieutenant-
Governor said, “I would warn all Egbas against busy-bodies, for the most part
residing outside the limits of Egbaland. Every indication makes me believe that
they can be no good, but that they are out for themselves, after shielding them-

712 THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

Thus the beginnings of the elective principle have been introduced.
It is important to note that this Council, like the Emirs Councils in the
northern states, is a native institution. It is not like the Transkei or
Kenya Council—something invented by Europeans to fit native needs
according to European conceptions.

Presided over by the Alake, the Council meets every Thursday; only
three (including the Alake) out of the twenty-eight members can speak
English; discussions are consequently conducted in the native language.
The Council contains a representative (Balogun) of the Christians and
also a representative of the Mohammedans. The Resident or District
Commissioner may attend meetings to discuss particular matters, but he
withdraws when a decision is to be made.

The work of the Council is usually initiated by the Alake who may
act at the advice of the Resident. The Council has a number of com¬
mittees; thus the Alake may appoint a Valuation Committee to determine
the compensation to be paid for land expropriated by the government.
The Council likewise has appointed committees on land tenure and
boundary disputes and to make plans for the celebration of the Egba
centenary. Recently the Alake sent the Balogun of the Christians to
investigate the administration of King Olota who is under the Alake’s
jurisdiction. On his return he presented a detailed report on the needs
of the country. Native deputations with requests frequently appear before
the Council.

The minutes of the Council meetings, which are now published in
English and Egba in the Egba Administration Bulletin, are full of interest.
Here the reader will find the struggle between the conservatives, repre¬
sented by the Ogboni chiefs, and the friends of progress, represented by
the Balogun of the Christians, and the Alake himself who has a European
education. Thus a deputation of the Ogboni chiefs protested against the
Alake going to Oyo to attend a Baraza for the Prince of Wales on the
ground that it was contrary to tradition that the Alake should leave his
kingdom. 18 The Alake, however, overruled the objection. Despite his
European education, the Alake realizes the importance of maintaining his
traditional dignity. This was illustrated in 1925 when one of the Obas
refused^ to obey his instructions. After the Oba repeatedly jibed at the
Alake during discussion of the case at the Council, the Alake finally de¬
clared, “A halt must be called. Such a thing as the conduct of the Osile

selves behind others. . . . Honest criticism in Council is healthy, dishonest criti¬
cism from afar is the work of men not to be trusted.” Ibid., April 16, 1926, p. 42.

“In April, 1926, a delegation of Ogboni chiefs appeared before the Council,
and said, “We now come to you with a view to assist us in the preservation of
the Ogboni cult which is as old as the country.” Ibid., June 15, 1926, p. 73.

NATIVE SELF-GOVERNMENT IN NIGERIA

713

Suberu Adedamolo cannot be tolerated from day to day. I have my
dignity to keep as the Alake and head of this administration. Personally
insult is nothing, but an insult offered to the Alake in the most shameful
and open way by an Oba is quite a different thing. It is most unbearable
conduct—you will excuse me.” Then, according to the Minutes, the
Alake left the Council in vexation. The Osile was later deposed.

The Council has certain judicial duties to perform, particularly in
regard to the settlement of land cases and political difficulties between
the Obas, minor chiefs, and the Alake. It passes a large number of
resolutions on internal matters without obtaining the prior approval of
the Resident. Under the Native Authority Ordinance it has made rules
regarding the Refund of Dowry, when a woman divorces her husband—
the maximum being fixed at fifty pounds. It has also fixed the maximum
damages which a husband may recover from a person committing adultery
with his wife. In 1926 the Alake and Council made rules declaring that
no person should display goods for sale on the roads, and it has enacted
rules requiring licenses for canoes. 19

Thus the native government has exercised a type of legislative power.
Its administrative activities are even more interesting. The Native
Treasury has an annual revenue of about 40,000 pounds, about 15,000
pounds of which come from one-half of the native poll taxes. In 1925
a system of tax collection was adopted in the town of Abeokuta under
which the heads of each compound were made responsible to the head
of each ward for collection, and the four ward heads were made responsible
to the Alake. Each compound head gets five per cent of the taxes, while
for some strange reason another five per cent goes to the still powerful
Ogboni Society. The Obas or ward heads are on a salary. In the
country, collections are less satisfactory, owing to the absence of district
heads. Village Bales pay the money directly to a representative of the
Alake assisted by tribute collectors. In theory an income tax is imposed.

Native funds are expended in accordance with the Native Administra¬
tion Estimates. These Estimates are first drafted by the European officer,
the Alake, and the Native Treasurer. They are then submitted to a
Financial Advisory Board composed of the Treasurer, the Chief Assess¬
ment Officer (a European), the Alake, and from six to eight native
traders; following which they are presented to the Alake’s Council. After
approval by the Resident, they go to the Lagos government.

In July, 1924, the British government granted to the Egba government
what the natives call “autonomy.” Thenceforth the British officials no
longer occupied themselves with the details of the native administration, but

18 Egba Administration Bulletin, February 16, 1926, and March 1 6, 192 6.

714

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

imposed full responsibility for its affairs upon the Alake and the people un¬
der him. In some respects the government resembles that established under
the Emir Feisal of Irak. The Native Treasurer of the Egba government,
it appears, has more freedom than any other native treasurer in Nigeria.
He may expend sums, authorized by the Estimates, without any counter
signature of a British official, and subject only to inspection and audit,
to which any treasurer is subject. The Treasurer pays the Crown Agents
in London for materials, indents for which are made out by the political
officer.

As in other treasuries, about half of the Egba revenues go to salaries
and administrative expenditures. The old Egba government pensioned its
officials freely; but in view of the expense and the fact that natives living
at home are not in need of regular pensions, the British authorities have
advised the Egba government in the future to grant only gratuities to
retiring officials. An attempt is being made to build up a native adminis¬
tration civil service, but it is experiencing difficulty in getting the better
type of native clerk in view of the fact that they can receive higher salaries
working in the British administration. For example, the Native
Treasurer, who handles 40,000 pounds a year, receives a salary of only 260
pounds (1925-1926), which is less than that of a native clerk working
for the British government. It appears that if the best native brains are to
go into native administration work, salaries will have to be equalized.

Alone of the native states of Nigeria, the Egba native administration
operates a waterworks and electric light establishment created, it is true,
by the old Egba government. It also has a fully equipped machine shop;
while it maintains not only the smaller but some of the trunk roads,
for which the British government pays it 700 pounds a year. In order
to supervise this work, which requires a high degree of engineering skill,
two European engineers seconded from the British Departments, have
been employed. Subject to their general oversight, an African is in com¬
plete charge of the pumps and purifying plant which takes the water out
of the Ogun River, and another native directs the government printing
plant where, among other things, the Egba Administration Bulletin is
printed. It contains such items as Movements of Officers, Report of the
Survey Department; Sanitary Inspection Report and Mosquito Index
Return; Report of the Administration of Public Works; Prison Statistics
and a monthly abstract of Receipts and Expenditures. 20

In some respects the Egba government is the most successful native
administration in Nigeria. Its example disproves the statement that only
x Egba Administration Bulletin, February 16, 1926.

NATIVE SELF-GOVERNMENT IN NIGERIA . 715

Mohammedan peoples are fit for indirect rule, since the Egbas, originally
pagan, have been under the influence of Christianity for a long time. 21

4. The Eastern Provinces

Except for three instances in the Benin provinces, no native treasuries
have as yet (1926) been established in the Eastern Provinces of Nigeria.
As we have seen, before the .World War the government did establish
Mixed Courts, presided over by European officers—a development of the
consular system. No attention was paid to the tribal organization, be¬
cause British officials believed that the Ibo people who inhabited much
of this territory had no social organization outside of villages independent
of each other.

Because of the World War, the European personnel was reduced to
such an extent that no careful studies as to the traditional rulers of the
people could be made. Nevertheless, with the adoption of the Native
Courts Ordinance in 1914, the old Mixed Tribunals were swept away
and purely native courts instituted in their place.

But the government created native court areas without regard to
tribal lines and appointed “warrant” chiefs as judges who in many cases
were former slaves and who could command none of the respect given by
the people to their chiefs. The only official who sat permanently on the
court was a semi-literate clerk imported from Lagos to keep the records
in English. In many cases these clerks came to dominate the tribunal.
“He issues every summons without reference to any chief, gives orders
for arrests, controls the Court Messengers, takes charge of prisoners and
conveys to the warrant chiefs instructions sent from the Divisional Officer.
It is not surprising that in many cases it is the custom for the warrant
chiefs to address the clerk as ‘master.’ ” 22 As a result of this system,
it appears that only the semi-educated and detribalized natives resort to
the native courts which, in the opinion of the Secretary for Native Affairs,
“have become one of the principal disintegrating forces in the country and
in their present condition are, in the opinion of the majority of officers, very
corrupt and doing a great deal of harm.” Complaints against the system

“Oyo and Ibadan are also pagan, subject to Christian influence and education.
The Mohammedans outnumber the Christians, however, in both Oyo and Abeokuta
provinces. There are about 26,000 Christians in Abeokuta province and 66,736
Moslems. There are 48,000 Christians in Oyo and 135,534 Moslems.

22 Report on the Eastern Provinces by the Secretary for Native Affairs, 1922,
p. 5. On the other hand, the Assistant Secretary of Native Affairs who made a
later investigation believed these statements were exaggerated. Report by the
Assistant Secretary for Native Affairs, 1923.

716

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

from the natives are universal, except in the few cases where real hereditary
chiefs have been appointed judges. Living under their natural rulers,
the communities are peaceful and satisfied.

Further study by Nigerian officials and others has revealed the fact
that at one time there existed among most of the Ibos a clan organization of
councils. While the artificial system of warrant chiefs, which the Govern¬
ment introduced, has gone far in destroying the remnants of this organiza¬
tion, the British government is now endeavoring to reorganize native court
areas and judges to conform to this traditional framework.

Except in the three cases where native treasuries exist, no direct taxation
is imposed upon the peoples of the Eastern Provinces. This fact led
many political officers to increase the burden of free labor which they could
require under the Roads and River Ordinance, 23 as the result of which
certain abuses were committed. “The system of maintenance is to
patrol these roads by a number of uniformed overseers who appear to have
the right to call out what labor they like, when they like, and employ
it as they like.

“It did not surprise me to see Ibibios cultivating a farm in front of a
road overseers’ house, and it is quite obvious that such a system gives an
unscrupulous overseer endless opportunities for blackmail. Now wherever
I have been along these roads all the labor I have seen has belonged to
the farming or producing class. The semi-educated youth may do his
share but if so he was singularly inconspicuous among the gangs I saw.
. . . Our present system is in fact throwing an ever-increasing burden of
work on the farmer, particularly during the period when his absence from
his farm entails considerable pecuniary loss. The overseer without refer¬
ence to the political officer obtains this labor from the warrant chief, not
the hereditary chief, and it can safely be assumed that the warrant chief
does not call out his own friends. If the men demanded do not come,
the overseer proceeds to the Native Court and takes out a criminal sum¬
mons against any individual whom the warrant chief informs him he has
detailed for work. This individual is then fined. Any comment on such
a system is superfluous.” 24

These conditions in the Eastern Provinces reinforce the criticism else¬
where directed against this system of compulsory and unpaid labor. 25

33 Cf. Vol. I, p. 657.

34 Report on the Eastern Provinces by the Secretary for Native Affairs, cited,
p. 13.

“ Cf. Vol. I, p. 648.

CHAPTER 43

CONCLUSIONS AS TO INDIRECT RULE

In this system of indirect rule, Nigeria has made a contribution of
far-reaching importance to the government of primitive peoples. The
framework upon which the edifice is reared is traditional, and not artificial.
It is a framework developed in a native and not a European milieu. While
the British government naturally prefers educated to illiterate chiefs, an
educated commoner can not, under this system, become a chief. The
administration never recognizes a Native Council unless it is a council
which the natives themselves create. It is a system which, differing
vitally from the system followed in the Transkei, Kenya, and the French
colonies, rests upon the doctrine of self-determination and the philosophy
of free-will. As the government has officially declared, “The Belief which
underlies this policy is that every system of government, if it is to be
permanent and progressive, must have its roots in the framework of
indigenous society.” 1

i. Its Aims

Indirect rule does not aim at maintaining native institutions in an
unbending cast. Its authors realize that with the onrush of European ideas
and European industrialism, change is inevitable and in fact desirable. 2
“European standards and methods must be introduced in the form and
measure in which they can profitably be grafted on to the pre-existing
stock.” 3 But this preexisting stock must not be destroyed. The authors
of indirect rule believe that if the traditional group life of the native
disappears without a new group life being put in its place, the continent
of Africa will disintegrate.

1 Report, British Cameroons, 1924, para. 214.

3 Probably the greatest shock which the Emirs of Nigeria have received came
in the form of a visit of aeroplanes which flew across Nigeria in 1925 from Cairo.
The airmen had a long interview with the Emir of Kano, and the Gazette, in
reporting the incident, said: “The Emir showed at first an attitude of somewhat
embarrassed awe. He could hardly grasp the idea of a journey in the air from
Cairo to Kano in six days.” Four of the Emirs consented to take an aeroplane ride,
and, as the Gazette said: “The general impression was that nothing could now
be impossible to Europeans.” In the opinion of the Resident, the visit of the
aeroplanes was the “most sensational event that has occurred in Kano in our
time.” Gazette, 1926, p. 10.

s Report, British Cameroons, cited, para. 217.

717

718

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

Governments everywhere depend for their existence partly on force
but primarily upon the tacit consent of a large body of their subjects.
In the long run, no autocracy can endure to which public opinion is
vigorously opposed. In Africa, the same rule holds true to a greater
degree, perhaps, than elsewhere. If European governments destroy,
directly or indirectly, the powers of traditional rulers, they will have
wiped out the only voluntary basis upon which Africa can be administered.
A European official is now obeyed not because he symbolizes what the
native respects as law, but because he is a white man with force at his
back. 4

Africa is so vast that it is an administrative impossibility to sub¬
stitute European officials for native chiefs. 6 Whether under direct or
indirect rule, European officials are obliged to rely upon native subordinates
and aids. These aids may be traditional rulers, or they may be educated
clerks. Nigeria has tried both. The educated classes attempted to direct
the United Egba native government before 1914; and educated clerks since
then have virtually controlled the native courts of the eastern provinces. In
many of these cases, the educated natives showed that they had lost all sym¬
pathy for the group out of which they came and that they had no compunc¬
tion in abusing their power for personal ends. In all of these cases, the
educated class failed to command the respect of the masses of the people.

Further examples may be found in the cases of the late Bishop
Crowther and Henry Carr, both of whom were given positions of au¬
thority unknown to native law and custom. Bishop Crowther was
originally a slave boy who, in a remarkable career, became, in 1864, the
first African bishop in the Anglican church in West Africa. According
to universal testimony, he was a man of saintly character and of great
intelligence, but he could not enforce discipline over the other African
clergy under his charge. In 1891, a committee from the Church Mis¬
sionary Society, after investigating the state of affairs in his diocese, re¬
ported that “the moral and spiritual condition of the congregations
generally has in it at the present time much that is extremely lamentable,
and the prevailing ignorance of Divine truth and the low state of discipline
are such as to call for serious consideration respecting the character and
efficiency of the agency now at work.

“In making this painful statement, the Sub-Committee have no desire

4 Cf. C. L. Temple, Native Races and Their Rulers, Cape Town, 1918, Chap.
VI, on The Anatomy of Lying.

8 If such a government were possible, it “might be humane, incorruptible, and
efficient. It would also be alien, exotic, and impracticably expensive.” Report
on the British Cameroons, cited, para. 215.

CONCLUSIONS AS TO INDIRECT RULE

719

to repudiate or minimize any share of the responsibility which may attach
to the Committee, and it is but just to the Bishop to say that from the
commencement of the Mission most serious difficulties have beset him and
surrounded every station.” 8 Since the death of Bishop Crowther, the
Church has appointed a European bishop at the head of each diocese, as¬
sisted by an African suffragan bishop.

A graduate of Fourah Bay College, Mr. Henry Carr entered the
government civil service in 1889; a few years later, he was appointed
Inspector of Schools, and for a time was Assistant Secretary of Native
Affairs. He later returned to the educational service, and from time
to time served as Acting Director of Education until 1918, when he was
made Resident of the Colony of Lagos. As such, he became responsible
for the government of several hundred thousand natives, including the
educated group. Mr. Carr has an impeccable character, and in intelligence
and ability as an administrator he equals many Europeans who have
occupied similar positions. Nevertheless, his career as Resident was marred
by a bitterness of native feeling which is seldom expressed toward a
European official. In 1917, a number of White Cap Chiefs wrote the
governor that “Mr. Carr, though a native of Lagos, is popularly known
to have imbibed foreign or western ideas and modes of thinking and action.
Native Custom is therefore foreign to him as to any European or
American.” He was also the object of the most bitter attacks from the
educated Africans who accused him of being guilty of “political im¬
morality and incurable moral injustice,” and who declared that his career
“shall forever be branded with the indelible marks of public disgust and
hatred.” 1 Many of these attacks arose out of the treatment accorded the
Eleko over the Staff incident by Mr. Carr who was then Resident. Need¬
less to say, these personal attacks were undeserved, but they would have
been forthcoming against any African in Mr. Carr’s position, no matter
what he had or had not done.

Such experiences have prompted the Nigerian government to refrain
from further experiments of this nature. The experience of the Gold
Coast and Sierra Leone has been the same. 8 Whatever may be the case
in the future, the educated group among the Africans is to-day so far
removed from the masses that the members of this group have perhaps

8 Eugene Stock, History of the Church Missionary Society, London, 1899, Vo!.
HI, p. 393. The criticism of Bishop Crowther led to the establishment of the
United African Church. Cf. Vol. I, p. 745.

7 Cf. a brochure, Henry Carr must go! by Herbert Macaulay, Lagos, 1924,
p. 10.

8 Cf. Vol. I, p. 864.

720

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

more difficulty in understanding the needs of the masses than do Europeans,
while the masses do not regard the educated group as any better than
themselves.

When rulers do not command respect, they can rule only with the
aid of force—which is usually the case with native subordinates under the
system of direct administration. It is significant that under this system,
which prevails in the French colonies and elsewhere, greater abuses are
evident than in territories applying indirect rule. 9

Furthermore, the maintenance of the tribal group and tribal institutions
is necessary for the maintenance of native law—an amazingly intricate
but in most cases sensible system which controls practically every aspect
of native conduct. While the superstitious and inhumane sanctions of
native law will inevitably disappear, the mere existence of native institu¬
tions—particularly native courts with traditional judges bred in the law—
will uphold these bonds which unite the natives into a social whole.
Cut these bonds and the native becomes an anarchist, knowing no law
except the law of fear. Destroy these institutions, and you wipe out
the powerful restraint which public opinion imposes upon personal con¬
duct in any well-ordered community in the world. If the continent of
Africa is to be saved from anarchy, these bonds must not be cut, but rather
annealed.

A former Nigerian official writes, “But even more important than the
loss of any material influence of the European over the native mind is the
fact that once the native institutions are overthrown; once the Native Chief
or Emir, with his picturesque surroundings, his gaily caparisoned, or even
gaudily dressed cortege, so dear to the native eye, and which appeals so
strongly to his reason and judgment as to what is right and proper, disap¬
pear, and are replaced by the, to him, uninspiring formalities and repulsively
cold and precise methods of direct European rule—once the dignified cir¬
cumlocution, which in his eyes it is meet and proper should accompany all
important transactions, gives place to the brief and dried formulas of British
official practice, and above all once the truth dawns upon him that it lies
well within his power, if he do but exert a little of the ingenuity with
which nature has gifted him, to throw dust in the eyes of this once mys¬
terious but really quite insignificant and impotent stranger sitting aloft on a
pinnacle above him; to bribe, league with, intrigue with, such of his inter¬
preters, political agents and police as are dishonest; to concoct successfully
false accusations,- to intimidate and even to poison such as are honest, and
to misbehave generally under the white man’s rule, in a way that he would

9 Cf. Vol. I. p. 986, Vol. II, p. 344.

CONCLUSIONS .IS TO INDIRECT RULE

721

never have dared to do under his own institutions, then indeed does a dry-
rot set in—discipline goes to the wall vis-a-vis the higher powers.”

From the narrower standpoint of political science, the Nigeria policy
aims to avoid the mistakes of colonial policy in Egypt, India, and the
Philippines, which has given the natives parliaments, and has taught them
how to criticize European officials, but which has not taught them how to
administer themselves. The result has inevitably been a series of deadlocks.

Moreover, such a system of “representative” government sets up a false
standard. It is much more of a job to be a cabinet minister than to be
a spell-binder in the House of Commons. The art of self-government
consists in much more than speech-making. Its fundamental task is the
adjustment of individual and group relations and the collection and ex¬
penditure of money for the good of the government or of the groups which
the government represents. It is much more important to learn how to
perform this work, which is of a judicial and an administrative nature,
than to “perform” in a legislative body which merely expresses an opinion
about how these tasks should be carried out. It is much more important
to learn how to do a job than to learn how to criticize someone else
for doing it. Under a parliamentary government, the purpose of a
legislative body is to expose and remove abuses. But in Nigeria, this
watch-dog duty is performed in a general way by the European official who,
however, makes the native chiefs fully responsible for administering their
subjects, instead of giving them, as is done in the Transkei, seats on
native councils where they may criticize the European administration of
the community.

As has been seen, some corruption exists under this system; but it
exists in most European and American governments to-day; and it may be
found among native subordinates in African colonies under direct ad¬
ministration. In the long run, it can better be removed by the protests
of the people than by the establishment of direct rule.

These abuses will gradually be removed, not only by the European
official but also by the tribal councils, which, as in the case of the AJake’s
Council in Egbaland, will become more and more democratic with the
progress of time. These Councils will not direct their criticisms primarily
against the activities of European officials, as is usually the case with the
type of council established in Kenya, South Africa, and the French

“As a natural corollary, the discipline of the children vis-d-vis their
parents, the bed-rock of all African well-being, disappears also. This disappear¬
ance of the power of the head of the household over its members is a well-
established, well-recognized incontrovertible fact, deplored by Africans even more
than by Europeans, in all those districts where the native administrations have
been swept away.” C. L. Temple, cited, pp. 73, 74.

722

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

colonies, and which sooner or later inevitably acquires a racial bent, but
against native rulers. It is possible to conceive of the time when these
rulers will, through their ministers, be as responsible to tribal councils
as are cabinets to European parliaments to-day.

Direct rule means a European autocracy having no other goal than
the indefinite maintenance of its power. It has no idea where it is going.
Sooner or later in history, the direct rule of an autocrat has been smashed
by the people under it; but while these subjects become strong enough to
destroy their master, they usually have not acquired, because of the auto¬
cratic policy of direct rule, the knowledge and experience necessary to gov¬
ern themselves. The result is chronic distress.

Indirect rule means immediate self-government in local affairs through
native institutions, constantly being strengthened by the accretion of new
political experience derived from contact with the western world, and
subject only to European supervision, which becomes less and less as these
institutions prove more and more able to stand on their own feet. As the
Cameroons Administration has said, “If the ultimate object, however
remote, of the government of backward races is to raise them to a state
of civilisation in which they can stand alone, it is evident that they must
be provided with a governmental machine with the control of which they
themselves can be associated in an ever-increasing degree. If the machine
is capable of being manipulated only by foreign hands, the withdrawal of
outside assistance will speedily bring it to a standstill.” 12

If indirect rule is really to succeed, traditional chiefs cannot remain
illiterate leaders of conservatism. In order to command the respect of
their educated commoners, they, too, must receive an education. For
many years, compulsory education in Africa will be impracticable, and
some choice in the selection of students for schools must therefore be made.
In Tanganyika and Sierra Leone, the British are making a special effort
to educate the sons of chiefs before educating the sons of commoners. But
in southern Nigeria, at least, the government has declared that the estab¬
lishment of compulsory education for chiefs’ sons would be a piece of
“class legislation” which it could not permit. 13 This objection, which
seems to rest on the proposition that all men are born free and equal,
overlooks the great social importance of the chieftainship to the native
community. The establishment of a school for the sons of Emirs and also
of Yoruba chiefs is worthy of serious consideration. 14

12 Report, the British Cameroons, cited, para. 216.

13 Legislative Council Debates, first session, 1923, p. 37.

“In northern Nigeria, the government is already making an effort to secure
the sons of Emirs as students in government schools. In his Political Memoranda,
(pp. 131, 315) Sir Frederick Lugard wrote that an educational system should

CONCLUSIONS AS TO INDIRECT RULE

723

If the time comes when the three hundred and sixty-two 16 native
authorities of northern and southern Nigeria become able to govern them¬
selves in local affairs, the problem of unification will then arise. In the
old days, tribal amalgamations were usually the product of war, which
the European occupation forestalls. Nevertheless, a racial consciousness is
coming into existence in many parts of Africa, and along the West Coast
the demand for a Gold Coast nation and a united dominion of West
Africa is frequently heard. The reunion of tribes or races, divided for
hundreds of years into dozens of chieftainships, is also occasionally dis¬
cussed. How is the policy of indirect rule to cope with this demand which
will inevitably grow stronger with the passage of time? The first step
should be the establishment of periodic councils of chiefs belonging to the
same race—such as the Emirs of the northern provinces, and the Yoruba
chiefs of the south. At first, these conferences would be merely centers
of discussion. Later on, these bodies could be invested with the power to
make laws in matters affecting more than one community, and they might
be given a budget of their own. Eventually, these councils might elect a
president or a paramount chief. By means of such methods, tribal frag¬
ments might gradually be reunited into a “national” whole. These
councils would thus partake of the nature of the Transkei and French
Councils, but they would be organized on a “racial” basis, and they
would merely cope the edifice of native self-government which so far does
not exist in the territories under the “French” system.

2 . Abuses of Indirect Rule

There are certain abuses or questionable practices involved in this
indirect rule apart from the corruption of native officials. The funds of
the native administration are now occasionally employed for other than
purely native purposes. Thus many native treasury budgets carry the cost
of constructing and maintaining rest houses which are used only by Euro¬
pean travellers. Some native treasuries buy automobiles for the Paramount
Chief which, in some cases, are employed by European administrators.' Be¬
cause of the fact that the Public Works Department is overburdened with
work, the native administration at Ibadan is building several beautiful
residences for the European engineers which it employs. While the
British government will reimburse the native administration for this work,

“produce a new generation of native chiefs of higher integrity, a truer sense of
justice, and appreciation of responsibility for the welfare of the community. . . .
Even the existing generation has proved wonderfully adaptable, and when one
considers the methods to which they were accustomed in their youths, the progress
made reflects the greatest possible credit alike upon them, and upon the unceasing
efforts and devoted ability of the British staff.”

15 Cf. Vol. I, p. 688.

724

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

the use of so-called “political labor” and the whole native machinery for
this purpose is questionable. Following the Iseyn rebellion of 1916, the
Alafin obliged the people ol the town to build him a magnificant Manor
House on the top of a neighboring hill. The Alafin, however, has used this
house only two or three days since its erection. The remainder of the
time it is occupied, when occupied at all, by the British Resident and his
friends.

To carry on the different activities of the native administration, so-
called “political labor” is used. While this labor is paid, in some native
administrations the wages are below the market rate. Thus at Ibadan,
while the agricultural department and the railway are obliged to pay a
shilling a day for labor, the native administration, employing “political
labor,” pays only six pence and nine pence a day. “Political labor” is
usually compulsory in the sense that when a job needs to be done, the
engineer in charge estimates the number of laborers required and informs
the Chief, who assigns contingents to each district head. Each village
then sends in its quota. Usually'the laborers stay a week and return home.

Since this work is performed near home, is for a public purpose, and
of a character with which African peoples have long been familiar, it may
be in principle justified. But so long as the labor is not compensated at the
market rate, it is a kind of labor tax which does not, moreover, fall equally
upon the population, since no check is kept on the amount of labor
furnished by each man. 16 It should be pointed out, moreover, that in
many parts of Nigeria there is as yet no “market rate” of labor.

Likewise the employment of native treasury funds for purposes which
hitherto have been supported out of general revenue may impose an
undue burden on native resources. Several treasuries are already sorely
taxed by the salaries of several European officials. One member of the
Legislative Council has pointed out that while in Lagos the British
government assumed the whole expense of the water works, in Kano the
expense of a similar project was borne by the native treasury. 17 The policy
in northern Nigeria is to impose the cost of ordinary school equipment
and the salaries of native teachers upon native treasuries. This policy is
not, however, followed in the south. The result is that the northern
treasuries are obliged to carry a burden which is not only discriminatory,
but which may retard the development of education in comparison with that
of the south where responsibility for this burden is placed on the missions
and the British government. If the taxes remitted to the native treasury

18 The method by which the Uganda government has regularized this work is
discussed in Vol. I, p. 584.

” Legislative Council Debates, first session, 1923, p. 94.

CONCLUSIONS AS TO INDIRECT RULE

725

could be increased in proportion to the assumption of these new burdens,
these differences would become a mere matter of bookkeeping. But so
far, no attention has been paid to these differences in expenditure.

3. Future Development

Neither should one minimize the difficulties of extending, in the future,
the power of the native authorities. While the native states have with
remarkable skill already woven into their administrative system the intricate
devices of European administration in connection with finance and police,
they experience greater difficulty in performing duties such as the construc¬
tion of public works and the improvement of public health and agriculture,
all of which require some applied knowledge of European science. Now
while the schools of Africa have given a few natives a literary education—
equivalent, in most cases, only to the first few years in a European
elementary school—few institutions have given the natives any scientific
or technical training. To overcome this difficulty, the Nigerian govern¬
ment 18 has adopted the policy of loaning European departmental officers
to the native administration, under whose direction the native admin¬
istration may construct public works and operate schools and hospitals.
The same tendency is taking place in regard to the enforcement of certain
police regulations. For example, if a native refuses to burn his cotton
stalks, or if he illegally cuts down trees in a forest reserve, he is arrested
by a Dogari and punished by a native tribunal, instead of being arrested
by a policeman responsible to a British magistrate.

Probably the most important question confronting the system of indirect
rule in Nigeria to-day is how far the development of native authority should
go—to what extent should the native authority, aided by European
officials, take over activities hitherto performed by departments in the
European government, supported by British police. 19

If further duties should be transferred to the native administrations,
it would mean that doctors would be maintained by a native treasury
instead of by the Department of Public Health at Lagos. Local agricul¬
tural officers and engineers would similarly serve the native state. In
such a case, they would be theoretically employed by the native com¬
munity, and they would be responsible to the Resident of the province
having general control of the native state in question. Such a system
would reduce the duties of the government departments at Lagos to the
conduct of inter-provincial matters and to general supervisory control. If

18 And the Transkei. Cf. Vol. I, p. 96.

“While the ordinary policeman is a native, he is responsible to a British com¬
mandant or chief.

726

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

such a system should develop, the native treasuries would probably
eventually receive three-fourths or the whole of the direct native taxes,
while the general government would support itself from the customs.

Development along these lines is now being vigorously opposed by the
departmental heads of the Nigerian government. They complain that the
efficiency of their work has already been impaired by the necessity of fol¬
lowing the wishes of the native authorities, and that the employment of
European experts by natives is damaging to European prestige. 20 They
particularly object to the decentralization of departmental activity which
this plan would involve. If a doctor, for example, were anchored to a
native state subject to the control of the Resident of the province, the
Medical Department at Lagos could not move him from one end of
the territory to another for the purpose of combatting epidemics which
know no boundary lines.

In reply, political officials state that if the native states are really to
become self-governing, they must learn how to conduct every type of
administrative activity, and not merely how to administer justice and main¬
tain order. They believe that the departments defeat their own ends by
constantly shifting their personnel from one end of the territory to
another, and by ignoring the wishes or the susceptibilities of the natives.
The fact that medical missionaries remain at a single hospital while
government doctors are frequently transferred partly accounts for the
relatively greater success of the former with the natives. Experience has
shown that natives will obey regulations safeguarding a forest reserve when
they feel it is their own, much more willingly than when the reserve is
imposed upon them by the European government. 21 Moreover, European
officers seconded to the native administration have not regarded them¬
selves as “employees” but rather as advisors to the native authority; and
some of them prefer working with the native authorities than with the
government proper.

Whether or not this system of imposing full administrative responsi¬
bility upon the native authority will succeed depends upon two factors:
first, the quality of the departmental officer, and second, the development
of technical education among the natives.

An engineer assigned to a native administration must not only perform
the duties which he performed as an official of the British Department of
Public Works, but he also must teach natives how to perform these duties
themselves. He must not only be an engineer, but an educator and a

“This was the argument of Lieutenant-Governor Temple in Native Races and
Their Rulers, cited, p. 77.

21 Cf. Vol. I, p. 759.

CONCLUSIONS AS TO INDIRECT RULE

727

diplomat. This means that he must have a vision of a native community
which, partly as a result of his efforts, will eventually be self-governing;
and he must have an unlimited amount of patience and of sympathy with
the realization of this ideal. Many of the departmental officers assigned
to native authorities in the past have had this vision. But whether enough
of them can be interested in this social—as distinct from the technical—
aspect of the question, remains to be seen. A departmental officer lacking
such vision and bringing to his work preconceived European standards
will simply do the job himself in the name of the native authority; in such
a case, the only difference between indirect and direct rule is a difference
in name.

But natives will not learn how to perform these tasks merely by using
tools. Sooner or later, if they are to succeed with this work, they must
acquire a knowledge, elementary though it may be, of the principles upon
which modem machinery and medicine and other apparatus of the
western world are based. In other words, they must be given a scientific
and a technical education. 22

The sudden transfer to the native administration of departmental
duties would probably submerge a native state, most of the members of
which do not have such an education. Obviously, there is a danger of
going too fast. The rate of speed will depend upon the progress of educa¬
tion in Nigeria, a subject which will now be briefly discussed.

"Cf. Chapter 44.

CHAPTER 44

EDUCATION AND MISSIONS

I. In the Southern Provinces

In southern Nigeria as elsewhere in British Africa, education has been
left mostly to the missionary organizations which have established village
schools, under village teachers, primarily with a view to training natives
in the principles of the Christian religion. The various societies have also
maintained central training schools for African teachers and clergymen,
of which St. Andrews Training College at Oyo—a Church Missionary
Society institution—is a notable example. At Calabar, the Scottish
Mission also maintains an industrial school of high order, the
Hope-Waddell Training Institution. The Roman Catholics, represented
by the Lyons Fathers, conduct important educational activities.

For its part, the British government has established a number of
government schools, including King’s College which is a secondary school
at Lagos. But the government has been willing to leave the bulk of
primary education to the missionary bodies, which it has assisted by grants-
in-aid. Such schools are called “assisted” schools. An Education Code ’
prescribes the subjects to be taught by such schools. The determination as
to whether or not a school should be given a grant is based upon the report
of a government inspector. In computing the standard of efficiency, the
inspector is guided by the ratio of instructors to pupils, the manners and
cleanliness of the pupils, the results of examination, and the adequacy of
the school plant. These inspectors have been frequently criticized as being
unfair. To any infant school satisfying the qualifications, a grant of six,
eight, or twelve shillings for each unit of average attendance over the age
of four years is paid; in the primary schools, the grants range from fifteen
to thirty shillings; and in secondary schools, from thirty shillings to three
pounds. Likewise, the government makes similar grants to the salaries of
native teachers. 2

In 1927, the government appropriated 134,000 pounds for education,
of which about 52,000 pounds went to the employment of teachers and
inspectors.

1 Chap. 65, Laws. 3 Laws, Vol. Ill, p. 456.

728

EDUCATION AND MISSIONS

729

2. In the North

An opposite educational policy has been followed in northern Nigeria
where education has been, except for pagan areas, entirely in government
hands. 3 In 1909, the northern Nigerian government first appointed
Education Officers who gradually opened a number of schools throughout
the different provinces. In view of the traditional hostility of Moslem
rulers to western education, the government has scrupulously respected
the religion and the language of the Emirs. Instruction in these schools
is at first in the vernacular and later in Hausa and Arabic. English is also
taught. Moslem “mallams” approved by the Emirs may enter the schools
and teach the Mohammedan religion. The courses and the textbooks in
these provincial schools have been prepared with the purpose of adapting
knowledge to the needs and environment of the people. The government
has also established a number of Arts and Crafts schools where carpenters,
blacksmiths, brass workers, leather workers, embroiderers, ox-cart drivers,
masons, and grass workers are being trained. These schools thus give some
of the elements of a technical education, which the native administrations
so urgently require. For the purpose of training teachers, the government
has established a Training College at Katsina, where a five year course is
given in literary and practical subjects, including English, Arabic, Hausa,
algebra, and geometry—taught in a manner related to native life. For
example, idiomatic English is translated into Hausa and vice-versa. In
the history work, stories of primitive peoples in other parts of the world
are told with the object of arousing curiosity as to the effect of physical
conditions upon man’s existence. After studying geographic features and
history of Nigeria the students turn to a study of the early civilizations in
Asia, Egypt, Greece and Rome, of the Moslem conquests in North Africa
and Spain, and of the medieval native states of the Sudan.

The government for northern Nigeria expends about 44,000 pounds a
year on education compared with 134,000 pounds expended in southern
Nigeria. But, as we have seen, the native treasuries assume the salaries of
native teachers and the expense of maintaining ordinary school buildings.
For these purposes, they expend about 34,500 pounds a year. At present,
about 271 native teachers are employed in northern Nigeria, together with
about forty European principals and inspectors.

Despite the high quality of government education, its effect upon the

* In pagan as well as modern areas, a missionary society must obtain a permit
from the Governor before opening a school. The Governor may attach to such
permit such conditions as he may think fit, and he may withdraw the permit if any
of the conditions are broken. Mission Schools (Northern Provinces) Ordinance.
Chap. 66, Laws.

730

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

population of the north has been scarcely appreciable, since the total
average attendance of the fifty-two government schools is less than two
thousand. 4

3. A Comparison

The educational contrast between northern and southern Nigeria may
be seen from the table on the following page.

According to these figures, between thirty and forty times the number
of native children attend school (excluding the Koranic schools) in
southern as in northern Nigeria. This difference is due largely to the
fact that while in the northern provinces Christian missionary work is
prohibited except in pagan areas, in the south it is encouraged.

On the other hand, the quality of educational work in the north has
been much superior to that of the south. As the table shows, the govern¬
ment of southern Nigeria assists less than 200 mission schools. The re¬
maining 2,700 have so far escaped all government control. Manned by
native teachers with little education and subject to less supervision from
European missionaries, these “bush” schools have imparted an education
which has lacked thoroughness, and which has been exclusively “literary.”
Instead of the native language, English has been the universal medium of
instruction in the South. Instead of teaching the natives the fascinating
history of Nigeria, some schools have taught them the history of
Elizabethan England.

In many cases, a native will stay in a school only a year or two—long
enough to acquire a scrappy English vocabulary—when he feels that his
education is complete enough to qualify him for the position of clerk in
a European firm—a position the attainment of which has become his only
goal. The Governor in 1920 deplored “the mushroom-growth of ‘hedge
schools’ in the majority of which young men who are incapable of grappling
successfully with the mysteries of the Fourth Standard profess to impart
‘education’ to large groups of boys. . . . Throughout the southern
provinces [there is] an abundance of schools but very little genuine educa¬
tion; . . . the children are themselves curiously eager to attend school,
but are much less willing to remain there long enough to acquire any
real and useful knowledge; . . . too many of them, no matter how im¬
perfectly educated they may be, thereafter regard themselves as superior
to agricultural pursuits, and prefer to pick up a precarious and demoraliz¬
ing living by writing more or less unintelligible letters for persons whose
ignorance is even deeper than their own.” 5

4 Annual Report of the Education Department, Northern Provinces, 1925. p. 14-
8 Nigerian Council, Address by the Governor, 1920, p. 198.

732 THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

In order to improve this situation, the government adopted a new
Education Ordinance in 1926, and also appointed an Advisory Committee
on Education, composed of officials, missionaries, and educators, which is
now working out new syllabi designed to establish an educational system
of greater thoroughness and better adapted to the needs of Nigeria than
the present system. The new educational program is in main based on the
principles laid down by the Advisory Committee on Education in Africa
at London, 6 which has declared that the aim of education in Africa should
be “to render the individual more efficient in his or her condition of life,
whatever it be, and to promote the advancement of the community as a
whole through the improvement of agriculture, the development of native
industries, the improvement of health, the training of the people in the
management of their own affairs, and the inculcation of true ideals of
citizenship and service. It must include the raising up of capable, trust¬
worthy, public-spirited leaders of the people, belonging to their own
race. Education thus defined will narrow the hiatus between the educated
class and the rest of the community, whether chiefs or peasantry.” This
aim should include the use of the vernacular and the teaching of spiritual
ideals.

By means of increased grants-in-aid and more thorough inspection, the
government hopes to assist the missionary societies to improve the quality of
instruction in village schools and to make it impossible for independent
schools failing to come up to a certain standard to exist.

In this movement, the feelings of the Africans have been divided.
While many natives are enthusiastic about education, many of them are
more interested in quantity than in quality. In the first campaign for the
Nigerian Legislative Council, the three successful Lagos candidates
promised their constituents to work for the adoption of compulsory educa¬
tion throughout the country, which the Governor estimated would require
an African teaching staff of forty-four thousand men and an annual ex¬
penditure of 2,500,000 pounds, nearly half the revenue of the country. 7

Moreover, many Africans look upon any attempt to give them a system
of education which differs from that given Europeans with suspicion—
as an attempt to hold them in a kind of intellectual serfdom. Thus, when
it became known that the Advisory Committee on Education in London
had recommended the use of the vernacular instead of English (but only
in the early standards), educated Africans in southern Nigeria at once

a The full text of its notable memorandum on “Educational Policy in British
Tropical Africa,” is printed in an appendix. Vol. II, p. 889.

7 Legislative Council, Address by the Governor, 1924, p. 71.

EDUCATION AND MISSIONS

733

raised an outcry. 8 The justice of this complaint is discussed in connection
with the Gold Coast. 0

Whatever the defects of education in southern Nigeria have been, the
educational efforts of the missions have aroused an intellectual activity and
created an imagination among the Africans which is noticeably absent in
the north, and which is leading the educated Yoruba to enter the northern
province and to compete with the local Hausa trader. In 1920, the Gover¬
nor declared that the “Northern Provinces have not yet produced a single
native of these provinces who is sufficiently educated to enable him to fill
the most minor clerical post in the office of any government department.” 10
These offices are manned from natives from the Gold Coast, Sierra Leone
and from the southern provinces of Nigeria. Sooner or later, the northern
provinces will have to put forth much greater efforts than at present if
they are to maintain their independence against these southern invaders.

This state of affairs in the north is due largely to the exclusion of
missionary enterprise which will now be discussed.

4. Missions in Northern Nigeria

Both the Emir of Sokoto and the Shehu of Bornu claim to be Moslem
caliphs, and between them, they retain the religious allegiance of most of
the Moslems of the north. Out of the 10,000,000 inhabitants of the north¬
ern provinces, about 6,700,000 are Mohammedans. 11

When Sir Frederick Lugard gave Letters of Appointment to the
Emirs, he promised that the government “shall studiously refrain from
any action which will interfere with the exercise of the Mohammedan
religion by its adherents, or which will demand of them action that is
opposed to its precepts,” a pledge which is repeated with the appointment
of each new Emir.

Now in the eyes of a Moslem, there is no difference between church
and state; and later governors came to interpret this pledge of religious
neutrality to mean the prohibition of Christian enterprise within the
Emirates. Until recently, the government merely declined to grant" land
for Christian mission sites, but in 1926, it took a further step and forbade
missionaries from preaching among a portion of the Burra group, who are
partly pagans, and part of whom are subjects of a Moslem ruler, the Emir
of Biu, located in the Bornu province. Neither are missionaries allowed
to establish schools or hospitals in the Emirates.

8 Legislative Council Debates, fourth session, 1926, pp. 68, 107.

8 Cf. Vol. I, p. 848.

10 Address, cited, 1920, p. 196. y Table 49, Meek, cited, Vol. II.

734

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

In a letter written in 1919, the Colonial Office justified this policy on
two grounds: First, because of the pledge to the Emirs, which should
be constructed in the light of the fact that “Christian Missionaries are
of the same race and creed as the higher officials of the Protectorate
Government; and that if they should be granted land, etc.,” the natives
would arrive at the conclusion “that the Missionary propaganda had the
support of the Government and that the Government was false to its
pledges”; second, because any action which weakened the authority of the
Moslem religion would weaken the authority and prestige of the Emirs
with the result that the present system of indirect rule would be
imperilled. 12

It was also pointed out by the Governor that the entrance of Christian
missions “might arouse the hostility and awaken the latent spirit of religious
fanaticism.” 13 Apparently he had in mind the rising in 1906 when an
itinerant priest or “marabout” in Sokoto started a Holy War in which a
number of officials were killed, 14 and the resurrection of the Madhi
trouble in 1922. During the World War, the cult of Madhism was re¬
vived in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan where it caused the British a good deal
of trouble. In 1922, the movement was carried into northern Nigeria by
Mallam Said, whose father had been the representative of the original
Madhi in northern Nigeria, at the time of Khartoum. The government
soon came to believe that Mallam Said the Second was working to bring
about a Holy War to drive the Europeans into the sea. So it nipped
the movement in the bud by deporting its leader. 16

Now Sir Frederick Lugard did not promise the Emirs to exclude
Christian missionaries from their country any more than he promised to
exclude European traders. On the face of it, a pledge not to interfere
with the Moslem religion does not confer a monopoly upon that religion,
or prevent other religions from competing against it for adherents. If
the administration were logical in its argument about church and state,
it would proclaim Mohammedanism the cult of the British government!

That Sir Frederick Lugard did not follow the interpretations of later
governors as to the meaning of his pledge is shown by his report for
1905-6 in which he said: “The Hausa Mission, hitherto stationed in the

u Cf. the correspondence between the Bishop of Lagos and the Governor, Report
of the Third Session of the First Synod of Lagos, May, 1922, pp. 59 ff. For a reso¬
lution of protest against the policy, see the Report of the First Session of the First
Synod of Lagos, 1920, p. xvi.

13 Legislative Council Address by the Governor, 1924, p. 78.

14 Cf. Orr, The Making of Northern Nigeria, cited, p. 172.

& Statement of the Governor, Legislative Council Debates, first session, 1923,
March 31, 1924, p. 16. Cf. also Mallam Said (Deportation and Detention) Ordi¬
nance, 1924, 1926 Supplement, p. 68.

EDUCATION AND MISSIONS

735

Ghirku district, forty miles south of Zaria, transferred its headquarters to
the latter city in March 1905, with my consent, on the invitation of the
Emir, and they have it in contemplation to open a mission next year at
Kano, with the consent of the Emir and chiefs, and also perhaps at Konta-
gora, where the Emir seems quite anxious to allow them to come. . . .
The head of the mission, Dr. Miller, informs me that, during his eight
months’ residence in Zaria, he has met with nothing but courtesy from the
Emir and people, and not only has there been no hostility, but the people
have manifested a desire to ‘read, to hear, and to consider.’ . . . The
Resident . . . cannot too warmly express his gratitude to Dr. Miller for
the way in which he has endeavored to fall in with his views. ... I
believe that a very great deal of good has resulted.” 10

Likewise, in his Dual Mandate in British Tropical Africa, Sir
Frederick Lugard says: “The Government will offer no objection if the
ruling chief concurs. ... For the reasons I have given it is necessary
that the prior concurrence of Government should be sought before a
Mission is established in either a Moslem or a pagan district. There can
be no fear that a British administrator would withhold consent unless for
some very cogent reason. If his reasons appeared insufficient, there
is probably no class which commands a wider means of influenc¬
ing public opinion through the press and Parliament . . . than the
missionaries. . . .” 17

Mr. C. L. Temple, late Lieutenant-Governor of northern Nigeria, did
not regard the entrance of Christian missionaries as a violation of this
pledge. 17 * 1

19 Colonial Reports — Annual, Northern Nigeria, 1905-6, p. 469. In 1903, the
High Commissioner wrote: "I am myself of opinion that it is unwise and unjust
to force missions upon the Mohammedan population, for it must be remembered
that without the moral support of the Government, these missions would not be
tolerated. In effect, therefore, the mission obtains its footing on the support of
British bayonets, and if they are established by order of Government, the people
have some cause to disbelieve the emphatic pledges I have given that their religion
shall in no way be interfered with. I have, however, held out every encouragement
to establish missions in pagan centers, which appear to me to need the influence
of civilization and religion at least as much as the Mohammedans.” Ibid., ,1902,
P- x 35 -.

This statement implies that missionaries might enter a Moslem community
with the consent of the Emir. Moreover, at the time he wrote, the natives would
probably have driven out traders as well as missionaries if they did not have
government support. During the last twenty-five years, a marked change in their
attitude has come about.

1T The Dual Mandate in British Tropical Africa, Edinburgh, 1923, pp. 594-595.

1T * He writes: “Even in respect to the Mohammedan states, I do not hold with
some who have argued that the presence of Christian ministers in the
government’s stations would cause suspicion on the part of the Muslims, or be
regarded by them as the insertion of the thin edge of a wedge to result ultimately
in a breach of our pledge to them not to interfere with the free exercise of their
religion. Either my experience has led me entirely astray, or I can say with truth

736

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

From these various statements, it seems that under the original pledge
Christian missionaries must first get the consent of the Emir before es¬
tablishing a mission in his territory. But at present, government officials
see to it that no missionary is allowed to interview an Emir with a view
to making such a request. The Bishop of Lagos says: “Had the chiefs
been left altogether to themselves, with the assurance that the British
administration would not object to their receiving Missionaries, tactful
Missionaries would have won their way and gained permission to enter
these Emirates, even as they did in the days when Sir Frederick Lugard
was High Commissioner. Now that the anti-missionary policy of the
Government has been so firmly fixed in the minds of the native rulers of
these Moslem states, I fear I must agree with His Excellency that
permission is not likely to be granted by any Emir to a Christian mission
to establish itself in his territory. In my experience, the attitude of a chief
in such a matter is almost wholly dependent on the view which he believes
the British administration takes with regard to it, and in the past, the latter
has made its policy in the matter very plainly felt, that no Emir would
dare to allow a missionary to settle in his territory.” 18

The entrance of a Christian mission into a non-Christian community
creates a division within the community which did not exist before, and
therefore complicates administration. Notwithstanding this fact the
British government cannot hope, if indeed such is its desire, to shelter
the native states from the religious and ethical teachings of the western
world. It has already admitted the fruits and the philosophy of western
industrialism into these areas—the representatives of which, in the form
of European traders, have not always been of the best type, and whose
chief concern is to make as much money out of the natives as possible.
From the standpoint of the native and of the prestige of the white race,
it is desirable that the natives should come into contact with another type
of European.

If the social fabric of the northern Emirates cannot adjust itself to the
religious ideas of the west, it is difficult to see how it can survive the frankly

that the contrary results would occur, and that the fact that Christian ministers of
religion were to be found wherever there was any considerable number of Euro¬
peans would, so far from engendering suspicion, increase the respect in which the
Muslim holds us. Every Muhammedan of any education knows the injunctions
of the Koran regarding the people of the book, and that the Messiah was recog¬
nized by the founder of Islam. Such respectable Muslims are far more liable to
be shocked and their suspicion aroused by an absence of the observances of the
Christian religion by Christians than by the fact that Christian ministers are to
be found in their country.” C. L. Temple, Native Races and their Rulers, p. 218.
This statement appears, however, to contradict ideas advanced in previous pages.

^The Right Rev. F. Melville Jones, Report of the Second Session of the Second
Synod of the Diocese of Lagos, 1924, p. 30.

EDUCATION AND MISSIONS

737

selfish doctrines of western industrialism. Far from being a disruptive
influence, the work of Christian missions in the pagan states of Oyo,
Ibadan, and Abeokuta has helped to make the progress of at least Abeokuta
more rapid than progress in the north. The work of the C. M. S. mission
at Zaria has not, apparently, weakened the Zaria Emirate. Moreover,
the French, who are usually more sensitive than the British about these
matters, have not deemed it necessary to establish such restrictions upon
Christian work in their Moslem territories. The British have recently
abolished such restrictions in the Sudan which indeed could not, it appears,
be legally established in any mandated territory. 10

This question has usually been looked at from the standpoint of the
“rights” of the European missionaries. 20 But it should also be approached
from the standpoint of the “rights” of the northern native. While Moslem
converts to Christianity have been few’, there is no good reason why Mos¬
lem natives should not be allowed to choose another religion, which, apart
from its theology, has admittedly higher moral and social ideals than Mo¬
hammedanism. As we have seen, northern Nigeria is in urgent need of
medical aid which the government cannot give. In the face of this need, it is
impossible to justify the exclusion of medical missionaries, who have had
such striking success in other parts of Africa, on the purely hypothetical
ground that they would disturb the principle of indirect rule. If mission
schools in the past had been allowed to spring up in northern as in southern
Nigeria, the result might truly have been disastrous to the native states. But
the missions and government of southern Nigeria are now working out a
system of control and cooperation which, if applied to northern Nigeria,
would increase the present educational effort there ten or twenty fold.
Whatever justification the prohibition of Christian missions from northern
Nigeria may have had in the past, it appears that the time for abolishing
this prohibition has arrived.

“ Cf. the attempt to establish spheres of influence in Tanganyika Territory,
Vol. I, p. 483.

“ Until recently, this question has been largely academic, as the missionaries
did not have enough members to man their stations in southern Nigeria. This
time has now passed, and a number of graduates of English universities' have
offered to go to Nigeria, provided they can work in the north.

CHAPTER 45

NATIVE POLITICS AND RELIGION
i. The Educated Classes

So far the discussion has centered upon the problem of the natives who
still live within the bosom of the tribe. But there is an increasing number
of Africans in Nigeria who, as a result of missionary effort, have received
a European education. Driven by ambition, a desire to imitate the white
man, and an education which has fitted them only for “literary” enter¬
prise, these natives have forsaken agriculture to become clerks, barristers,
physicians, teachers, or clergymen. Nigeria boasts of fifty-eight African
lawyers and about twenty-five physicians, and 21,000 teachers and clerks. 1
Because of their newly acquired knowledge, they have become the most
vocal members in the community.

Quite naturally Africans who have received an English education,
even though it is in many cases inferior to a fifth grade education in an
American grammar school, and who have acquired a certain amount of
wealth have come to demand some share in the government. They feel
that if the Administration is able to impose judicial and financial power
upon “ignorant chiefs,” it should give the “educated” class some political
control. This class has demanded not so much participation in the munici¬
pal government of Lagos 2 as seats on the Legislative Council.

Before 1914 a Legislative Council of the Colony enacted laws for the
Colony and protectorate of Southern Nigeria. Northern Nigeria, however,
has no Legislative Council—its laws merely took the form of proclamations
of the Governor. The Southern Nigeria Council had a few unofficial
native members who necessarily represented a comparatively small number
of educated natives on the coast.

When Sir Frederick Lugard became governor of a united Nigeria in
1914 he did not believe that a legislative council, with such a restricted
membership, could fairly legislate for the whole protectorate. 8 Conse-

1 The Nigeria Handbook, 1925, p. 388.

a Cf. Vol. I, p. 661, for a discussion.

* He wrote, “It is a cardinal principle of British Colonial policy that the inter¬
ests of a large native population shall not be subject to the will either of a small
European class or of a small minority of educated and Europeanised natives who

738

NATIVE POLITICS AND RELIGION

739

quently he induced the Colonial office to limit the legislative power of the
Legislative Council to the Colony of Nigeria. 4 Elsewhere legislation
would be enacted by proclamation. The Legislative Council continued to
have an official majority of six and four unofficial members, who were gen¬
erally identical with the Town Council members, and two of whom were
natives; and it was usually presided over, not by the Governor-General, but
by the Lieutenant-Governor of the Southern Provinces.

2. The Nigerian Council

In order to secure an expression of opinion from every part of Nigeria,
the Governor also established the Nigerian Council, which consisted of
thirty-six members—the Governor’s Executive Council, the first Class
Residents, the Political Secretaries and the Secretaries of the northern and
southern provinces, as official members—and as unofficial members, six
Europeans representing respectively Commerce, Shipping, Banking and
Mining, the Chambers of Commerce and Mines; and six natives among
whom were the most important chiefs of northern and southern Nigeria and
representatives of the educated Africans of Lagos and Calabar. Having
only advisory power,® the Council was confined chiefly to the discussion of
the annual address of the Governor-General and motions previously sub¬
mitted by members. In providing for the representation of chiefs, the
government attempted to secure an expression of the views of the unlettered
natives who compose the vast majority of the population. But the chiefs
seldom attended the Council meetings. 6 Other official members came
to feel that it was scarcely worth their time to participate in a body having

have nothing in common with them, and whose interests are often opposed to theirs.
... A Council in such circumstances, as Sir C. Dilke observed in Parliament,
‘is not a liberal institution, but a veiled oligarchy of the worst description,’ and
responsible autocracy is preferable. The point is of special importance in
Northern Nigeria where the intelligent Emirs are in acute divergence in religion
and social status from the natives of the coast.” Report on the Amalgamation of
Northern and Southern Nigeria and Administration, 1912-1919, Cmd. 468, p. 19.

4 Art. 4 (1) Nigeria Order in Council, Statutory Rules and Orders, 1914, Vol. I,
p. 631. The various Letters Patent and Orders in Council are printed in the
Gazette, January 1, 1914.

*“No resolution passed by the Council shall have any legislative or executive
authority, and the Governor shall not be required to give effect to any such
resolution unless he thinks fit and is authorized to do so.” Para. XVII, Nigerian
Council Order in Council, 1913, Statutory Rules and Orders, 1913, p. 241.

* Proceedings, First Meeting of The Nigerian Council, December 31, 1914.
Commenting on their absence, the Governor-General said, “Before many years are
past, I hope and believe that this condition will have changed, and that I, or my
successors, will see at the meetings of this Council a number of intelligent Native
Chiefs representing the vast masses of the population and able to voice their
thoughts. Until that time arrives they can only be represented by the Governor, by
officials who are in daily touch with them . . . and by a few representative
chiefs. . . .”

740

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

only advisory powers. In 1919 a member introduced a resolution asking
that “the Council be either reconstructed so as to make it a serious factor
in the governing of this Colony or Protectorate, or else be abolished.” 7

About the same time the National Congress of West Africa was
organized, and demanded elective representation on the various legisla¬
tive councils in the West African colonies. 8

While the new governor, Sir Hugh Clifford, sympathized with the
criticisms of the old Nigerian Council, he did not at first take kindly to
the demand of the Congress of West Africa for the elective representation
cf natives. 0 He declared that it was farcical to suppose that “continental
Nigeria can be represented by a handful of gentlemen drawn from a half
dozen Coast tribes—men born and bred in British-administered towns
situated on the sea shore, who, in the safety of British protection, have
peacefully pursued their studies under British teachers in British schools,
in order to enable them to'become Ministers of the Christian religion or
learned in .the laws of England; whose eyes are fixed, not upon African
history or tradition or policy, nor upon their own tribal obligations and
the duties to their Natural Rulers which immemorial custom should im¬
pose upon them, but upon political theories evolved by Europeans to fit
a wholly different set of circumstances, arising out of a wholly different
environment, for the government of people who have arrived at a wholly
different stage of civilisation. . .

3. Elected African Members

Two years later the Governor changed his tune. For apparently upon
his recommendation the Colonial Office abolished the old Legislative
Council and the Nigerian Council, and created a Legislative Council for
the colony and the southern provinces 10 dominated by Europeans but con¬
taining ten African 11 members, four of whom are elected—three from the

7 Proceedings, cited, 1920, p. 12. “For its history, cf. Vol. I, p. 832.

“He said ( Nigerian Council, Address by the Governor, 1920, p. 18), “There
has . . . been a great deal of loose and gaseous talk on the subject of popular
election . . .,” emanating for the most part from “a self-selected and a self-
appointed congregation of educated African gentlemen who collectively style
themselves the ‘West African National Conference.’ ”

Any recognition of the claims of the West Africa Congress would be “mis¬
chievous, because they are incompatible with that natural development of real
national self-government which all true patriots in Nigeria, and all honest men
concerned in the administration of the country, should combine to secure and
maintain.”

10 Nigeria (Legislative Council) Order in Council, November 21, 1922, Statutory
Rules and Orders, 1922, p. 291. The Governor continues to legislate for the
northern provinces by proclamation.

11 The Order in Council does not limit this representation to natives, but since
the native population controls the electorate, it presumably will always elect
Africans and not Europeans. Cf. Legislative Council Debates, first session, 1923,
p. 32.

NATIVE POLITICS AND RELIGION

741

city of Lagos and one from the city of Calabar. This is the first recogni¬
tion in the history of British Tropical Africa of the elective principle, as
far as Africans are concerned. Six other Africans may be nominated from
areas in southern Nigeria, most of which do not have elected representa¬
tives. So far it appears that only five such Africans have been nominated.
In appointing some of these members, the government tries to take tribal
considerations into account; thus the Council contains a representative of
the Egba division, appointed after consultation with the Alake of Abeokuta,
and a representative of the Oyo division, appointed after consultation with
the Alafin of Oyo. There is also a representative of the Ibo division, and
of the Niger African Traders. The member appointed for the Rivers
division happens to be a chief. The government likewise appoints seven
European members, representing various Chambers of Commerce, and the
Mining and Banking'Interests. Each nominated unofficial member serves
for five years. There are twenty-six government officials on the Council,
which thus has an official majority, the total membership being forty-four. 12
A voter for the four elected members must possess a gross annual income
of not less than one hundred pounds. 13 It is estimated that about 3,000
Africans in Lagos are eligible to vote. Every voter must register annually.
Out of these 3,ooo, 1,381 registered in 1925, and only 843 in 1926. The
latter number decided a bye-election in the spring of 1926. Commenting
on this election, the Nigerian Spectator, edited by an African, declared,
“The franchise was a new gift to the people of Lagos about three years ago,
and it aroused much interest at the time. But it was a gift of foreign
manufacture and genuine interest in it soon waned.” It declared that
when the franchise was granted, the town was at the height of the Eleko
controversy and that a false leadership had developed over this issue.
But the true patriots among the natives should continue to bring the
people back to a condition when they could elect “sincere and self-respecting
citizens.” 14

“The policy in regard to voting by official members was defined in 1923 by the
Governor as follows, “It should be distinctly understood that, unless a direct order
to the contrary is issued, all official members of this Council are completely at
liberty, not only to speak, but to vote, upon any measure that is put befo/e the
Council purely at the dictates of their discretion. Even when the official order is
given, any member who feels that it is necessary that he should do so is at liberty
to rise from his place and to say that he has registered his vote under protest;
but, in the ordinary course of events, the official vote will be as free and as •un¬
controlled as that of the unofficial members.” If the case should arise where the
unofficial vote is solid against the Government, “no action will be taken on the
matter until further consideration has been given to it, or reference had to the
Secretary of State for the Colonies.” Legislative Council Debates, first session,
1923. p. 59 - .

Cf. Article XX (Nigerian Legislative Council), Order in Council, 1922, and
regulations made under this order, 1923, Lazos, Vol. IV, pp. 343-354.

** “The Bye-election,” April 3, 1926.

742

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

It thus appears that a very small proportion of the African population
takes part in these elections. The general feeling of many Europeans
and intelligent Africans is that the more extreme and less trustworthy
natives are elected to office, and satisfy their inferiority complex by an
unduly prominent and acrid participation in debate. Doubtless accusa¬
tions will inevitably be made against new comers to a legislative body
hitherto composed exclusively of a governing race. Moreover, these accu¬
sations have been resented by elected members, one of whom said that
he was not sent there “for the purpose of opposing and criticising blindly
every act of the Government, regardless of its merits or demerits, as is
being frequently alleged by our detractors. . . . All that we desire, Sir, is
to have a voice in the administration of the affairs of this country. . . 15

At the same time the record shows that African members have been ex¬
tremely sedulous in their legislative duties.

One of the most useful features of a British Legislative Council is the
written question asking the government for information—a practice taken
from the House of Commons. Africans have been quick to seize upon
the question as a means of airing their grievances and of embarrassing the
government. Native members asked forty-three of the eighty-nine questions
put at the 1926 session. 16 While natives have in some cases thrown real
light on some problem, in other cases they have gone out of the way to
ask captious questions—i.e., in one instance, a member asked for the item¬
ized value of government property in Nigeria with a view to learning the
amount lost by negligence. In reply the government informed him that the
secretariat would require at least three months of steady work—even with
additional help—to compile this information. 17

Much the worse example of the conduct of African members occurred in
1926 in regard to the presentation of a solid gold Rose Bowl to the
Resident of the Colony on the eve of his departure on leave. This bowl
contained the inscription, “From the princes of Lagos in remembrance of
August 8 , 1925”—which was the date of the deposition of the Eleko. The
implication was that the Resident had deposed the Eleko for the benefit
of the princes of Lagos who thus showed their appreciation of his
kindness . 18

15 Legislative Council Debates, first session, 1923, p. 104.

14 Ibid., fourth session, 1926.

"Nevertheless approximate figures were furnished him. Ibid., 1925, p. 21. In
another case an African asked what sums had been expended during the last five
years for drugs, etc., in the Nigerian hospitals—information which was furnished
him; ibid., February n, 1924, p. 22. In still another case an African asked for the
total cost and dimension of a government garage—information which was also
furnished; ibid., p. 35.

14 Cf. Vol. I, p. 662.

NATIVE POLITICS AND RELIGION

743

Realizing that the Resident would not knowingly accept such a gift,
the donors wrapped the bowl in a parcel and told the Resident that it was
a sample of native work intended as a present for his wife. In his hurry
to get away the Resident did not open the package until he reached
England. As soon as he saw the nature of the gift he at once sent it to
the Colonial Office and asked what to do. Meanwhile, unaware of this
action, the Lagos Members asked embarrassing questions in the Legislative
Council, believing that they had caught the Resident in a trap. The
Colonial Office advised the Resident to return the bowl to the donors, and
the government in reply to these questions expressed the opinion that he
had acted quite properly. It wished to dispel “once for all any suggestion
that a charge of corruption or abuse of office might lie” against the
Resident. 19 After further experiences African politicians may learn that
the use of such methods is more damaging to themselves than to their
opponents.

4. African Political Parties

As a result of the new constitution, a number of political groups have
come into existence in Lagos, chief of which is the Nigerian Democratic
Party. The first object of this party is “to.secure the safety or welfare
of the people of the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria as an integral
part of the British Imperial Commonwealth and to carry the banner of
‘Right, Truth, Liberty and Justice,’ to the empyrean heights of Democracy
until the realisation of its ambitious goal of ‘a Government of the People,
by the People, for the People.’ ” The party does not desire independence,
but wishes “to maintain an attitude of unswerving loyalty to the Throne
and Person of His Majesty the King Emperor.” The party stands for
compulsory education; the repeal of the Provincial Courts Ordinance; the
establishment of an independent Court of Appeal for British West Africa;
full municipal self-government; and the abolition of segregation, presum¬
ably in regard to the European and native sections in Lagos.

The White Cap chiefs of Lagos, the heads of the mosques, the
members of the “Ilu” committee, and the native district heads, together
with others, belong to the Executive Committee. 20 So far this party has
elected all of the three Africans to the Legislative Council. It is per¬
haps significant that two out of the first three elected members were born
outside of Nigeria. These parties or cliques are vigorously supported by
African newspapers whose particular delight is bear-baiting the govern-

* Legislative Council Debates, fourth session, 1926, p. 32.

30 Constitution, Rules and Regulations of the Nigerian National Democratic
Party.

744

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

ment on racial and administrative issues, but which appear to an outside
reader much less intelligently edited than the papers of the Gold Coast.

Even if the best intentioned and most fully qualified members of the
African community are elected to membership on the Legislative Coun¬
cil, their intellectual and moral background and standards differ so widely
from that of the European majority that the Council will probably become
divided into two racially self-conscious groups, one the European traders
and officials—the other native barristers from Lagos and Calabar. Out
of fear that the representation of the two races in the same legislative body
will have a disruptive influence, South Africa 21 has adopted a system of
parallel councils—one for the blacks and the other for the whites. For
the vast majority of the people the place of such councils in Nigeria is
taken by the native administration over which the Legislative Council
is merely an organ of control. The "educated” classes of Africans do
not participate in these administrations and until they do so they should
necessarily have some other outlet for their political emotions. For this
reason the election of a limited number of Africans to the Legislative
Council, despite the inherent difficulties of the system, will probably
remain. But under this system there is a danger that the educated mem¬
bers of the African community will set as their goal increased participation
in the Legislative Council and the European administration and not the
increased power for African tribal institutions. 22

As the Nigerian government is already committed to the principle of
indirect rule, the powers now exercised by the European administration
will gradually be shifted to the native authorities. Some control
over these authorities will probably be necessary for a hundred years
—but this control may or may not take the form of a Legislative Coun¬
cil. As we have seen, it is not impossible that all legislation affecting
natives of more than one community within the north will be enacted
by a Council of Emirs and in part of the south by a Council of Yoruba
chiefs, leaving to the European authority only matters affecting Europeans
and such subjects as communications and foreign trade. Restricted to
these activities, the Legislative Council has no logical place for an elected
African majority.. The ideal—which is really the ideal of assimilation 23 —
is inconsistent with the ideal of indirect rule. While it is impracticable and
undesirable to reduce the number of Africans at present represented on

“Cf. Vol. I, p. 11 4 .

23 Sir Hugh Clifford, when governor, perhaps unconsciously encouraged this
hope when he declared that the elective principle was but a step toward eventual
self-government and eventually the “backward” portions of the Protectorate could
expect to have elected representatives on the Council. Nigerian Council, Address
by the Governor, 1923, p. 3.

33 Cf. Vol. II, p. 77.

NATIVE POLITICS AND RELIGION

745

the Legislative Council, the educated African should be given clearly to
understand that the future political development of the country will come
through the medium of African institutions and not through misfitted
European formulae.

5. Native Churches

While Lagos boasts of a number of political groups, the real differ¬
ences of opinion among the Africans are religious in character. Perhaps
the most important is the issue involving the Moslem sects and the Eleko. 24
Likewise the independent native churches, which are continually springing
into existence, have created a division in the Christian community. As a
result of the action of a committee of the Church Missionary Society in
criticising Bishop Crowther, the first African bishop, a number of Africans
held a gathering in 1891 and passed a resolution that the “foreign
agencies at work at the present moment, taking into consideration climatic
and other influences, cannot grasp the situation.” 25 Consequently they
organized an independent organization called the United African Church.
This Church, which claims a membership of about 15,000, stands for
Anglican theology, but has a Wesleyan organization. It frankly recog¬
nizes polygamy, which it says is not inconsistent with Christianity. 28 Its
constitution says, “This organization did not preach polygamy, but tolerates
it wherever that is the custom of the people and congenial to their
soil and surroundings. It abhors the forcing of monogamy or foreign
system of marriage among its members, firmly believing that neither
monogamy nor polygamy is essential to Christian salvation; and since it
cannot be proved from the Holy Scriptures that polygamy is a sin, the
United African Church did not regard polygamy to be a sin.” 27

The United African Church is rather sensitive upon this point. For
when a member of the Synod of the Diocese of Lagos called these doctrines
“pernicious,” the secretary of the African Communion sued the clerk of
the Synod for libel. The Divisional Court of Nigeria, to whom the case
finally went, declared that numerous passages in the New Testament laid
down “in the clearest and most unequivocal manner” the doctrine .of mo¬
nogamy “as a part of the Christian faith. . . .” Therefore the doctrines
of the United African Church were opposed to the accepted teachings of

34 Cf. Vol. I, p. 662.

28 Cf. p., G. A. Oke, A Short History of the United African Church, Lagos,
1918, Part I, p. 2.

28 Cf. a series of articles along this line, in the organ of the Church, The
African Hope, “Did God Detest Polygamy,” jn 1919 and 1920. In March, 1920,
The African Hope said that open polygamy was better than indecent monogamy.
“If all accounts of the social life prevailing in Europe . . . are reliable, we do not
see anything worth envying by the African in that condition of life.”

” Revised Constitution of the United African Church, 1921, p. 1.

746

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

Christianity and consequently it was not libel to call the teachings of the
native church “pernicious.” 28 The “Presiding Patriarch” of the Christ’s
Army Church makes this interesting argument in favor of polygamy:

“Remember that Religion is the Basis of all Civilization and the Boasted
Civilization of the white man to-day comes from a Polygamic Race. Chris¬
tianity from Jews, Mohammedanism from the Arabs, Hinduism from the
Japanese (sic.), Buddhism from the Chinese. All these are polygamic nations
and they have given to the world the Religions on which all Civilization are
based. The only Religion that sprung from the white Race is Mormonism
and even the Mormon Prophet enjoined his members to be Polygamic.
Brigham Young, the next successor to Mormon Prophet of America, an
English Speaking Race, has twenty-four wives. Material CivHization without
the Spiritual life is dead. Therefore that nation which gives us the Spiritual
life is the nation that has saved humanity. Christianity is the highest and
purest Religion and you should guard against those who seek to corrupt it by
endeavouring to force on the human Race owing to their Material prosperity
in Empire building, Laws and Customs which God never sanctioned or
enjoined.” "

While we could suppose that a polygamous Christianity would attract
thousands of natives from the orthodox fold, this doctrine has had through¬
out the entire continent surprisingly little appeal. It seems that the death
of legalized polygamy in Africa is inevitable. With the cessation of tribal
war, the number of men is coming to be about the same as the number
of women. If polygamy should continue, many of these males would be
prevented from obtaining mates which would produce an unsocial condi¬
tion which could not long exist. Moreover, the feudal agricultural system,
in which women played so important a part, is breaking down; while
the native woman herself is beginning to rebel against being treated as a
chattel. From the social standpoint, present conditions in Africa show that
the monogamous home is essential if children are to be reared properly
and if population is to increase.

A large number of other native churches exist in southern Nigeria.
The Bethel Church admits polygamy among ordinary members, but differs
from the United African Church only in opposing polygamous ministers
whom the United African Church sanctions. The Penuel African Church
—another independent organization which claims a membership of only
1550—is led by a minister called the Apostle; while the constitution

* Oke v. Gansallo (1923), Nigeria Laiu Reports, Vol. IV, p. 109.

* The African Hope, August, 1920. Polygamy is also defended in a lecture
by S. A. Coker, “The Rights of Africans to organise and establish indigenous
Churches, unattached to, and uncontrolled by Foreign Church Organisations,”
1917, Lagos.

NATIVE POLITICS AND RELIGION

747

(art. 23) provides that every member of the church must “contract
marriage of one form or another.” Recently the Diamond Society has
come into existence, a puritanical order which opposes gambling, smoking,
drinking, lying, fornication. It is also opposed to infant baptism and
the use of medicines, while it preaches faith healing. For a time this body
kept within the fold of the Anglican Church, but when the Bishop asked
that they give up their opposition to the use of medicine and to infant
baptism, the Diamond Society became an independent organization. 8 *
Half a dozen of these independent native churches have associated them¬
selves in what is called the African Communion—which it is hoped will
develop into a united church. But a number of independent churches, such
as the Diamond Society, decline to participate. In fact, the multiplicity
of these organizations will probably prevent them from becoming effec¬
tive political, or, for that matter, religious agencies for some time.

Occasionally these organizations are the product of religious revivals.
One such movement occurred early in 1914 among the pagan tribes in the
Delta region of southern Nigeria, under the leadership of a native named
Braid who called himself the Second Elijah. 31 It appears that Braid
was absolutely sincere in his efforts to bring about a revival; and he suc¬
ceeded in getting thousands of pagans to give up the use of gin and to live
otherwise moral lives arid to abjure witchcraft. His influence became such
that his followers proclaimed his bath water holy and sold it for 2S. 6d. a
bottle. Later Elijah became more radical and denounced not only Euro¬
pean gin but Europeans themselves. He said that if the English were
the real children of God, the waters of the Niger would have parted for
them as did the waters of the Red Sea for the children of Israel—but they
did not part and the white man had to make a bridge over the Niger.
He became so outspoken that the government finally intervened and con¬
victed him of sedition. He was later released only to be killed by light¬
ning. As a result of this remarkable movement, a new native church
came into existence, called Christ’s Army, which still exists to-day, under
the leadership of a dignitary called a Patriarch.

The Church Missionary Society is the leading organization in Nigeria;
its membership comprises 25 per cent of the total membership in churches
under European control. The Niger Delta Pastorate comes second—having
14 per cent. This group of churches seceded from the C. M. S.
(but not from the Church of England) in 1891 for a period of six years.
It rejoined the C. M. S. but has since maintained an autonomous

30 Report of the Third Session of the First Synod of the Diocese of Lagos, 1922,
p. 11.

81 For similar movements in the Belgian Congo, in South Africa, and the Gold
Coast, cf. index—native churches.

748

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

existence. Its interests are cared for by an African suffragan bishop while
it is managed and financed by African clergymen except in the Patani region
where it is directly under C. M. S. missionaries. 22^,000 out of the 564,-
000 native Christians 32 in Nigeria are Anglicans, while 147,000 are Catho¬
lics. The Primitive Methodists, United Free Church and Wesleyans are
smaller Protestant organizations.

According to the census, the African Communion contains about
33,900 members, while other independent native churches contain 45,000
more. 33

About 30 per cent of the church membership in Nigeria is inde¬
pendent of European control. 34 Nigeria is experiencing the same demand
for religious independence from European missionaries as the Cameroons
and South Africa have experienced. Christian missionaries are not irrespon¬
sive to the demand and, as far as the Protestants are concerned, are endeav¬
oring to build up a self-sustaining native church. The Baptist mission from
the southern United States has gone farther in this respect than other organ¬
izations in Nigeria. As soon as a native church becomes financially self-
supporting, the Mission loses control over it, except for its moral in¬
fluence. 38 Many missionaries believe that they have gone too far in this
direction. The Church Missionary Society, representing the Anglican
Church, has brought about the establishment of the Synod of Lagos, 36 the
membership of which is composed of a great majority of African clergy¬
men. The Bishop of Lagos is a European, but the suffragan bishop is an
African. Except for the control of the bishop, this Synod is virtually
self-governing. The diocese is divided into districts, over each of which is
a district council composed entirely of Africans, which has charge of the
church finances in the district. European missionaries feel that some
control over local church organizations will be necessary for some time
in order to insure that along with the profession of the Christian
faith, natives follow the type of life which Christianity prescribes. This
task at first is much more difficult for an African than for a European.
Consequently the African is in greater need of help from the outside.
Many missionaries do not believe that the African should receive full
religious self-government until he is also politically self-governing, and
that the two things go hand in hand. At the same time, unlike the state, the
Church has no power of compulsion over natives, who may voluntarily

82 Including those in the independent churches.

33 Excluding 14,000 African Baptists who apparently maintain some connec¬
tion with the American Baptists.

8 * Talbot, cited, Vol. IV, p. 119.

36 Statement of Rev. Duval, ibid., Vol. IV, p. 112.

36 In 1919 the Diocese of Western Equatorial Africa was divided into the
Diocese of Lagos and the Diocese of the Niger.

NATIVE POLITICS AND RELIGION

749

establish churches of their own. Hence, religious independence will prob¬
ably precede political self-government. For this reason these various native
churches, which embody the demand for independence, are of political im¬
portance to the Administration.

CHAPTER 46

LAND POLICY

I. Native Land Customs

Native institutions in Nigeria as elsewhere in Africa are rooted in the
land. As long as the land is held for the people and distributed by the
chief, his authority has an economic sanction, and his people have a self-
sufficient means of livelihood within the boundaries of the tribe. Thus
anchored, the bulk of the population is permanent rather than nomadic—
the group is held intact. The entrance of the Europeans, requiring both
labor and land, disturbs this condition of affairs. If they succeed in secur¬
ing title to vast expanses of land formerly held by native tribes or if they
reduce large numbers of natives to wage-earners, living under artificial
conditions away from their homes, the whole tribal framework disintegrates.

Now the object of the European occupation of the continent of Africa
is presumably to promote economic development. The capitalist will
say that if this object conflicts with the existence of tribal society,
tribal society must go. Has not capitalism in the western world upset
former methods of living; have not the automobile and the apartment
house revolutionized western civilization? The answer is that while
the western world has had more than a century to adjust itself to industrial
civilization and to work out some system of social control, however inade¬
quate that system may be, the dusky peoples of Africa have been obliged
to absorb this civilization within the cramped space of some twenty-five
years. The western world worked out its own destiny, unimpeded by
an impatient taskmaster from without. The people of Africa, however, do
not have the same opportunity. Their destinies are in the rigid hands
of relatively “advanced” European people who are tempted to use the
blacks for selfish needs. But merely from the standpoint of the economic
interests of the outside world, the blacks may be pushed too rapidly and
too far. In the long run, native methods of production which enlist the
enthusiasm and creative spirit of the native, may yield greater economic
return than European systems of production based upon a landless and list¬
less class of native wage-earners. On the other hand, over-development
which leads to the destruction of tribal society also leads to depopulation

750

LAND POLICY

751

and to anarchy. Without native labor and an increasing native population,
no real economic development in tropical Africa is possible. It is a case
of the goose and the golden egg.

In Nigeria, the British have proceeded upon the theory that the greater
the attention shown to tribal institutions the larger will be the economic
returns. They have believed that the policy of indirect rule, bringing
with it a contented peasantry living on the soil, is a policy that is not only
socially desirable but economically profitable. Consequently, they have
attempted to direct the economic development of Nigeria so as to disturb
these native institutions as little as possible. The first evidence of this
policy is in regard to land.

Native land customs are pretty much the same throughout the whole
of West Africa. Land ultimately belongs to the community represented
by the chief. The head of the community allots land among its mem¬
bers either to an individual or a family; and as long as the member uses
the land, he has security of tenure. Neither he nor the chief can, how¬
ever, sell or mortgage the land to persons not members of his community.

When European governments annexed native territories, they acquired
complete power, from the legal standpoint, to dispose of land as they
liked. It is a rule of international law that they should respect the rights of
private property. But in Africa it is difficult to determine what private
property is; and this rule does not here have any force, since the native
occupiers have no outside government to plead their cause. 1

A government may declare all land Crown or public land as the
British Government has done in South and East Africa. 2 Or it may
recognize lands held under native customs as private property, only
claiming the residual rights in the land for the Crown. Again, it may
recognize all land in the territory as native land subject to the disposal of
native communities. Under the Crown land system, a native cannot sell
land to a European; all titles must come from the government. Under
the second system, a native may sell his land to a non-European, subject
to restrictions which the government may wish to impose, while the
government may alienate unoccupied or Crown land. Under the third
system, natives may similarly sell to Europeans, but the government has
no land except what it expropriates for public purposes upon payment of
compensation.

1 Johnson v. McIntosh, 8 Wheat. 589, Cook v. Sprigg, Law Reports 1899, A. C.
572; M. F. Lindley, The Acquisition and Government of Backvjard Territory
in International Law, London, 1926, Chap. XXXVII.

* Cf. Vol. I, p. 209.

752

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

2. The Northern Nigeria Land System

Before 1910, Northern Nigeria made a distinction between native lands
and lands not in actual occupation by natives which the government, as
suzerain and conqueror, could dispose of. The Emirs, in their first Letters
of Appointment, ceded their ultimate “rights” in the land, in so far as they
were held by the Fulani dynasty, to the Crown. Thus Northern Nigeria
followed the second system described above. The government also exer¬
cised the right to control all cessions of land by natives to aliens. 3

In i'9o8, the administration of Northern Nigeria fell into the hands
of a number of officials who were inspired by the theories of Henry
George and the doctrine of “economic rent.” A committee composed of
exponents of this theory in England was appointed by the Secretary of
State for Colonies, to study the system of land tenure which should be
adopted in Northern Nigeria. This committee came to the conclusion
that the whole of the land of the protectorate should be vested in the
government as a trustee for the natives, and that no title to the use or
enjoyment of the land was valid without administrative consent. 4 As a
result of these recommendations an ordinance was enacted in 1910—
reenacted in the Land and Native Rights Ordinance, 1916, 5 which provides
that “the whole of the lands of the Northern Provinces, whether occu¬
pied or unoccupied,” are “Native Lands,” and all rights over them are
placed “under the control and subject to the disposition of the Governor,
and shall be held and administered for the use and common benefit of the
natives, and no title to the occupation and use of any such lands shall be
valid without the consent of the Governor.” 6 The ordinance, therefore,
wiped out the former distinction between Crown Lands and Native Lands.
All land can now be disposed of by the Governor whether to natives or
to Europeans. In so doing, the Governor must have regard for native
law and custom. He is also morally bound by the preamble of the Act
which says: “Whereas it is expedient that the existing customary rights
of the natives of the Northern Province to use and enjoy the land of
the Protectorate and the natural fruits thereof in sufficient quantity to
enable them to provide for the sustenance of themselves and their families
should be assured, protected, and preserved. . . .” But as the Governor
is the sole judge of whether or not a given alienation conforms to this re-

s The Lands Proclamation, 1900, Northern Nigeria Laws, 1905, p. 55. Political
Memoranda, p. 350.

* Report of the Northern Nigeria Lands Committee, Cd. 5102 (1910) p. xxiii;
the minutes of this Committee are printed in Cd. 5103.

s Cf. Chap. LXV, Laws of Northern Nigeria, 1910; also Chap. 85, Laws, 1923.

8 Article 4.

LAND POLICY

753

striction, the security of the natives really becomes less than when land
could be taken from the natives only with their consent. Holders of rights
of occupancy may not, however, be evicted except for good cause. The
natives are not expected to take out certificates of occupancy and their
holdings continue to be administered by the chiefs, according to native law,
as if the European law did not exist. But nevertheless the government
may alienate this land. Rights of occupancy to non-natives are limited
to twelve hundred acres for agricultural purposes and 12,500 acres for
grazing purposes. An occupier, having received a certificate, agrees to pay
compensation for any damage caused to natives—which implies that they
can be obliged to move out. 7 The government has not exercised this
power except in the case of one cattle concession which turned out to
be a failure. So far, therefore, the law has had only a negative effect.
It has prevented land alienations by natives to Europeans, and forestalled
land litigation which is the curse of southern Nigeria.

3. Land in Lagos

In southern Nigeria distinction must be made between the Colony
of Lagos and the Protectorate. In conquering the White Cap chiefs of
Lagos, King Docemo originally agreed to respect their rights in the land.
But gradually King Docemo increased his power, and prior to the cession
of Lagos to the British in 1861, he issued seventy-six land grants or titles,
stamped by the British consul—a unique form of procedure in native law.
Following the annexation, the British Government passed an ordinance
in 1863 providing for the appointment of commissioners to ascertain the
“true and rightful owners” of land. As a result of their investigations,
the government called in the Docemo titles and began to issue Crown grants
to natives claiming land—which to-day number between three thousand five
hundred and four thousand. Such a grant entitles the holder to sell and
mortgage his property without restriction. The situation produced by this
imposition of British property conception upon native tenure was described
a number of years ago as follows:

“In Lagos and the surrounding districts the land law is a confused mass
of English and native law. Land, subject to native tenure, is frequently con-

1 According to regulations it is not lawful for any native to sell his certificate
of occupancy to another native except with the consent of the Governor. Subject
to any native law, a native occupier may sell his title to a blood relative, but it
must be registered within six months. A native may sell to any other native
resident in the district, with the consent of the district head and head chief.

He may sell outside the district only with the consent of the head chief and
approval of the resident. If the district headman refuses consent, the occupier
may appeal, to the native court, and if the head chief refuses, he may appeal to
the provincial court. These restrictions do not, apparently, apply to transactions

754

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

veyed according to the forms of English law; English legal terms are used,
of the meaning of which the conveyancers are profoundly ignorant; estates in
fee simple are purported to be conveyed when the grant has only a native
title. ... It not infrequently happens that land which has been conveyed as
a fee simple in a conveyance in English form, is held by a family as family
property. It sometimes happens that the head of the family, having a con¬
veyance in his own name according to the form of English law, attempts to
deal with the family land, or it may be taken in execution of his debts, and
then ensues costly litigation by the rest of the family to prove that though
he holds a conveyance in fee simple, yet the land is really family land and
that they have an interest in it.” 8

The courts have decided that the native law of family property applies
even to land held under Crown grant. 9 As a result of this partial intro¬
duction of British conception of land tenure into the colony of Lagos, the
land situation to : day is in a maze of confusion. African lawyers indis¬
criminately draw up titles without regard to the real owners of property.
Some lawyers engage in a blackmail business of deeding away land which
they know belongs to other parties, as a result of which the courts are
choked with disputes. Taking advantage of the freehold system in the
colony, wealthy Lagos traders and clerks have, through loans and other
means, gotten natives in the country, i.e., at Badagry, in debt and foreclosed
on their land with the result that many of the farms in these areas are
owned by absentee landlords, Africans though they may be.

In annexing Lagos, the British Crown supposedly succeeded to the
residual rights of the land. That is, while the rights of the inhabitants
were to be fully respected, the remaining land was to vest in the British
Government. But what were these rights of property? Apart from the
Crown grants, land was held by communal tenure, according to native
law. Should the government merely recognize the property held by these
grants or should it recognize that other property held for communal pur¬
poses belongs also to the community?

This question arose first in the so-called Foreshore case in 1909 when
the Full Court of Nigeria held that the land of Lagos, including the Fore-

between natives who do not hold certificates of title, but only to natives who have
been granted certificates of occupancy.

8 J. J. C. Healy and T. C. Rayner, Land Tenure in West Africa, 1898.

““The law of family property still pertains in Lagos. At the death of a founder
of a family the . . . eldest surviving son, is the proper person by the present
native law of Lagos to succeed. . . .” Lewis v. Bankole, Nigeria Law Reports,
Vol. I, 1908, p. 81. In another case the court said, “When land has been given by
a master to the head man of his household in trust for all the household, and the
head man has obtained a crown grant of the property in his own name, he holds
it as trustee for the household,” and a member of the household “has sufficient
interest in the property to oppose its sale for the debt of another member. . .
Alaka v. Alaka, ibid., (1904) p. 55.

LAND POLICY

755

shore, had been, at least for the purpose of ceding it to the British Govern¬
ment in the treaty of i86l, the property of King Docemo (and not of the
White Cap Chiefs who claimed it). This judgment was attacked by the
Lagos Auxiliary of the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines Protection Society 10
on the ground that Lagos land had belonged to the White Cap Chiefs, and
that King Docemo had merely ceded jurisdiction and not property rights to
the British Government in 1861.

Upon appeal, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, which de¬
cided the case on other grounds, merely declared in regard to this agreement
of 1861: “Their Lordships do not refer to the treaty further than to say
that in their opinion property was not excluded from the Grant (which
Docemo made to the Crown); and they think also that this is subject to
the condition that all rights of property existing in the inhabitants under
grant or otherwise from King Docemo and his predecessors - were to be
respected. . . .” 11

While this judgment therefore took the position that the King of
Docemo ceded the residual rights of the land to the British Government,
it did not define what these rights were. This question confronted their
Lordships in the so-called Apapa land case, decided by the Judicial Com¬
mittee of the Privy Council in 1921. The case came up on appeal from
the Full Court of Nigeria which had declared that the right of the chiefs
over the land was merely a “seigneurial right giving the holder the ordinary
rights of control and management of the land, in accordance with the
well-known principles of native law and custom, including the right to re¬
ceive payment of the nominal rent or tribute payable by the occupiers. . .

In other words, the chiefs (as the Privy Council decided in the case of
the South Africa Company in Rhodesia) 12 had merely administrative rights
over the land which would pass to the succeeding government. But the
Privy Council disagreed:

“Their Lordships think that the learned Chief Justice in the judgment
thus summarised, which virtually excludes the legal reality of the community
usufruct, has failed to recognise the real character of the title to land occupied
by a native community. That title, as they have pointed out, is prima facie
based, not on such individual ownership as English law has made familiar,
but on a communal usufructuary occupation, which may be so complete as to
reduce any radical right in the Sovereign to one which only extends to com¬
paratively limited rights of administrative interference. In their opinion there
is no evidence that this kind of usufructuary title of the community was dis-

10 Cf. The Lagos Land Question, pamphlet, Lagos, 1912.

“Attorney-General of Southern Nigeria and John Holt, etc., Law Reports,
A. C. (1915), 609.

13 Cf. Vol. I, p. 209.

756

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

turbed in law, either when the Benin Kings conquered Lagos or when the
Cession to the British Crown took place in 1861. The general words used in
the Treaty of Cession are not in themselves to be construed as extinguishing
subject rights. The original native right was a communal right, and it must
be presumed to have continued to exist unless the contrary is established by
the context or circumstances. There is, in their Lordships’ opinion, no evi¬
dence which points to its having been at any time seriously disturbed or
even questioned.” 18

This judgment seems to wipe out the residual rights which the Judi¬
cial Committee held in the Foreshore case passed to the British Crown in
the treaty of 1861. It appears therefore that the government must recog¬
nize not only private property, as evidenced by Crown grants, but also
communal lands which include in many cases the residual lands which under
the rule of international law may be appropriated by the succeeding gov¬
ernment. This liberal decision stands in contrast to the decision of the
same tribunal in regard to the Rhodesia lands, all of which including land
occupied by natives, it declared, were vested in the Crown. The political
consequence of these conflicting decisions is discussed elsewhere. 14 Appar¬
ently the Nigeria and the Southern Rhodesia cases differ in the respect
that in the years following the annexation of Lagos the Crown took no
steps to interfere with native land tenure but that in the case of Rhodesia,
even though it had not been formally annexed, the Crown in early years
dispossessed the natives of their lands. The Judicial Committee is appar¬
ently disposed to enforce native rights which have been long recognized
by the British regime against interference at this late period. But it will
not enforce native rights against a regime which the Crown intended to and
did establish at the beginning of its occupation.

4. Land in Southern Nigeria

Unlike northern Nigeria where the land is nationalized, all land in
southern Nigeria belongs to natives, except such land as the government
has taken by way of expropriation for “public purposes,” and for which
it must pay compensation as determined by the courts. 16 No compensation

13 Amodu Tijani v. the Secretary, Southern Province, Law Reports, A. C. 1921.
Cf. also Vol. I, p. 197, for the Swaziland judgment.

14 Cf. Vol. I, p. 210.

“Public purposes” means and includes:

“(a) for exclusive Government use or for general public use;

(b) for or in connexion with sanitary improvements of any kind, including

reclamation;

(c) for or in connexion with the laying out of any new township or Govern¬
ment station or the extension or improvement of any existing township or
Government station;

(d) for obtaining control over land contiguous to any port;

LAND POLICY

757

is paid for unoccupied land, which is defined as land which has not been
used for at least six months during the preceding period of ten years. 16

It is the custom of the government to pay the market value for occupied
land plus ten per cent. In fact, the basis of compensation in some cases
is more liberal than when land is expropriated in England. The courts
also are extremely liberal in determining whether land is occupied or
not. 17

Apart from the land obtained from the Royal Niger Company and the
expropriated land, it appears that the Crown in southern Nigeria has no
land which it may use for itself or cede to Europeans in the form of con¬
cessions. From the beginning it adopted this policy of not claiming the
residual rights in the land partly because it had acquired control of southern
Nigeria, except in the case of Benin, by means of treaties rather than of
conquest. Besides, most of southern Nigeria is so heavily populated that
little waste land in fact exists. As a result of the conquest of Benin, the
government could have claimed the residual rights in the land, and while
the area was under direct rule the government did issue a few Crown
leases. The Oba was restored in 1916 on condition that the government
retain control over the land. In 1917, an agreement was made, however,
under which the Oba was left free to deal with the land occupied by his
people, but which provided that rentals received for land leases from non¬
natives should be divided between the protectorate and the native treasury.

The disposition of the little Crown land that exists in southern Nigeria
is governed by the Crown Lands Ordinance of 1918. 18 Except with the

(e) for obtaining control over land the value of which will be enhanced by
the construction of any railway, road or other public work or convenience
about to be undertaken or provided by the Government; and

(f) for obtaining control over land required for or in connexion with mining
purposes."

Section 2, Chapter 88, Public Lands Acquisition Act.

In reply to a question as to whether the government could expropriate land for the
purpose of leasing to merchants, the Acting Attorney-General said that this would
not be a “public purpose.” Legislative Council Debates, third session, 1925, p. 5.
These definitions may throw some light on the meaning of “public services” in
the Mandates.

“Public Lands Acquisition Act (1917) Chap. 88, Laws, p. 893.

1T In a Gold Coast case, the government expropriated one hundred and eighty-
three acres of land which was uncultivated, covered merely with bush and ant¬
hills. But three natives vaguely testified that they had cultivated it, as a result of
which the court held that “beneficial use” had been proven, and therefore they
should be compensated. In the matter of land required for the service of the
government at Accra, Some Gold Coast Judgments, edited by S. King-Farlow, 1917,
p. 62. A Nigerian case held, however, that “if a man were to plant cassada and
find afterward that the soil was so hard and barren that the cassada was not
worth taking up, there could be no ‘beneficial use’ of land.” Lewis v. Colonial
Secretary (1887) Nigeria Law Reports, Vol. I, p. 11.

“Chap. 84, Laws. “Crown Land” means all public lands in Nigeria subject
to the control of His Majesty and all lands which have been or may be acquired,
but does not include lands subject to the Land and Native Rights Ordinance.

758

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

prior consent of the Secretary of State, the Governor may not sell any
Crown land, but he may lease it subject to revisable rent. Agricultural
leases of Crown land are ordinarily limited to an area of one thousand
two hundred acres and to a duration of forty-five years. 10 It is not clear
to what lands this ordinance applies. The Governor in 1900 acquired
large holdings of land from the Niger Company, which theoretically may
be considered as Crown land, but as these lands have never been delimited
and as native communities have claimed them as their own, it does not
appear that the government has any clear rights in such lands.

5. Forest Reserves

Likewise the British Government does not even claim the forests as
public property. When it wishes to create a reserve it attempts to nego¬
tiate an agreement with the native community in which the community
grants to the Governor the right to establish a forest reserve upon its lands.
If the government authorizes forest produce to be taken from the land,
and if the native community recognizes such produce to be the property of
an individual or family, the royalties are paid to such individual or family.
In all other cases, one-third of the royalties shall be distributed among the
actual occupiers of the land most immediately concerned and the remaining
two-thirds to the native treasury. 20

If a European wishes to cut forest produce—and there is a fairly large
export of mahogany—he must first make an agreement with the native
community concerned, stipulating the royalty he will pay in return for
the right to cut wood. This practice is in striking contrast to the policy
in other territories where the government grants concessions of forest
lands and receives royalties for its own as distinct from native use. 21

In view of the necessity of preserving a water supply, forestry officers
estimate that between twenty-five and thirty per cent of the entire area
of a tropical country should be set aside as forest reserves. 22 But the
natives cleared so much land for their crops—the farms are moved every
few years according to the principle of shifting cultivation—that destruc¬
tion of forests proceeded at an alarming rate. In 1916, the reserves

1B The lessee covenants to pay compensation, as fixed by the Governor, for
disturbing natives in their use of the land; and to bring the land under cultivation
at the rate of one-eighth of the cultivable land a year. Regulations under Section
36 of the Crown Lands Ordinance, Chap 84, Laws, Vol. Ill, p. 516.

30 In case there is no native treasury, the two-thirds shall be paid to the grantor
in trust for the said community. Four agreements establishing forest reserves are
listed in The Forestry Manual, Lagos, 1924, p. 892.

“Cf. Vol. II, p. 338.

* According to forestry officers, the Sahara desert is gradually making inroads
along the frontier in northern Nigeria. In order to hold these inroads back, the
government has established a string of reserves in Sokoto Province.

LAND POLICY

759

amounted only to two or three per cent of the wooded area, and even now
(1927) they constitute less than'eight thousand square miles. 23 Despite
these considerations, the natives remain antagonistic to the idea of reserves
because it interferes with land which they feel is necessary for shifting
cultivation.

The situation became so serious that the government decided that if
a native community would not make a forest agreement establishing a
reserve, the government should have the right to establish the reserve on
its own authority, despite the fact that the natives actually owned the land
concerned. Consequently, the Forestry Ordinance of 1916 was applied
to the whole of Nigeria. In case a native community fails to reach an
agreement, the government may under this ordinance create a forest reserve
on native lands. As a first step, a reserve settlement officer conducts an
investigation to determine the nature of native rights on the land. Notices
are posted in the local native language in every native court and the chiefs
are informed that any individuals or communities claiming rights in the
land should make them known to the settlement officer. He then makes a
judgment defining the limits of the reserve and setting forth native rights
on the land. Any person who is not satisfied may appeal to the courts.
At the end of six months, or upon the decision of the court, the Governor
may make an order constituting the land a forest reserve. Every right in
the land in respect of which no claim shall have been made is thereupon
extinguished. 24

So far, we have been talking about government forest reserves estab¬
lished by virtue of an agreement with the native communities concerned or,
in the absence of such an agreement, by direct order.

There is, however, a second type of forest reserve, the native administra¬
tion reserve, which has been established by native authorities under native
court rules. 28 Once established, these reserves are policed by forest guards
appointed by the Native Authority. Forestry officers testify that it is much
easier to persuade chiefs to establish native administration reserves than
to persuade them to sign agreements to establish government reserves.. In

* Annual Report on the Forest Administration of Nigeria, 1924, pp. 4 ff.

** Articles 7-12, Forestry Ordinance, 1916, Chap. 95, Laws. About thirty forest
reserves have been thus established under this ordinance, and all but seven of these
reserves have been in the Northern Provinces. In 1924, the native treasuries in
the Northern Province derived a forest revenue of eight hundred and twenty-five
pounds; while in the western provinces, royalties collected for owners amounted
to about five thousand two hundred and forty pounds. Annual Report on the Forest
Administration of Nigeria, 1924, p. 19.

In a case where the government finds it difficult to establish reserves, it adopts
a half-way measure prohibiting natives from cutting any “protected” trees, except
upon the payment of high royalties. The Forestry Manual, pp. 628, 640.

” Cf. Vol. I, p. 690.

760

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

the first case, the reserve remains the property of the people and the re¬
sponsibility for its management remains \vith their chiefs. In the second
case, the reserve passes to the control of the government, and the people
feel that they have been deprived of some of their land. Hitherto, the
native administration reserves have had no legal status, but a supplementary
forestry ordinance has recently been drafted to give them legal recognition.

Forestry officers complain that native reserves under guards respon¬
sible to the native administration are policed more laxly than under native
guards responsible directly to European forestry officers. But they admit
that some native guards, whether working for the native administration or
the government, are liable to become negligent and to accept bribes. The
problem of relating the European forestry department to the native ad¬
ministration has not, however, been entirely solved. 28

6. Native Lands Acquisition Act

While the land is recognized as belonging to the native communities,
the government has enacted legislation aiming to prevent natives from
selling their land in violation of native law or in ignorance of its value.
The Native Lands Acquisition Act, 1917, provides that no person who is
not a native of Nigeria shall acquire any interest in land without the Gov¬
ernor’s approval. 27

As a result of this control, between 1908 and 1*912 only twenty-one
sales of land by natives to non-natives, aggregating 2,022 acres, took place in
southern Nigeria. It appears that most of these sales took place in urban
centres for commercial purposes. There were one hundred and one leases
totalling 10,872 acres for which an annual rent of 1,708 pounds was
paid. 28 These figures stand out in sharp contrast to the large number of
cessions which have been made by native owners in the Gold Coast, subject
to a judicial rather than an executive check, 29 and to the situation in the
Colony of Lagos, where no restrictions of any kind exist, and where
during the same period 1,493 sales totalling 3,683 acres, four hundred and

28 For similar difficulties in regard to forest reserves in the Gold Coast, cf.
Vol. I, p. 801. The Estimates provide for thirty conservators of forests and
four foresters—all Europeans. Mining rights in the Nigeria are somewhat in¬
consistently reserved to the government and not to the native communities.

27 Section 3, Chap. 89, Laws. According to the Regulations under Section 6 of
the Native Lands Acquisition Ordinance, an alien wishing to lease native land
must, before the execution of the agreement, furnish full particulars to the district
officer. The latter then makes inquiries as to the title of the native and the repu¬
tation of the alien. If the investigation is satisfactory, the officer asks the proposed
grantee to deliver to him the instruments intended to be executed. They are then
transmitted to the resident who sends them to the commissioner of lands for the
approval of the Governor. Ibid., Vol. Ill, p. 529.

28 Correspondence and Papers, IVest African Lands Committee, p. 249.

*Cf. Vol. I, p. 820.

LAND POLICY

761

forty-two mortgages, and thirty-six leases of seventy-four acres bringing in
an annual rent of 3,411 pounds, were made.

The restrictions imposed by the Nigerian Government do not apply
to transfers between natives within the protectorate. But there is such
a thing as a “stranger” native; i.e., a native who, while he lives within
Nigeria, may belong to another tribe. Thus an Egba living at Kano is
called a “stranger” native. With the opening of the railway to Abeokuta
and Ibadan, a large number of native traders from Lagos came to these
cities. They induced some natives in Egbaland to sell them land for
trading purposes, which the Alake and council ruled was contrary to Egba
law.

In order to control such transactions, a number of native states in
the southern province adopted a rule to the effect that permission to a
“stranger” to occupy land could be granted only by the head of the com¬
munity, subject to approval by the native court, and also by the Resident.
Rents are to be paid into a communal fund. 30

In Ibadan, a delicate situation arose over the fact that some native
traders from Lagos purchased land not only for actual business but also
for speculative purposes. From time to time, the Ibadan Council reiterated
the rule that no transfer of land to strangers should be recognized unless
it had received the express consent of the council. But despite these rulings,
it appears that at least two Bales and some minor chiefs made large grants
of land to strangers without reference to the council. Many of these
grants went unchallenged until 1916, when the question arose as to their
legality. The government appointed Chief Justice Speed to look into the
question, and he recommended that an equitable settlement must be in the
nature of a compromise and consequently that all non-Ibadans claiming
to hold land should report their claims and receive in exchange a lease
from the Bale and council for an indefinite term, rent free, with no right
of transfer except with the consent of the Bale. He also recommended
that no further alienations to strangers be recognized unless first approved
by the Bale. 31 It appears that these recommendations were followed.

7. Individual Titles

In Nigeria, and to a greater extent in the Gold Coast, the growth in
trade and the consequent cultivation of economic crops is leading to
modifications in the native conceptions of communal tenure, to the extent
that some natives are claiming individual ownership in the soil. This
tendency has been increased by the sale of land by one native to another—a

* Political Memoranda, p. 391.

33 Report of E. A. Speed, Ibadan, April 10, 1916.

762

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

practice unknown in the days before crops became commercially valuable. 32
African lawyers draw up titles and mortgages purporting to convey land
which in many cases is later found to belong not to the individual connected
with the transaction, but to the family of which he is a single member.
When litigation over these cases arises, the courts usually hold that family
land cannot be alienated or mortgaged without the consent of the family. 33
But in many cases, the court is kept in ignorance of the real status of the
land, and it grants a judgment which in effect converts what was formerly
communal land into an individual holding, to the detriment of several
members of a family. As a consequence of these inter-native sales and
mortgages, which in some tribes are in violation of native law, the land
situation is becoming greatly confused. To clarify it, many officials and
some natives wish the government to introduce a system of individual
tenure and of Torrens titles. This idea is opposed on the ground that it
would strike a death-blow at native administration. One land officer
says, “Native rule depends upon the native land system. They must stand
or fall together. If it is the policy of the Government to govern the
natives through themselves, subject to European supervision, retaining what
is useful in their institutions, the native system of land tenure must be
preserved at any cost.” 34 It is also opposed by the friends of the less
advanced natives who stated that, apart from the smart coast traders,
natives do not understand individual tenure and that therefore any attempt
to parcel out definitive individual titles would result in spoliation of the
illiterate classes. 36 Regardless of the nature of the title given them by a
European government, natives cling with remarkable persistence to com¬
munal conceptions of property—as the French and the Transkei experi¬
ments with individual titles show. 38 The communal land system in Africa
recognizes an obligation to the group and the obligation to use land bene¬
ficially which the system of unrestricted individual tenure in the western
world does not impose. Probably the growth of new forms of wealth
will break down the solidarity of the group and lead the wealthier natives
to demand a form of individual tenure. Already great changes have oc¬
curred, the first of which has been a change from communal to family
tenure. Eventually, the goal of private property may be reached. But

** Cases of freehold tenure of native origin are, however, occasionally found
as in the Owerri Province. Political Memoranda, p. 361.

83 Native “tenure does not recognise the right of an individual to alienate his
interest without the consent of the family.'* Miller Bros. v. Ayeni, Nigeria Law
Reports, Vol. V, 1924, p. 40.

** Testimony of Mr. Alexander, Minutes of the Committee on the Tenure of
Land in West African Colonies and Protectorates, para. 3536.

u Cf. Vol. T, p. 1030, for the manner in which the Torrens system has worked
out in the French colonies.

w Cf. Vol. I, p. 91.

LAND POLICY

763

there are obvious dangers in reaching it too hurriedly. Fear lest the de¬
velopment of individual tenure would weaken the authority of chiefs
could be removed by having native land titles emanate from the Native
Authority and not from the European government. The Alake and
Council of Abeokuta are now working out a plan providing for the regis¬
tration of all land in Abeokuta and the granting of titles which after
approval by a native board and a lapse of six months during which they
may be contested, become absolute.

8. Mines

Although European agriculture has been excluded from Nigeria, Euro¬
pean industry has necessarily entered for the purpose of developing Nigerian
mineral resources, a task which, because of the scientific knowledge required,
no native can possibly perform. The most important mineral is tin, which
is found on the Bauchi Plateau in the northern provinces. Exports have
increased from 4,142 tons in 1913 to 9,293 tons having a value of 1,737,578
pounds in 1925. Nigeria possesses the second largest tin resources in the
world. There are also a few gold mines in the northern provinces. The
total number of natives employed on the mine fields during 1924 was
22,702. 37 This labor is subject to the general protection of the Master
and Servant Ordinance, 38 the provisions of which are similar to such
ordinances in other British colonies. Under regulations issued by this
ordinance, no laborer can be required to work for more than ten hours a
day, and he must be allowed a two hours’ break at noon, in addition to
adequate time to obtain fuel and cook his food in the evening. Unlike the
workers in the mines in South Africa and the Congo, Nigerian mine
laborers usually furnish their own food, part of which they obtain from
camp markets which import grain. Contrary to the policy of other mines,
the Nigerian mines do not oblige their laborers to sign contracts. The
work is entirely casual—a native may go and come as he likes—a sign that,
unlike the labor in some mines requiring contracts, this labor is voluntary.
Wages vary from four shillings six pence to six shillings a week. Pay¬
ments are made weekly, and an employer must pay the men personally and
in cash. No figures of mortality from natural causes and disease are
available, but the death rate from accidents in 1924 was 1.23 per thousand.
Under the Minerals Ordinance, the chief inspector of mines or the resident
of the province may order the cessation of any practice which may endanger
life and health. The Safe Mining Regulations issued under this ordinance

17 Annual Report of the Mines Department, 1924, p. 8. It is not clear whether
this is the average number constantly employed or the total.

48 Chap. 70, Laws, 1917. See Appendix.

764

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

provide for the safety of employees using machinery or explosives, or en¬
gaged in underground mining.

The vast majority of the laborers on the Bauchi tin mines do not come
from the pagan inhabitants of the plateau, but are Hausas, Kanuris, Arabs,
and pagans from adjoining provinces. The Hausas, especially, are accus¬
tomed to a wandering life. The injection of the mining industry has not
had a disturbing effect on native administration because the numbers under
employment are comparatively small.

Compared with other colonies, legislation in regard to the health and
care of laborers under industrial employment in Nigeria is noticeably
absent. Since the natives come voluntarily to work, the need for such
legislation may not be so great as elsewhere. But the actual condition of
this labor can only be determined by the mortality rates from all causes,
which each mine should be required to keep. Some system of inspection of
labor conditions is also desirable. The government does not assist in any
way with recruiting for the mines, but it made an exception to this rule
during the World War when it recruited labor because of the military
necessity of tin.

The only other industrial enterprise of importance is the government
coal mines at Enugu in southern Nigeria. These fields so far have been
monopolized by the government. British merchants have stated that the
price of coal in Nigeria is unduly high, and that the coal-fields should be
thrown open to private enterprise. But the government has contended
that as the labor supply is limited, a private company would experience
great difficulty in obtaining sufficient labor. The Governor of Nigeria
insists that at present the labor supply for these mines is purely voluntary.
But, obliged to compete for a limited supply of labor, the government would
have to “exert its influence and authority in order to secure for the gov¬
ernment colliery the labor necessary to prevent its operations, which are
a matter of vital importance to the whole of Nigeria, from being brought
to a standstill. 39 It appears even now that the government brings some
pressure to bear in securing this labor. The Governor recently said: “A
good deal of consultation with the local chiefs and detailed arrangement
and organization on the part of the political officers has been needed before
the stream of supply has been made to flow as evenly and as regularly as
it flows today.” 40 There is always danger that when a government
enters into business, it will, in case of shortage, use its position to secure
labor by means which private enterprise cannot employ.

In addition to the tin and coal mines, which employ thirty thousand

89 Legislative Council, Address by the Governor, 1924, p. 53. •

40 Ibid., 1923, p. 115.

LAND POLICY

765

men annually, the plantations in the ex-German Cameroons, now ad¬
ministered as part of southern Nigeria, employ about twelve thousand men.

Timber concessionaires in Benin employ a certain number of wood
cutters who undertake to work for six months before they are paid.
Meanwhile, they are given advances with which to buy food—a system
which, it would appear, is liable to abuse. 41

According to the 1921 Census, out of 4,837,975 occupied male natives
in northern Nigeria, about twenty thousand were “labourers.” In southern
Nigeria, out of 2,413,370 occupied male natives, there were nearly sixty-
two thousand “labourers.” Presumably, these laborers are all in European
employment. If so, only two per cent of the male population is under
European employment. The remainder of the Nigeria natives work for
themselves. 42 An exception should be made for those in government
employment. It is an interesting fact that native administration and
native industry thus go hand in hand.

41 Cf. Visit to West Africa, Cmd. 2744, cited, p. 233.

"There are, however, nearly twenty-three thousand natives employed in the
native administrations of the north. There are also nearly eighty-six thousand
traders in the north and two hundred and six thousand traders in the south. The
government railway in the north employs 6360 natives. In the south, there are
twenty-one thousand native clerks and teachers. Meek, Northern Nigeria, Vol. II,
table 31. Talbot, Southern Nigeria, Vol. IV, p. 162. Cf. also p.

CHAPTER 47

NATIVE AGRICULTURE

i. Exports

Since all land in southern Nigeria is recognized as native land, a system
of native—in contrast to European—agriculture necessarily prevails. Na¬
tives not only grow food to feed themselves, but they also grow much
produce for export. In northern Nigeria, the leading commercial product
is groundnuts, the production of which increased from about 78,266 tons
in 1924 to 127,226 tons in 1925—and hides and skins. The agricultural
department, aided by the British Empire Cotton Growing Association, has
introduced American cotton into both northern and southern Nigeria. The
export of cotton amounted to 39,000 bales in 1924-1925. In southern
Nigeria, cocoa has also been recently introduced. In 1924 about 44,000
tons were exported in comparison with 3600 tons in 1913.

The increase in the leading exports from Nigeria is shown in the follow¬
ing table:

EXPORT TRADE 1

Palm Oil

Palm Kernels

Cocoa

Ground Nuts

Cotton Lint

Year

(tons)

(cwt.)

1900...

•• 45 ,s °8

85,624

202

599

215

1905...

50,562

108,822

470

790

12,300

1910...

■ ■ 7M51

172,997

2,932

995

22,128

1913...

83,090

■74,718

3,621

19,288

56,796

1914...

•• 72 . 53 *

162,452

4,939

■6,997

50,444

1918...

86,425

205,167

10,219

57,554

13,214

1925...

... 128,113

272,925

44,705

127,226

132,724

1 Annual Report on the Customs Department of Nigeria, 1925, p. 12.

The most important agricultural product of Nigeria is, however, palm
oil. A palm tree belt covers the surface of Africa between Lake Tangan¬
yika and the Atlantic sea-board. The oil palm growing within the belt
bears clusters or “regimes” of fruit—having the appearance of dates—which,
when crushed, produce an oil. Inside the fruit is a hard kernel which pro¬
duces an oil of a finer quality. From the beginning, natives have used the
oil, which they have obtained by crushing the fruit in a stone or wooden
mortar, as food. Since the coming of the white man, they have sold both

766

NATIVE AGRICULTURE

767

oil and kernels to traders who have shipped these products to Europe where
they are used for tin-plate rolling, the manufacture of soap, and other
purposes. In 1925, the United States imported from Nigeria about thirty-
three thousand tons of palm oil. 1 The export of palm kernels has increased
from 85,624 tons in 1900 to 272,925 tons in 1925. 2

Notwithstanding the fact that these exports in palm kernels are much
greater than oil exports from any other colony in Africa, the palm oil re¬
sources of Nigeria are scarcely touched. Much of the fruit, all of which
now grows wild, is not picked, due to shortage of labor or to lack of native
energy. It is also believed that because of the primitive methods which
the natives use in extracting the oil and kernels from the fruit, about fifty
per cent of the oil is lost, in comparison with fifteen per cent which is lost
by extraction by European machinery. Likewise, these native methods de¬
velop free fatty acid in the oil to a much greater extent than do mechanical
methods.

2. The Demand for Palm Concessions

Obviously if palm trees were cultivated in plantations the yield would
be much greater than when they grew wild. A wild palm must shoot
far above the unfriendly trees around it in order to procure light.
But the lengthening process absorbs the strength of the tree so that some
twelve to twenty years of growth are necessary before it begins to bear;
while a plantation palm, which does not need height and is cared for, bears
at the end of six years. 3 Moreover, the fruit of plantation trees can
be much more quickly gathered than that of trees scattered through a
forest.

Consequently, in order to exploit the oil resources of Africa, many
European commercial interests and some officials believe that palm planta¬
tions and mechanical methods of crushing fruit should replace present
native methods of gathering sylvan palm produce. These considerations
have been strengthened by the fear of competition from the Lever con-

1 Before 19x4, Germany took the greater part of Nigeria’9 palm kernel exports.
These exports were necessarily terminated during the period of the War. In
order to kill the German industry, the British Colonies, at the direction of the
Colonial Office, imposed an export duty which did not apply, however, in case the
kernels were shipped within the Empire. The differential feature was repealed in
1920. German purchases of Nigerian palm kernels increased from 8389 tons in
1922 to 103,184 tons in 1925 in comparison with 145,783 tons in 1911. Purchases
in the United Kingdom, however, increased from 22,885 tons in 1911 to 209,177 tons
in 1919. In 1925, British purchases dropped to 158,112 tons.

* All 1925 figures given here include the Cameroons. Annual Report of the
Customs Department of Nigeria, 1925, p. 42.

' Cf. Report by the Hon. W. G. A. Ormsby-Gore, Visit to fVest Africa, Cmd.
2744 (1926) Chap. VI. Also Legislative Council, Address by the Governor, 1924,
p. 118.

768

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

cessions in the Belgian Congo 4 and from Dutch plantations which have
come into existence in Sumatra since the World War. Mr. Ormsby-Gore
says: “I have been informed that in Sumatra one estate of 50,000 acres
will in ten years be producing a ton of palm-oil annually to the acre, and
that by that time the production of high-class plantation oil from the
Dutch East Indies alone—apart from the Congo and Malaya—will exceed
the present output of the whole of West Africa. . . . Nobody can any
longer doubt that West Africa has soon to face real competition in a product
hitherto regarded as her natural monopoly. ...” 6 European merchants
prefer the plantation instead of the native systerft of palm production for
commercial as well as for productive reasons. At present, the price paid
natives for oil in Nigeria is so high, owing to the severe competition
between various merchants, that the margin between the Nigeria and the
Liverpool market prices is very small. Hitherto trade in West Africa
has been conducted on the principle that native agricultural produce should
be purchased at cost, and that the traders’ profit should be made on the
sale of European merchandise to the natives. The establishment of
palm plantations on a large scale would give them a monopolistic—from
the comparative standpoint—source of fruit which would insure them a
share in profits which under the present system they now pay out to native
gatherers.

These considerations have led to a movement among British business
men for the introduction of the European plantation system in Nigeria.
In 1917, a member of Parliament who was at the time His Majesty’s
Controller of Oils, Oilseeds, and Fats, and a member of the Empire Re¬
sources Development Committee, advocated the establishment of a “vir¬
tual monopoly of palm products in West Africa,” he said “these colonies
should be regarded from the standpoint of Estates of the Crown which
should be developed for the benefit of the Empire.” He also said that the
land belonged to the Crown and that the patives were “an undeveloped
national asset who should be trained and utilized to the fullest extent. . . .”

Other expressions of opinion were made. In 1918, the Association of
West African Merchants of Liverpool passed a resolution expressing the
hope that “One of the Government’s first undertakings will be a careful
and yet drastic revision of the laws regulating land tenure.” 6 Following

4 Cf. Vol. II, p. 511, for a discussion of these concessions. Cf. also the testimony
of Mr. C. C. Knowles of Lever Brothers before the Edible and Oil-Producing Nuts
and Seeds Committee, Minutes of Evidence , Cd. 8248 (1916) paras. 2432, ff. This
competition is also described in The African World Supplement, February 28,
1926, and the Times Trade Supplement, March 6, 1926.

5 Visit to West Africa, Cmd. 2744, cited, p. 102. For French fears of the same
competition, cf. Vol. II, p, 23.

"Quoted, Minutes of the Nigeria Council, 1918, p. 19.

NATIVE AGRICULTURE

769

the World War, Lord Leverhulme, who had secured vast palm concessions
in the Belgian Congo, 7 attempted to secure freehold rights to land from
the Nigerian Government for a similar purpose. In an address in Eng¬
land, Lord Leverhulme said, "I say, then, with my little experience, that
the Africa native will be happier, produce the best, and live under the
larger conditions of prosperity when his labour is directed and organized
by his white brother who has had all these million years start of him.” 8
In other words, he wished to introduce the European plantation system,
in which the natives, instead of working for themselves, would work for a
European employer on a wage system. Apparently the refusal of the
Nigerian Government to consider such a proposition, together with other
reasons, caused Lord Leverhulme to make a number of attacks upon the
administration of Nigerian finances and other features of the government.®

Whatever their economic advantages may be, the establishment of such
plantations would at once encounter the system of land tenure in southern
Nigeria. As we have seen, the land is held by the native communities.
The government has at present no land which it may alienate to conces¬
sionaries. In northern Nigeria, the government, under the ordinance of
191*5, may, however, make such concessions. But since most of northern
Nigeria lies outside of the palm belt, the question is of importance only in
the south.

Following the enactment of the Land Ordinance of 1910 in northern
Nigeria, a number of people in England, interested in the application of
Henry George’s theories of economic rent, sent a letter to the Times,
asking that the Colonial Office examine how far it was expedient
to extend the principles adopted in northern Nigeria to the south. They
said that what was required not only in southern Nigeria but in the Gold
Coast and Sierra Leone, “where there are no white settlers, are Land Acts
which . . . shall secure the threefold aim of legalizing the rights of the
natives to the occupancy and use of the soil, preventing the creation of
monopolies in the soil’s produce whether natural or cultivated, and reserv-

T Cf. Vol. II, p. 511.

8 West Africa, July 26, 1924, p. 745. For the doctrine in Kenya, cf. Vol. I, p. 528.

"It appears that Leverhulme was also irritated by losses he experienced after
the purchase of the Niger Company. These charges are discussed by the Governor
in Legislative Council, Address by the Governor, 1924, pp. n,ff.

In January, 1925, Governor Clifford invited Lord Leverhulme to dinner at
Government House, Lagos, an invitation which Leverhulme accepted. The next
day, he invited the Governor to dine with him on his yacht. But the Governor
declined to accept the invitation until Lord Leverhulme had apologized for a speech
in Liverpool in which he had spoken of “bureaucratic and autocratic government
officials [who] interpret their powers to include the worst features of our colonial
government system of two centuries ago, and which (sic) lost us our American
colonies.” Lord Leverhulme did not apologize.

770

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

ing the value of the land, and freedom of access to it, for the future genera¬
tions of our protected subjects.” 10

Apparently as a result of this letter, the Colonial Office appointed the
West African Lands Committee, of which the chairman was Sir K. Digby,
to inquire into the system of land in West Africa, with a view of deter¬
mining the wisdom of introducing the northern Nigeria system. 11 The
announcement of the appointment of this committee was received with
much alarm by the people of Nigeria. A mass meeting, held in Lagos,
decided to send deputations into the hinterland warning the Africans that
the government was going to take their land. The natives especially
objected to the use of the word “occupancy” in the northern Nigeria
ordinance. They insisted that they did not occupy but that they “owned”
the land. A speaker at one mass meeting said that “any step directed to
alter the land tenure system . . . must produce profound disorganization
and widespread discontent, especially as the proposed changes aim to lend
insecurity to the Native Right of ownership in the land.” One chief said
that “To deprive one of ownership of his land” was “worse than murder
or burglary.” Another speaker pointed out the concession which the gov¬
ernment had just granted to Lever Brothers in Sierra Leone, and said:
“This looks like an intention on the part of the government to divide up
the land of the colonies into estates for their people as their statesman
named Chamberlain has suggested by saying that the colonies were unde¬
veloped estates to be developed in the interest and to the benefit of the
owner.” 12 At Abeokuta, the chiefs and people asked the Alake to explain
the rumors that the government intended to deprive them of the owner¬
ship of their land. When the Alake asked the British commissioner to
make a statement, the latter said he could not believe that this was the
intention of the government. 13 Deputations also interviewed the Governor
at Lagos.

The purpose of the extension of the land legislation of northern Nigeria
throughout West Africa was not, according to the advocates of this policy,
to make it possible for the government to grant concessions to Europeans,

10 The [London] Times, June 6, 1912. The signers of this letter included
E. D. Morel, Noel Buxton, J. Ramsay MacDonald, and Joseph Wedgwood.

“The relation of this committee to the land question on the Gold Coast is dis¬
cussed in Vol. I, p. 823. The minutes and draft report of this committee were
printed in 19x6, but the report has never been published, owing to the refusal of
certain members to sign it. The minutes may be consulted at the Colonial Office
Library at London.

u The Land Tenure Question in West Africa, a report of meetings held in
different native towns (pamphlet), Lagos, 1913.

“The people of Lagos were already disturbed by the decision of the Full Court
in the Foreshore case to the effect that the land of the colony belonged to the Crown
and not to the people. Cf. Vol. I, p. 754.

NATIVE AGRICULTURE

771

but to place control of all lands in the hands of the government, to pre¬
vent fruitless controversies and ill-advised alienations, and to secure the
unearned increment of the land to the community and government. But the
natives shrewdly realized that once full power over their land was vested
in the government, the administration, under the pressure of commercial
interests at home, might alienate this land to European concessionairies, as
it had done in Rhodesia and Kenya—over the heads of the native people. 14
They opposed the ordinance on the ground that it would invade their
rights in the soil. Apparently because of the strength of this opposition,
the matter was dropped.

Following the World War, the demand for plantations and for free¬
hold titles in West Africa again brought forth native protests. In 1926,
the National Congress of British West Africa passed a resolution saying:
“. . . Experience having shown that production by peasant-proprietors
working on their own land is more advantageous than tbe plantation
system, the Congress deprecates any attempt to introduce the latter system
into British West Africa. . . . The Congress affirms that the lands of
British West Africa are the lands of the people.” 16

After reading over the speech of Lord Leverhulme advocating the
plantation system in West Africa, an African member of the Nigerian
Legislative Council asked the government to make a definite declaration
as regards native land tenure “in view of the great and widespread anxiety”
which the Leverhulme speech had caused. In reply, the Acting Chief
Secretary of the government said that Leverhulme’s ideas were “diametri¬
cally opposed to the declared policy of the government of Nigeria. . . .”
He further said: “The policy of the Government with regard to land
in the southern provinces is to perpetuate and to maintain in their integrity,
as far as possible, all native customary rights therein. . . . There is no
intention whatsoever on the part of the Government to depart or to
deviate from its declared policy in this matter.” 18

3. Governor Clifford’s Argument

Thus a conflict has arisen on the West Coast between native land
tenure and native production and the European plantation system. For the
moment, the government of Nigeria has decided in favor of the natives.
The reasons for the opposition of the government to European plantations
in West Africa in 1920 was set forth in a long memorandum prepared by
Governor Clifford. While this memorandum dealt with large-scale Euro-

14 Cf. The relation of the plantation school in West Africa to white settlement
in East Africa is discussed in Vol. I, p. 539.

16 Gold Coast Leader, Supplement, July 17, 1926.

19 Legislative Council Debates, second session, 1924, p. 17.

772

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

pean, as opposed to native, cotton growing, the arguments applied equally
to palm or rubber plantations. The Governor was strongly of the opinion
that “the development of any agricultural industry of importance in a
Tropical Dependency should be kept, as far as local circumstances permit,
exclusively in the hands of the indigenous population. . . He went on
to say: “Agricultural enterprises conducted upon any really large scale
under European management and supervision have found that, in order
to maintain a regular labour force of sufficient strength and reliability to
meet their requirements, recourse must be had to some organised system of
immigration from without the areas in which the agricultural operations
in question are being carried on, or, failing that, to some form of more or
less open compulsion.” In the West Indies, the sugar-estates were origi¬
nally developed by African slaves. Trinidad, in 1897, imported Indians
for sugar and cocoa estates; but the Indians did everything possible to
escape from European employment and become independent land owners.
The tea estates of Ceylon also had to rely upon imported labor, since
the local population refused to work for European employers. The
laborers employed on the rubber estates of Malay were Tamils from
India, while the tobacco estates of Sumatra and Borneo were dependent
upon Chinese. The Governor declared:

“In every one of these instances, . . . the very existence of these European
agricultural enterprises, undertaken on a large scale in the Tropics, is shown
to be dependent upon a regular and adequate supply of immigrant labour—
that is to say, upon highly artificial conditions.”

“. . . . Estates in the tropics which are dependent for their labour supply
upon the local agricultural population always occupy a highly precarious
position as they are inevitably exposed to grave risks. The volume of such a
labour force is never a constant factor, but instead, is subject to frequent
and violent fluctuations. Its numerical strength is apt to be in inverse ratio
to the estate’s immediate needs; for during specially fruitful agricultural
seasons, when most work is demanded by the estate, the people who are goaded
by necessity to undertake it are fewest in number. Moreover, labourers of
this class, who have an immediate interest in land of their own or of their
neighbours situated in the vicinity of the estate, are apt to drift away in
platoons, just when their services are most urgently required, in order to
weed, sow, or reap their own or their fellows’ crops as the season for such
work arrives.”

The Governor also believed that the cost of production of tropical
industries in the hands of a native rural population was cheaper than that
of estates owned and managed by Europeans.

” Cf. also conditions on the Rhodesia and the South Africa mines, and the
demand for imported labor in Kenya, Index.

NATIVE AGRICULTURE

773

“To begin with, the extreme simplicity of native agricultural and financial
methods makes for cheap production. The white man is the most expensive
of God’s creatures; and his salary, the cost of his passage, the construction
and furnishing of his home, the provision of his necessary means of locomo¬
tion, etc., etc., all combine to represent a figure that makes an appreciable
inroad into the gross earnings of any estate. His whole system of operations,
too, is elaborate and costly. His books and his statistics must be kept with
the nice accuracy demanded by the European shareholder; his Board of
Directors must be maintained and fee’d; his business requires expensive offices
to be maintained in some central quarter of a great city; and his shareholders
reluctantly consent to forego larger dividends in order to enable all the money
that is needed to be put into the development of the estate. The cocoa-
farmer of the Gold Coast, or the ground-nut or cotton-cultivator of Nigeria
knows nothing of these things. His individual holding is comparatively small,
and is usually capable of being tilled by himself and the male and female,
adult and juvenile, members of his family. If he extends the area under
cultivation beyond the capacity of the labour supplied by his immediate
entourage, he usually employs ... a handful of labourers who are not so
much his employees as shareholders in the enterprise. . . . The owner of the
land runs no risk, for he stands to gain handsomely if his crop sells well,
and to economise proportionately on his labour-bill when prices are bad. No
equally economical arrangement is open, of course, to the Management of an
European estate when the crop proves to be disappointing; while its share¬
holders’ contributions to the enterprise are purely financial, and do not take
the form of active, physical assistance in the development of the property.

“It is admitted, of course, that European methods of cultivation—at any
rate when the crops in question are not of a kind that has long been indigenous
to the country in which they are grown—are vastly superior to those which
a tropical rural population can ordinarily be persuaded to adopt; and also
that the produce of European estates is generally of much higher quality and
is far better prepared for market than is the case with most native-grown
crops. . . .”

Yet if a serious slump in price comes, it is the indolent and slovenly
farmers who will survive. “It would be the extraordinary cheapness of
their production that would save them, in spite of their happy-go-lucky
methods of cultivation. . . He cites statistics to show that whereas
the development of the native cocoa industry in the Gold Coast and
Nigeria has been extraordinarily rapid and progressive, the production of
tea on European estates in Ceylon has been stationary during the last
twenty years. His conclusions are that agricultural industries in the hands
of native peasantry (a) have a firmer root than similar enterprises when
owned and managed by Europeans, because they are natural growths, not
artificial creations, and are self-supporting, as regards labor, while European

774

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

plantations can only be maintained by some system of organized immigra¬
tion or by some form of compulsory labor; (b) are incomparably the
cheapest instruments for the production of agricultural produce on a large
scale that have yet been devised; and (c) are capable of a rapidity of
expansion and a progressive increase of output that beggar every record of
the past, and are altogether unparalleled in all the long history of European
agricultural enterprises in the tropics . 18

Statistics are lacking to show whether or not in view of the extremely
high overhead to which plantations are subject they really can produce
oil more cheaply than the natives. But the consideration of cheapness of
production is not the only consideration controlling the entrance of planta¬
tions into West Africa. Of much more importance to the natives is the
question of their lands and the effect of the plantation system upon their
native institutions. The introduction of European plantations would mean
the dispossession of a large number of natives from land which hitherto
the government had recognized as their own—which could probably be
accomplished only by the use of force. If these concessions were granted
in any large numbers, the necessity for recruiting labor would also arise.
And if half of the male population of the native states in southern or in
northern Nigeria, as in South Africa, Kenya, and the Belgian Congo,
should be obliged to go and come intermittently from plantations to their
homes, it would be a matter of only a few years before native administra¬
tions would be destroyed, or at least their development retarded.

While in his recent report on West Africa, the Under-Secretary of
State for Colonies expressed disapproval of the proposals of the late Lord
Leverhulme, he did approve the idea of ninety-nine-year leases . 19 As far

18 He also said it was a mistake to leap to the conclusion that native methods
were necessarily antiquated. The visitor to Kano would assume that plowing
with cattle would be an obvious improvement in the cultivation of groundnuts.
But experiments proved that owing to heavy rains and other difficulties, hand
cultivation was best. Cf. “Correspondence relating to the Policy to be adopted
with regard to projected Commercial Enterprises for Cotton-Growing on a large
scale in the Tropical African Colonies and Protectorates.” Sessional Paper No. l
of 1920, Nigerian Council.

In reply to this argument, Lord Milner, Secretary of State for Colonies, wrote,
“I entirely agree with you that the actual cultivation and growing of cotton and
similar crops should be kept, as far as local circumstances permit, exclusively in
the hands of the native population, European intervention being confined to the
provision of technical instruction, the planning and carrying out of irrigation
schemes, the purchase of native grown agricultural produce, and the preparation
for the market by ginnings, etc., of crops which require to be so prepared by
machinery.” Ibid., IV.

” Subject to “limits as regards area and with due provision for preserving the
rights of, or paying compensation to, existing occupiers. . . He goes on to say:
“There are areas even in the palm-belt of southern Nigeria where the population
is sparse and the land is not being used. In such areas, the grant of leases is not
only possible, but unobjectionable, provided that the rent of such land is paid to
the native community or the individuals whose rights are affected. What is

NATIVE AGRICULTURE

775

as the native is concerned, this distinction between a ninety-nine-year lease
and a freehold is pure legalism. Once plantations are introduced, no matter
what the tenure may be, the disrupting influences on native tribal life
become operative.

4. Improvement of Native Production

Moreover, native methods of oil production can he improved. The
government is making efforts to get natives to plant small palm plantations
as they plant cotton or cocoa, and thus secure the benefits of cultivation as
compared to wild produce. Stringent efforts are being made to get the
native to adopt handpresses and other mechanical instruments for the
extraction of oil, to replace wasteful native methods. 21 In some cases,
native treasuries are installing such presses. The erection of European
mills for the extraction of oil has also been proposed. Natives would be
asked to bring their fruit to such mills just as they bring their cotton to
ginneries. So far, the experience with these,mills in Sierra Leone has
not been happy. 22 But it may be more successful in Nigeria, especially if
the government gives mill operators a certain guarantee for a few years.
Some system of inspecting the quality of Nigerian oil should also be in¬
stalled, as has been done in Sierra Leone. 23

Such measures—improved cultivation, the introduction of hand presses
or oil mills fed by native fruits, and inspection—all will improve the
quality and yield of native oil to such an extent that European plantations,
forced to bear an overhead to which the native is not subject, would
probably find competition with natives unprofitable. 24

Less fearful of the results of the plantation system than his predecessor,
Sir Graeme Thomson, the present Governor of Nigeria, favors the estab¬
lishment of a limited number of palm plantations, the example of which
it is hoped natives will follow. Before passing final judgment on such an
experiment, one must determine the methods by which the planter obtains

objectionable is permanent dispossession of the natives, particularly in populous
areas.” Cmd. 2744, cited, p. 108.

"Mr. Ormsby-Gore himself says: "Even if the rapid development of the plan¬
tation industry in other countries succeeds in depressing the price and curtailing
the market for the West African products, the native will continue to produce.
In fact, while high prices are a great stimulus to increased production, however
paradoxical it may sound, low prices may equally be a stimulus to native produc¬
tion. A native peasant having acquired certain wants and a certain standard of
living will work harder to satisfy those customary wants if he has to produce
more to obtain the same money. It will be very difficult for the competition of the
plantation oil to eliminate him.” Ibid., p. 109.

21 Cf. two special bulletins of the Agricultural Department by A. C. Barnes:
Chemical Investigations into the Products of the Oil Palm, and Mechanical
Processes for the Extraction of Palm Oil; 1924 and 1925, respectively.

23 Cf. Vol. I, p. 870. M Cf. Vol. I, p. 871.

24 For the same problem in Sierra Leone, cf. Vol. I, p. 868.

776

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

his land and his labor. While one or two plantations may not in them¬
selves affect the situation in Nigeria, they may be the entering wedge
which will eventually make the system widespread. The demand for
plantations on the West Coast has been strengthened by the comparative
success of the white settlement or plantation school in East Africa. 25

5. Produce Inspection

The Nigeria Government has already introduced what is probably a
unique system for the inspection of cotton. All cotton for export must be
sold at markets established in gazetted cotton districts. No cotton can be
exported without a certificate obtained from a cotton mallam or native in¬
spector at these markets. 26 In granting these certificates, the inspector
grades cotton into a number of classes according to quality. Grade A
now brings a premium in the London market; apparently it is higher
grade cotton than the Uganda product. This system of markets thus
improves the quality and also enables the native farmer, if he wishes, to
sell directly to agents of the exporter who visit these markets—which
obliges middlemen to limit their profits to a reasonable margin. 27 There are
90 cotton markets in the northern provinces and 20 in the south. 28

Some system of improving the quality of groundnuts, which now con¬
tain much foreign material, is desirable. In the absence of an official grad¬
ing market, the European trader now pays no more for high grade than
for poor products. There is some discussion of limiting the time of the
buying season to prevent natives from pulling crops before they are ripe. 29

The Agricultural Department has attempted also to improve the quality
of cocoa by building demonstration fermentation houses where native grow¬
ers pay ten shillings a ton to have their cocoa fermented. The policy is to
have natives, after seeing this demonstration, build their own houses. About
a thousand of the forty-four thousand tons of cocoa produced in Nigeria
are treated in these houses. The government sees to it that this cocoa
is sold to traders at a premium of four to five pounds a ton over the price
or ordinary cocoa. 30

So satisfactory has the system of cotton inspection proved, that the
government has enacted a Control of Markets Act, which places all export
produce under government inspection. The Agricultural Department

” Cf. Vol. I, p. 539.

** Cotton Export Regulations, 1924, IQ26 Supplement, p. 261.

T Annual Report of the Agricultural Department, 1924, p. 5. The government
plans to limit the number of ginneries as in Uganda, when they become too
numerous.

* Gazette, 1926, pp. 516-521. * For this attempt in Senegal, cf. Vol. II, p. 47.

30 Annual Report of the Agricultural Department, 1925, p. 9.

NATIVE AGRICULTURE

777

wished to have this inspection and grading take place in native markets as
in the case of cotton. But the opposition of European traders to this plan
was so great that a compromise was finally reached under which inspection
takes place in trading warehouses. Officials doubt whether such inspection
will be as effective as that carried out in the country.

In many other ways, the Nigerian Agricultural Department is at¬
tempting to aid native agriculture. It already has eight experimental
plantations, and it plans to put a plantation and an agricultural officer
in each of the important agricultural provinces. The Estimates provide for
twenty-six superintendents of agriculture. 31 The Nigeria Agricultural
Department does not assume that native methods of cultivation are all
wrong. The first task of these plantations is to find out what these methods
are, before attempting to improve them. The department is also training
native agricultural instructors at its headquarters at Ibadan. The visitor
who sees these various activities comes to believe that the Nigerian agri¬
cultural service is one of the most effective in Africa.

® Nigeria Estimates, 1926-27, p. 13.

APPENDIX—NIGERIA
XVI. Nigeria Labor Legislation

APPENDIX XVI

Nigeria Labor Legislation

In case of a dispute between employers and employed, the "party feeling
aggrieved may make a complaint to the court.” If it appears that the party
complained against is about to abscond, the court may cause him to be
arrested . . unless he find security to appear and answer the complaint,
and abide the decision of the court thereon.” Among other things, the court
may award damages for any breach of contract, and "it may, in place either
of the whole of the damages or some part thereof . . . direct the party com¬
mitting such breach, ... to find security to the satisfaction of the court for
the due performance of so much of his contract as remains unperformed, and,
if the party neglect or refuse to find security, ... it may commit him to
prison until he finds it, but the term of imprisonment shall not exceed three
months.” Thus, the Nigerian ordinance provides for a modified form of
penal sanction. Sections 23-25, Chap. 70, Laws of Nigeria.

The regulations issued under the Master and Servant Ordinance provide
that "No deduction shall be made from the wages of a laborer for housing,
fuel, medicine, or medical attendance to the satisfaction of the Resident.”
(Sec. 24.) Moreover, no claims against a laborer on account of advances
shall be enforceable. (Sec. 21.)

When the employer has agreed to supply the laborer with food, the food
supplied shall not be less than the following scale:—

(a) twelve pounds of grain (including rice) per week; and

(b) two pounds of beans or groundnuts per week; and

Accident compensation is as follows:

(a) death—not exceeding ten pounds;

(b) incapacitation for earning living—five pounds;

These rates are considerably lower than in South Africa.

According to the Safe Mining Regulations, issued under the Minerals
Ordinance, Chap. 93, “No woman or girl, and no boy under the age of fourteen
years, shall be employed in any underground working.” (Sec. 19.)

The employment of women in night work, with certain exceptions, is pro¬
hibited by the Employment of Women Ordinance, 1912, Chap. 72.

781

SECTION VIII

THE GOLD COAST

CHAPTER 48

THE ASHANTI WARS

From the institutional standpoint, the peoples who inhabit the Gold
Coast are probably the most interesting and advanced in Africa. Most of
them belong to the Twi-speaking or Akan group, divided into the Fantis
and Ashantis. The first inhabit the coast districts and the latter live in
the interior territory which bears the name of Ashanti. That the Fantis
and the Ashantis are related is evidenced by the fact that they have similar
laws, institutions, religions, and languages.

Originally occupying the northern part of what is now the Gold
Coast, it is believed that the Akan people were gradually driven south by
lighter-skinned peoples, and took up their abode in the forests which gave
them protection against the cavalry attacks of the invaders. The reason
for the separation of the Akans into the present groups of Fanti and
Ashanti is not definitely known. 1 But the division, as we shall see, has
been unconsciously accentuated by British policy. 2

I. Native Institutions

In addition to the Akan people, there are smaller groups, such as the
Awunas and the Gas, the latter inhabiting Accra. In the Northern
Territories, remnants of the old kingdoms of Mossi 3 and Dagomba are
found, along with the ubiquitous Hausa and Fulani.

An Akan village consists of the three estates of the chief, the elders,
and the people. Each Akan chief occupies a traditional seat called a
“stool,” to which great ceremonial importance is attached. Such a “stool”
is the symbol of the nation and the ignorance of a British Governor as to
its true significance was one of the causes which led to the Fifth Ashanti
War. 4

In addition to belonging to a village, Akan men not holding special

1 Several reasons are conjectured by W. W. Claridge, in A History of the Gold
Coast and Ashanti, London, 1915, Vol. I, p. 5.

2 For administrative purposes, the Gold Coast is divided into the Gold Coast
Colony, Ashanti, and the Northern Territories. While ordinances for the Colony
are made by the Gold Coast Legislative Council, ordinances for the two territories
are enacted by the Governor.

s For the Mossi kingdom in the French Upper-Volta, cf. Vol. T, p. 902.

4 Cf. Vol. I, p. 790.

785

786

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

rank also belong to “companies,” which were military in origin. In parts
of the Gold Coast, these companies have especial flags and codes; and in
the past, insults exchanged between members of different companies were
a frequent source of fighting . 5

Generally, Akan villages owe allegiance to some Paramount Chief,
called the Omanhene, who does not, however, interfere with the conduct
of internal village affairs. Each head chief is assisted by an important
official, called the “linguist.” Resembling the old English bard, the linguis:
is the custodian of the history and customs of the tribe, and acts as the
mouthpiece of the chief on all ceremonial occasions. As stated above, the
“stool” of the Omanhene is the symbol of the state.

While the office of chieftainship is not strictly hereditary, there are
certain families from which the chief must be taken, and among the Akans
the female line of descent is usually followed. Most African tribes find
that getting rid of a chief before he dies is ordinarily a bloody business.
But when an Akan chief misconducts himself he may be destooled merely
by the vote of the persons who elected him—a peaceful and democratic
process. While this process checks revolution, it has given to native
institutions on the Gold Coast an instability which they do not have, for
example, in Nigeria, where the Emir remains in office in his own right for
life. This instability has become more marked with the growth of wealth
which has increased intrigue among members of the tribe, with the result
that destoolments grew to an alarming extent up to 1924, as the following
figures show:

Period

Number of Destoolments

1904-1908

1909-1913

1914-1918

1919-1924

41 *

1925- 1 926

5 In some areas, villages are grouped into subdivisions of the native state, each
having military titles, such as the left or right wing. These subdivisions are in
turn under the chief of the state, called the Omanhene.

* “In the Central Province, practically the whole of the Paramount Chiefs, with
exceptions that can be numbered on the fingers of one hand, have all been re¬
cently destooled or are on the point of being destooled by their people.” Statement
of the Governor, Gold Coast Colony Legislative Council Debates, Session 1925-
1926, February 3, 1925, pp. 127, 131. Cf. also A Revievj of the Events of I920-
1926, The Gold Coast, by the Governor Sir F. G. Guggisberg, p. 244. An insight
into the Accra situation is given by the Gold Coast Independent, October 30, 1926,
which says, “Although we are anxious that it (Accra) should retain some of the
ancient characteristics and the aborigines should maintain their time-honoured
institutions compatible with advancing civilization, yet it must be obvious . . . that
the way in which things are progressing in connection with what is known as the

THE ASHANTI WARS

787

Many cases have occurred in which blackmailing cliques have, by illegal
methods, destooled chiefs to whom the majority of the tribe still adhered.
In order to prevent such destoolment and disorder, the government now
appoints commissioners to determine, through a hearing, whether or not a
chief has been elected or destooled according to native law. 7 By this means,
the British Administration is endeavoring to uphold native constitutional¬
ism; and further safeguards are being established in the Native Administra¬
tion Ordinance of 1927 whereby, in the future, a strict regard to native
customary law will be required before a destoolment can be undertaken or
become effective. Suitable punishments are also prescribed for persons
infringing upon native customary law in such matters.

Connected with the stool of the Omanhene is a custom of peculiar
importance, called the “oath.” The oath is usually the name of a place
where a disaster had befallen the state. The chiefs prohibit the use of
the words in the oath at the price of certain penalties, which formerly
included even death in some cases. It jne side in a dispute invokes the
oath, the dispute should (but need not) go to the chief occupying the
stool to which the oath belongs. The chief then decides the dispute and the
loser must pay the penalty attached to the oath. Having invoked the oath,
the parties to a dispute may take no action until the judgment of the chief
is made. This semi-superstitious sanction thus obliges parties to invoke
a peaceful method of settlement when in case neither party invoked the
oath, they might have shed blood.

While the tribal organization of the other peoples of the Gold Coast
is not as compact as that of the Akan people, they also have Paramount
Chiefs whom they call by the name of Fia, Mantse, or Konor, etc., and
these tribes also invoke oaths, which apparently originated with the Akan.
At the present time, the government recognizes sixty-one Paramount Chiefs

Native administration is far from being healthy. Judging from the manner in
which the Ga Mantse is alleged to be destooled annually, it seems that this exalted
position, which should receive all respect and service, is being treated like a cheap
toy. The latest lightning destoolment, which took place on the 26th instant, is the
most amazing of them all. To judge by the way in which it was staged and all
that took place, we are impressed with the fact that cherished aboriginal institu¬
tions are not receiving the measure of support which they deserve. These things
make laughing stock of us in the eyes of foreigners. What is surprising is the
interest which some of the so-called educated Natives take in these miserable
demonstrations from selfish motives, and the spirit of hatred and spitefulness
which they engender in the minds of the illiterate and unsophisticated aborigines.”

1 Chiefs Ordinance, 1904, Chapter 80, Laws of the Gold Coast Colony, 1910, p.
782, hereafter cited as Laws. Any chief elected in accordance with native cus¬
tom may appeal to the Governor for confirmation. Until confirmed, such chief ap¬
parently has no judicial standing. District commissioners may hold an inquiry
as to the detention of stool property by a deposed chief, and require its surrender.
Stool Property Detention Ordinance, 1904, Chapter 81, p. 785. Ibid.

788

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

in the Gold Coast proper, twenty-five ir the Ashanti, and twenty-five in
the Northern Territories. 8

2. The Ashanti Invasions

The Greeks, Phoenicians, and Carthaginians were the first foreigners
to come into contact with the Gold Coast in ancient times. In 1471, a
Portuguese discovered the gold from which the territory has since taken its
name. Ten years after this, the Portuguese constructed the famous El-
mina fort—both Christopher Columbus and Bartholomew Diaz forming
part of their expedition. During the sixteenth century, English traders put
in their appearance, and soon got to fighting with the Portuguese over
the trade in gold, ivory and slaves. In the seventeenth century, Dutch
traders drove out the Portuguese from several of their forts which the
Dutch held down until the latter part of the nineteenth century. The
Swedes, not to be outdone by other traders, also occupied territories, and
are believed by some to have built the castle at Cape Coast in 1652.

Meanwhile, these operations of European adventurers were calmly
surveyed by Fanti tribes who lived along the coast and stretched in toward
the interior. The Fantis were organized into a loose alliance, under the
nominal leadership of the King of Abra. Confronting them was the king¬
dom of Ashanti, led by the king of Kumasi. Europeans first heard of this
kingdom when it roundly administered a defeat to the native state of
Denkera, about 1700. In this war, the Ashantis captured a “note” or
agreement in which the Dutch had promised to pay a monthly sum to the
chief of Elmina (who had transferred the note to the Denkera people)
for the land upon which the fort had been built. At the request of the King
of Ashanti, who now held the note, the Dutch agreed hereafter to pay the
rent to him, which the king later declared was an admission by the Dutch
that the Ashantis owned the ground at Elmina.

The Ashantis were a highly intelligent people, possessing great courage
as well as a remarkable military organization. For years, they had been
accustomed to trade with Europeans on the coast. In contrast, the Fantis
were a comparatively weak people who, under the influence of jealousy
and greed, attempted to monopolize the coast trade and force the Ashantis
to deal through the medium of extortionate middlemen. Partly because
of this, and partly because of the inevitable friction which arises between
neighboring tribes, a conflict arose which without doubt would have led
to the supremacy of the Ashantis over the whole of the Gold Coast and the

8 There have also been twenty members of the Kumasi Council of Chiefs, but
this, body is now abolished. For a complete list of these chiefs and the sub¬
divisions, cf. The Gold Coast Chiefs’ List, 1924, Accra, 1925.

THE ASHANTI WARS

789

union of the Ashantis and Fantis into a single Akan nation, had it not
been for the support which the British gave to their allies, the Fantis. 0 In
taking this position, the British really acted against their own economic
interests, since the Ashantis were fighting for the right to trade with the
west.

The first Ashanti War broke out in 1803, when the Fantis were saved
from defeat only by the intervention of the English who, notwithstanding
such interventions, did not claim any jurisdiction over the territory outside
of the ground occupied by the British forts. When the King of Ashanti
a few years later—in 1819—asked the British to intervene in a dispute he
was having with another tribe, they declined to do so, despite promises
given by the government in a previous treaty. In fact, throughout this
whole period, the policy of the British authorities was marked not only
by a timid vacillation, but by an unscrupulous disregard for their obliga¬
tions. 10 Affairs were made worse by the failure of the British Government
to ratify a treaty in which the Ashantis agreed to accept a British protec¬
torate on condition that the British recognize the Ashanti dominion over
the Fantis. Thus another opportunity of putting the relations between the
Ashantis and the coast upon an orderly basis was lost.

At this time, the Gold Coast forts were governed by the Africa Com¬
pany of Merchants. So poorly did they manage affairs that in 1821
parliament transferred these territories to the government of Sierra Leone.
The new Governor, Sir Charles M’Carthy, at once rushed into another
(the Fourth) Ashanti War, in 1822, spurning all offers of negotiation
with the “enemy.” The war which followed resulted in a decisive defeat
for the British and the loss of the Governor’s life. It convinced the
Ashantis of their superiority over the white man, and helped to create
among the British “that feeling of unreasoning and bitter hostility towards
Ashanti that has existed ever since.” 11 But the British finally drove the
Ashantis back to Kumasi; and after administering a disastrous defeat to
them at Dodowa in 1826, the British refused to pay the rent stipulated in
notes which the king of the Ashantis had held. Henceforward, the
British Government regarded itself as the full owner of the territory upon
which the forts had been built. On account of the expenses of these wars,
the home government now decided to abandon the Gold Coast. But the
British merchants, who found the territory a valuable source of trade,

"This is the opinion of a semi-official history: “Nor can there be the least doubt
that that kingdom would, before the close of the nineteenth century, have included
the whole Gold Coast, had not the seaboard tribes been assisted and protected by
the Europeans, who feared their settlements and trade might be endangered.”
Claridge, cited, Vol. I, p. 181.

“Cf. ibid., Vol. I, pp. 304, 316.

790

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

made a protest which led the government to hand over the forts to a
committee of three London merchants nominated by the government, which
made them a grant of four thousand pounds a year. Under the remark¬
able administration of Captain George MacLean, the first Governor under
this regime, peace was made with the Ashanti in a treaty of 1831. 12

3. The Resolution to Withdraw

But following MacLean’s death, the administration again fell into
unintelligent hands, and following the refusal of the British to extradite a
runaway prisoner of the king of Kumasi, which it had agreed to do under
the treaties, 13 the Fifth Ashanti War broke out in 1863. The British
failed utterly in their attempt to repel the Ashanti invasion which ensued,
and the prestige as well as the prosperity which had come to them under
MacLean’s administration was again destroyed. In 1865, the home gov¬
ernment sent out a special commissioner to determine whether the Gold
Coast should be abandoned. But he was met with the entreaties of the
Fantis who feared that they would be destroyed if the British withdrew.
Consequently, a Select Committee of the House of Commons resolved
“that it is not possible to withdraw the British Government, wholly or
immediately, from any settlements or engagements on the West Africa
Coast. . . It stated, however, that “all further extension of territory or
assumption of government, or new treaties offering any protection to native
tribes,” would be “inexpedient,” and that the object of British policy
“should be to encourage in the natives the exercise of those qualities which
may render it possible for us more and more to transfer to them the
administration of all the governments, with a view to our ultimate with¬
drawal from all, except, probably, Sierra Leone.” 14 As a result of the
recommendations of this committee, the Gold Coast again became a de¬
pendency of Sierra Leone.

In 1872, the British acquired the Dutch possessions on the Gold Coast,
including the fort of Elmina. But the Ashantis claimed that in view of
the fact that the Dutch had paid rent to them for the Fort upon the basis
of the Denkera note, the Ashantis should have been consulted in regard to
the transfer, and that they should continue to receive rent, but as the Dutch
Government had assured the British that the payments in question were
not by way of rent but in order to encourage commerce, the British refused
to recognize these claims. 15 An official historian says that there was small

“Claridge, cited, Vol. I, p. 409. u Ibid., Vol. I, p. 508.

14 Report from the Select Committee on Africa (Western Coast), No. 412,
Reports from Committees, Vol. V (1865), p. iii.

15 In a note of Feb. 28, 1871, the Dutch Minister for Foreign Affairs wrote to
the British Minister, “La Compagnie des Indes-Occidentales, a laquelle ces forts

THE ASHANTI WARS

791

excuse “for the ready credence they now gave to this ingenious explana¬
tion.” 16 As a result of this dispute, the Sixth Ashanti War broke out in
1873. Realizing from the past that they could not rely upon Fanti troops,
the British brought out Europeans, apparently the first to serve in tropical
Africa, under the command of Sir Garnet Wolsely. After a six months’
campaign, the British succeeded in reducing Kumasi, and in the treaty of
Fomana, which restored peace, the king promised to pay an indemnity of
fifty thousand ounces of gold, to renounce all tribute or homage from
the kings formerly subject to his kingdom, and to renounce his claims
over Elmina. In return, the British agreed that there should be freedom
of trade between Kumasi and coast. 17

Having demolished the strength of the Ashanti kingdom, the British,
instead of establishing a direct administration, once more resorted to the
policy of non-interference. Meanwhile a dispute over the succession arose,
which finally resulted in the appointment of Kwaku Dua II as King and
later, at his death, of Prempeh as Kwaku Dua III. But the country was
in such a difficult financial situation that he was obliged to make an
unprecedented request to the British Government for a loan of eighty
ounces of gold to pay the expenses of enstoolment. 18

In the opinion of a British historian, “England’s policy toward Ashanti
since 1874 had signally failed . . . and had been Ashanti’s ruin. The
destruction of the central controlling authority in Kumasi, and the weak¬
ness of the government in declining all further responsibility and refusing
to interfere for the preservation of order, had caused years of civil war,
during which the suffering and loss of life must have been immeasurably
greater than that attending the occasional wars of united Ashanti, while
the naturally evolved civilization and arts of the country had been neglected
and fallen into decay. . . . The continually disturbed state of the country,
moreover, made the roads so unsafe that all communication with the interior
was constantly being cut off, and the once flourishing trade had been virtu¬
ally extinguished.” 10

appartenaient, avait accorde un paiement mensuel de deux onces de poudre d’or
(fl. 960 par an) au roi de Denkera, non pas comme tribut mais comme cadeau pour
encourager le commerce avec les habitants de 1’interieur ... II est done evident
que le roi d’Ashantes n’a pas le moindre droit a faire valoir sur les forts d’Elmina,
et il n’a probablement mis sa pretention en avant que pour faire surgir des
difficultes et tacher de prevenir la cessions des possessions neerlandaises a la
Grande Bretagne.” Correspondence Relative to the Cession of the Dutch Settle¬
ments to the British Government. C. 670 (1872), p. 42.

M Claridge, cited, Vol. I, p. 602.

1T The king also promised to use “his best endeavours to check the practice of
human sacrifice . . . with a view to hereafter putting an end to it altogether.”
The text of the treaty is given in British and Foreign State Papers, Vol. 65, p. 471.

“Claridge, cited, Vol. II, p. 332.

“ Ibid., Vol. II, p. 351.

792

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

At last realizing that steps should be taken to prevent the disintegration
of the kingdom, the British suggested to King Prempeh that he accept a
British Resident. The Ashantis had actually made the same request of the
British a number of years before; but now, embittered and disillusioned
by British policy, they flatly declined the request.

Finally, the British sent the King an ultimatum accusing him of violat¬
ing the treaty of Fomana by encouraging the practice of human sacrifice,
and demanding that he receive a resident without further delay. Upon
the failure of Prempeh to reply, a military expedition moved on Kumasi
in 1896. This time, however, the Ashantis, whose spirit was almost
broken, did not put up a struggle. King Prempeh voluntarily surrendered
to the British who promised not to depose him provided he pay an in¬
demnity of fifty thousand ounces of gold. In a solemn gathering, Prempeh
took the crown from his head and asked the protection of the Queen of
England. The Governor declared, however, that the indemnity must be
paid. The King replied that he could pay only six hundred and eighty
ounces and would pay the balance in instalments. At this, the Governor
ordered the King, the Queen Mother, the King’s father, his two uncles,
his brother, and several others to be seized and taken as prisoners to the
coast—a demand which stunned the people. Claridge stated that the im¬
mediate payment of an indemnity of this size was “impossible.” 20 It is
clear that the Governor went outside his instructions in demanding the
payment of this large sum, and his attitude in the matter “has been a cause
of dissatisfaction with them [the Ashantis] even since, and they still com¬
plain bitterly of what they describe as, and fully believe to be, an act of
deliberate treachery.” 21

After being taken to Elmina and Sierra Leone, Prempeh and his fol¬
lowers were finally deported to the Seychelles Islands where they re¬
mained until 1922.

4. The Golden Stool

Prempeh having gone, the golden stool which remained the only
symbol of the Ashanti nation was hidden away. The anthropologist of the
Gold Coast Government says, “The Golden Stool was and is far more
than that [the sign of the kingship] ; it is the shrine of the sunsum or soul
of this people, something for which they have fought and for which, I
believe, they would fight again. ... I do not think we realize what a
power, working for us, this stool has been, hidden away as it was; or that
we fully grasp the results which I believe might follow were we ever
to take it from this people. I believe it will be found to be the case

** Claridge, cited, Vol. II, p. 421. “ Ibid.

THE ASHANTI WARS

793

that all the obedience, the respect, and great loyalty we have been given
by the Ashanti is given through and by reason of the Golden Stool.” 22

In 1899, an Ashanti boy came to Accra and offered to reveal the
hiding place of the stool. The Governor, Sir Frederick Hodgson, there¬
upon sent his private secretary and a detachment of Hausa soldiers to look
for the sacred object. The attempt failed and the Governor decided to
proceed to Kumasi to find the stool and to impose taxation upon the
Ashantis to pay for the cost of maintaining the garrison there. On arriv¬
ing at Kumasi, the Governor held a meeting at which he asked: “Where
is the Golden Stool? Why am I not sitting on the Golden Stool at this
moment? I am the representative of the paramount power; why have you
relegated me to this chair? Why did you not take the opportunity of
my coming to Kumasi to bring the Golden Stool, and give it to me to
sit upon?” 23 The Ashantis were so angered at what they regarded to be
sacrilege that they embarked upon the last Ashanti War which, after
great hardship to the British forces, finally led to the overthrow of the
Kingdom of Ashanti and its annexation by the British Government.

Since then, Ashanti has been administered separately from the Gold
Coast proper, although both have the same Governor. The British
had learned their lesson, and they no longer demanded the surrender
of the stool. Meanwhile, the people managed to keep its whereabouts
hidden, until 1921. At that time, native road workers discovered its
hiding place in the Nkoranza district, whereupon several Ashantis, in¬
cluding one of the chiefs who was a guardian of the stool, stripped it of
its gold, which they sold. When the people discovered what had happened,
the nation was thrown into tumult; and the government immediately
arrested the chiefs concerned. The government told the Council of Kumasi
Chiefs that it, the government, made no claim to the stool, that it was
the property of the nation; and it permitted the Kumasi Council of
Chiefs to try the culprits. This wise action in righting the mistake made
in 1900 undoubtedly prevented an outbreak. The deep indignation of
the Ashantis over this desecration was shown by the fact that the Council
imposed the death penalty on the offenders. Believing that this penalty was
too severe and would lead to internal trouble, the government modified
this sentence in favor of perpetual banishment.

At the time of the marriage of Princess Mary, the Queen Mother
of Ashanti presented a replica of her own silver stool to the wife of the
Governor, to be transmitted to the princess as a wedding gift. Upon this

* R. S. Rattray, Ashanti, Oxford, 1923, p. 292.

® Correspondence relating to the Ashanti War, 1900, Cd. 501 (1901), pp. 16-17.

794

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

occasion, the Queen Mother said, in the dignified and quaint language
which characterizes the speech of many African peoples: “It may be that
the King’s child [Princess Mary] has heard of the Golden Stool of
Ashanti. That is the Stool which contains the soul of the Ashanti nation.
All we women of Ashanti thank the governor exceedingly because he has
declared to us that the English will never again ask us to hand over that
Stool. This stool we give gladly. It does not contain our soul, as our
Golden Stool does, but it contains all the love of us Queen Mothers and
of our women. The spirit of this love we have bound to the stool with
silver fetters, just as we are accustomed to bind our own spirits to the base
of our stools.” 24

The British have not only reversed their policy with respect to the
Golden Stool, but also in regard to the deportation of Prempeh. In 1923,
Prempeh wrote to his friends in the Gold Coast that the British had
allowed the king of Somaliland to return home and that he, Prempeh,
wished to come back to the Gold Coast, if not as king of the Ashantis, as a
private citizen. After careful consideration and in view of the exemplary
conduct of the chiefs and people during the anxious days of the discovery
of the Golden Stool in 1921, 25 the government authorized the return of
Prempeh and his following. Upon his return, he was given a tremendous
ovation by his former subjects. For three years, he was merely a private
citizen, participating in the Council of Chiefs of Kumasi. Both the
Ashantis and he wished, however, to see their former kingdom restored.
In view of its policy to develop native authority, the Gold Coast Govern¬
ment reinstated Nana Prempeh as the Omanhene of Kumasi in November,
1926, an action which, The Gold Coast Leader, an African paper, referred
to as a “gracious act.” By this means, the British Government attempted
to wipe out the faults of the past. 28

5. The Bond and the Poll Tax Ordinance

For more than a hundred years, the British did not attempt to govern
the Gold Coast beyond gun-shot of the coastal forts which they occupied
—a policy which largely accounts for their policy of non-interference
with matters affecting the interior tribes. Disputes with these tribes were,
however, continuous, and following the Ashanti treaty of 1831, Governor
MacLean made up his mind to establish some kind of control. Conse¬
quently, he stationed a soldier in each of the principal towns along
the coast. Likewise he established a court of which he was judge, sitting

M Tbe Gold Coast Handbook, hereafter cited as Handbook, 1924, p. 32.

28 Cf. also the questions in the Legislative Council Debates, 1923-1924, p. 295.

38 Cf. editorial of November 27, 1926. Cf. also the governor’s speech, ibid.,
December 11, 1926.

THE ASHANTI WARS

795

usually with chiefs in Cape Coast Castle. This court applied Akan law
except where the Governor regarded it as inhuman. While there was
no legal basis for the exercise of this authority until the passage of the
Foreign Jurisdiction Act in 1843, the people supported the regime in
defiance of some of their chiefs, because it maintained order and admin¬
istered justice more satisfactorily than the native system.

MacLean’s court, however, had been irregular. At the suggestion of
a Select Committee of the House of Commons in 1842 27 the new Governor,
Commander Hill, made a treaty with the chiefs, usually called the Bond
of 1844, in which they acknowledged the power and jurisdiction of Her
Majesty the Queen and declared that the first object of law was the
protection of individuals and property. Human sacrifices and other bar¬
barous customs were declared illegal. 28 Shortly thereafter, the British
Government created the position of judicial assessor.

Inasmuch as the customs had failed to provide sufficient revenue, the
British Government, still confined to the four forts, declared that the
people should contribute something in return for the protection which
they now received. In 1852, the Governor induced the chiefs to organize
themselves into a Legislative Assembly, whose first act was the adoption
of a Poll Tax Ordinance, which required the payment of one shilling
from each man, woman, and child residing in districts under British pro¬
tection. This tax was to be collected by British officials assisted by the
chiefs, who in return would receive annual stipends from the government.
The revenue from the tax was to go to native education, improvement of
the judicial system, communications, and medical aid. 29 Notwithstanding
the opposition of the “scholar” or semi-educated class, the Governor by
this means secured the consent of the chiefs to the tax. The British en¬
trusted its collection to native agents, with the idea of preventing mis¬
appropriation by the chiefs. But the agents proved to be even greater sin¬
ners—a fact which caused more indignant protests from the people than
if the thefts had been committed by the chiefs themselves. In 1854, the

37 Cf. “West Coast of Africa” (551), Reports from Committees, Vol. XI, 1842,
pp. v-vi.

38 “Africa, Western Coast” (412), Reports from Committees, Vol. V, 1865,
p. 419-

“The Agreement called the Poll Tax Ordinance” first declared, “That this
meeting, composed of His Excellency the Governor, his council, and the chiefs and
head men oi the countries upon the Gold Coast, under British protection, consti¬
tutes itself into a legislative assembly with full powers to enact such laws as it
shall deem fit, for the better government of those countries. . . . That this assembly
be called the Legislative Assembly of native chiefs . . . and that its enactments
sanctioned and approved of by the Governor, shall immediately become the law
of the country, subject to the approval of Her Majesty the Queen, and be held
binding upon the whole of the population . . . being under the protection of the
British Government.” Ibid., p. 420.

796

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

chiefs and people publicly refused to pay the tax, and when European
officials attempted to collect it, the whole of the eastern district rebelled.
The authorities made no further efforts at collection, and in 1866 the Poll
Tax Ordinance was formally repealed. The Gold Coast alone of the
colonies of tropical Africa exacts no direct taxes from its people up to
the present time.

In order to obtain the Dutch forts, the British made a treaty in 1867
granting to the Dutch a portion of the Gold Coast west of the Sweet
River. The proposed cession would have divided up a number of tribes
and placed many Africans under the Dutch whose reputation at that
time was not of the best. 30 To resist this exchange of territory, some of
the chiefs held a great council loosely called the Fanti Confederacy; and
as a result of their protest, the treaty was withdrawn. Five years later,
the Dutch agreed to withdraw altogether.

6. The Fanti Confederation

Inspired by the idea of self-government, which they had derived from
the House of Commons resolution of 1865, and moved by a desire to raise
a united front to the Ashanti invader, the chiefs and educated natives,
without consulting the British authorities, held a meeting in 1871 at
Mankesim, where they drew up an elaborate constitution creating the
Fanti Confederation. A king-president of the Confederation was to be
elected “from the body of kings.” He should govern the country with the
aid of a ministry of five officials, representing the chiefs and the educated
natives. The objects of the Confederatiort were defined in detail. To
assist the king and council, a representative Legislative Assembly was to
be established, composed of two representatives from each district, appointed
by the king, one being an educated native and the other a chief. This
assembly would be responsible to the king and chiefs of the confederation
who should hold an annual meeting. At this meeting, the king-president
should sanction all laws passed by the representative assembly, “so far as
they are compatible with the interests of the country.”

The constitution provided for the establishment of a number of national
schools and for roads “fifteen feet broad, with good deep gutters on either
side.” A capital of the Confederation should be selected. Moreover,
provincial assessors should hold courts in each district, aided by chiefs.

Appeals from the assessors could be taken to the king and executive
council, and eventually, to the British courts. The assessors should also

"It appears that the chief reason why the Dutch remained on the Coast was to
purchase from the Ashantis slaves whom they sent to Java to serve as soldiers.
Claridge, cited, Vol. I, p. 558.

THE ASHANTI WARS

797

see that the schools and roads were maintained and that all children be¬
tween the ages of eight and fourteen attended school. These provincial
assessors apparently were to be educated natives, who wished to rule the
chiefs.

Confronted by this attempt of the natives to establish a virtually inde¬
pendent government, the British were placed in a difficult position. They
had repeatedly refused to take any responsibility for the administration of
the country outside the forts, from which a committee of Parliament had
recorded its desire to withdraw. 31 How could the administration, there¬
fore, oppose the efforts of the natives to set up a government of their
own? Brushing these considerations aside, the acting administrator clapped
the ministry of the newly-formed Confederation into jail, and wrote to the
Governor of Sierra Leone, who was at that time responsible for the
Gold Coast, that “this dangerous conspiracy must now be destroyed for
good, or the country will become altogether unmanageable.” 32

While this brusque action was criticized by the Secretary of State,
a later administration issued a proclamation stating that the government
would “prosecute any person or persons committing any overt acts on the
part of the said Confederation, especially the levying of taxes, assumption
of judicial power, and molestation of peaceful inhabitants following their
lawful calling.” 33

As a result of this opposition, the Confederation reached a stalemate.
The only symbol of the Fanti nation to-day is the Mfantsipim School,
maintained entirely by native funds. The attempt at confederation, how¬
ever, did succeed in making the British realize that the time would come
when they must organize a wider administration or withdraw. The
problem was studied by Mr. D. P. Chalmers, the chief magistrate, who, in
several memoranda (1872), proposed that the country should be governed
by “utilising, regulating, and controlling the power of the hereditary
chiefs. . . .” 34

He went on to say: “Although it be in vain to look for much improve¬
ment in the character of the Native courts if left to their own guidance,

81 In 1867, a Cape Coast chief, named Aggery, challenged the jurisdiction of the
British beyond the Castle Walls, as a result of which he was deported to Sierra
Leone. Cf. Return to House of Commons for correspondence relating to the “arrest
and deportation to Sierra Leone, without trial, of King Aggery of Cape Coast,”
1867, Vol. LXIX, Accounts and Papers, p. 73.

38 “Correspondence relative to the Fanti Confederation” (No. 171), Accounts
and Papers, *873, Vol. XLIX, p. 2. The constitution of the Confederation is
printed on pp. 3-9.

32 Ibid., p. 44. The government announced, however, that when the country
became quiet, the home government would be ready to consider the formation of a
native council of chiefs.

54 Ibid., p. 101.

798

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

yet that gradation of authority which is found to exist, by which each
man is in a measure answerable to his immediate superior, affords an
organisation which seems capable of being usefully employed for purposes
of jurisdiction. . .

By this time the British had decided that a more firm control was
necessary; and following the defeat of the Ashantis in the war of 1874, the
Gold Coast and Lagos were merged into a single colony. A Legislative
Council was established which enacted a Supreme Court Ordinance in
1876. The Gold Coast became a separate colony in 1886. Doubts re¬
mained, however, as to what part of the area which the British administered
was a “colony” and what part a “protectorate.” These doubts were set at
rest by an Order in Council, 1901, which declared that the parts of the
Gold Coast hitherto not included within his Majesty’s Dominions “are
hereby annexed.” 36 In September, 1901, an Order in Council also annexed
Ashanti. Another order of the same date placed the Northern Territories
under the protection of the Crown.

85 Statutory Rules and Orders, 1901, p. 510. This annexation was preceded by
the negotiation of some thirty-seven treaties of protection and friendship with local
kings between 1895 and 1897. Handbook, cited, p. 533.

CHAPTER 49
NATIVE POLICY
I. The Native Jurisdiction Ordinance 1

In 1878, the government enacted the Native Jurisdiction Ordinance,
which was supplanted, however, by the Ordinance of 1883. This ordinance
was amended in 1910 and remained in force as the basis of the system of
administration, which rests upon the principle of native authority. 2 The
Native Jurisdiction Ordinance is silent regarding the appointment of
chiefs, and thus recognizes that the right to appoint a chief is not vested
in the British Government but in the native institutions. But according
to the Chiefs Ordinance, 1904, the Governor may confirm election and
installation and thereby render such a chief’s position unassailable in a
court of law. 3 Moreover, the Governor may also suspend or depose any
chief who shall appear to have abused his power.

2. By-laws

Subject to the approval of the Governor, the chiefs may issue by-laws
upon fifteen different subjects, such as the construction of roads, the care

1 Chapter 82. Laws, p. 788.

3 The Gold Coast proper is divided up into the Western Province with six
districts; the Central Province with four districts, and the Eastern Province, with
eight districts. At the head of each province is a provincial commissioner, while
at the head of each district is a district or assistant district commissioner.

Ashanti is divided into an Eastern and Western Province, each with four dis¬
tricts; while the Northern Territories are divided into a Northern and Southern
Province, the first having four and the latter five districts. There is a chief
commissioner for Ashanti and one for the Northern Territories, both responsible
to the Governor at Accra.

The total African population of these three areas is 2,296,400.

The political establishment of the Gold Coast calls for eighty-nine officers, of
whom forty-four are assigned to the Gold Coast proper, twenty-three to Ashanti,
and twenty-one to the Northern Territories, an average of one officer to every
25,800 which means a comparatively large administrative staff. On his first
appointment, a political officer is obliged to give three or four afternoons a week
to the study of a native language. Before his appointment is confirmed, he must
have passed a qualifying examination in one of the following languages: Twi,
Ga, Eve, Mossi, Dagomba, etc. Minute, Gold Coast Political Service, 1922.

The Gold Coast Government has also appointed an anthropologist, Captain
R. S. Rattray, who devotes his whole time to the study of African customs and
institutions.

3 Chiefs Ordinance, 1904, Sec. 29.

799

800

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

of unoccupied lands, and the suppression of fetish worship. A person
guilty of the breach of any such by-law may be punished by the native
courts by a fine not exceeding five pounds and two sheep. In case he
does not pay the fine, he may be imprisoned for one month. 4

One of the delicate issues between the British Government of the
Gold Coast and the native states is whether a given law, usually involving
a police matter, shall be enforced by native by-laws and courts, or by
legislation and the courts o.f the British authority. Disputes on this
subject have arisen recently in regard to plant-disease and forestry legisla¬
tion. Within the last few years, disease has increased among the cocoa
plants—and cocoa growing is practically the only native industry in the
territory—to an alarming extent. In 1916, the government warned the
chiefs that if they did not enact and enforce by-laws providing for the
destruction of cocoa pods and for the reporting of disease, legislation would
have to be enacted. Practically all of the chiefs thereupon enacted by¬
laws to this effect. But, according to the Colonial Secretary, the chiefs
“almost invariably refrained from applying and enforcing” these pro¬
visions. “The chiefs are often themselves glaring offenders, as their
decision depends to a large extent on popularity with their people.” 5
They are afraid of being destooled. Few if any violations were prosecuted
during a period of twelve years. In 1919, a Cocoa Committee was ap¬
pointed to study the situation, and a majority recommended the enactment
of an ordinance. The government, however, bowed to the two native
members of the committee who thought that “peaceful persuasion” should
be tried for two years more. But at the end of four years—in 1923—
the by-laws had not yet been enforced, and it was estimated that twenty
per cent of the annual cocoa production was being lost because of disease. 6

The government thereupon decided that the enactment of a Pest
Ordinance was necessary. This brought forth vigorous protests from the
Africans, one of whom, a leading chief and a member of the Legislative
Council, declared, “The chiefs of this country play a very important part
in the administration of this country, and if you declare in this Council
that the chiefs are a failure on a simple matter like this, and that in

4 The texts of various by-laws will be found in Chapter 82, Volume III of the
Laws of the Gold Coast. A recent example is the Palm-Tree By-law, ( Gold Coast
Gazette, 1924, p. 1105, hereafter cited as Gazette) made by the Omanhene of
Abura, “with the consent and concurrence of the sub-chiefs, elders, linguist, and
councillors of the stool.” This by-law provides that no person shall injure any oil
palm tree unless he has a permit from the chief. For every palm tree felled for
the purpose of making palm wine, two fresh trees must be planted unless there is a
tree within five yards.

6 Legislative Council Debates, 19^3-1924, p. 374.

"It appears that the United States rejected a number of Gold Coast shipments
because they contained wormy beans in excess of fifteen per cent.

NATIVE POLICY

801

consequence of that, you deprive them of their existing power by passing
this Bill, you will be inflicting a very severe blow at the policy Your
Excellency has so definitely enunciated.” 7

Despite the opposition of the African members, and of a conference
of Paramount Chiefs, the ordinance was passed. The government also
appropriated a hundred thousand pounds to employ fourteen European
plant inspectors, and several African cocoa inspectors, to teach plant sanita¬
tion to the African farmers. Europeans found it as difficult to achieve results
as had the chiefs. The native farmers proved definitely hostile to the in¬
trusion upon their farms. They accused the government laborers of steal¬
ing their produce. In order to overcome this opposition, conferences
between the farmers and the plant inspectors were held in the fall of 1926.
At one of these conferences, a chief said: “The bill is a trap to ensnare
us. . . . The bill shall convert us as serfs; the bill deprives us of our
legitimate and inherent ownership of our lands. ...” 8

So great did the task of plant sanitation become that the government
modified its plan. A new system was adopted in 1926 which, instead of
placing the whole burden upon government inspectors and government
funds, provides that inspectors with labor gangs shall give the farmers
demonstrations of the best means of getting rid of pests. The farmers are
then obliged to apply this method to their farms. If after six months the
inspector finds that this has not been done, he can take action under the
ordinance; after twelve months, the inspector can do the work himself,
and charge the expense to the native farmer.

In order to recognize the loyalty and ability of those chiefs who really
can enforce the system, the government now has established a concurrent
jurisdiction, under which district commissioners may refer prosecutions
under the ordinance to the Chiefs Tribunals instead of to the British
courts. The Governor wishes that eventually full jurisdiction over these
offenses shall be conferred upon the native tribunals. 9

3. The Forest Ordinance

Likewise, if the cocoa industry is to be preserved, a large area of the
country must be kept under forests in order to retain the moisture necessary
for the crop. But uncontrolled shifting native cultivation and European
mining operations have been cutting into the forests with the result that
they are threatened with extinction. In 1910, an expert pointed out the

'Debates, cited, p. 426.

8 Minutes of Conference, Gold Coast Independent, October 23 and November 6,
1926.

9 A Review of the Events of 1920-1926, Gold Coast, by the Governor, Sir. F. G.
Guggisberg, p. 43.

802

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

danger of the situation. 10 In the next year, the government attempted to
forestall this danger by introducing and actually passing a Forest Law
authorizing the government to establish reserves. As in 1897, 11 the
Aborigines’ Rights Protection Society sent a delegation to London to
protest against the legislation, on the ground that the establishment of
reserves would be an entering wedge against the principle of native land.
Their spokesman declared: “This Forest Bill, if it became law, would
have the effect of breaking up the native institutions absolutely, because
it is inconceivable in the native mind—a stool without land. It means,
Sir, that every subject of a stool is attached to the land, and it is because
the land is connected with the stool that each man is able to serve the stool.
But when once you sever the connection between the land and the chief,
the subjects have got nothing to bind them to the stool or the chief, and
the result will be that they will be bound to scatter and the whole of our
tribal organization will be absolutely broken up.” 12

In reply to this opposition, the Secretary of State sent out a special
commissioner, Sir H. C. Belfield, to determine whether or not the proposed
legislation would actually interfere with native rights. In deciding the
question in the negative, the commissioner stated that the opposition to
the legislation was “obstructive to improvement and regardless of conse¬
quences”; he reported: “No one of all the persons who gave evidence
before me could be induced to show the smallest interest in the preserva¬
tion of forests, or to admit, when the system was explained to him, that
the country would be any better for its introduction.” 13 The commis¬
sioner found that opposition to the bill was confined to Cape Coast Castle,
the headquarters of the Aborigines’ Rights Protection Society. Neverthe¬
less, in view of the feeling which the discussion had stirred up, the govern¬
ment decided not to apply the law.

Following the World War, the government urged the chiefs to establish
“stool” reserves through by-laws. In 1924, at a meeting of the chiefs, the
Governor said that the situation was becoming more and more serious and
that the chiefs could have two years in which to establish reserves and two
years more to enforce the by-laws against cutting timber in these areas. 14

But at the end of the first two years, native chiefs had made by-laws

10 H. N. Thompson, Report on Forests, Gold Coast, Cd. 4993 (1910).

11 Cf. Vol. I, p. 830.

“ Statement of Mr. Casely Hayford, In the Matter of the Proposed Forest Bill,
1911, Deputation to the Rt. Hon. Lewis Harcourt, p. 10. Cf. also Casely Hayford,
The Truth about the West African Land Question, 2nd edition, London, 1913,
PP- 42 ff.

Report on the Legislation governing the alienation of Native Lands in the
Gold Coast, Cd. 6278 (1912), para. 155.

14 Draft by-laws were approved by the conference. Cf. a pamphlet, Forestry
and Forest Reserves, Gold Coast, 1924.

NATIVE POLICY

803

establishing only six reserves containing two hundred and forty square
miles, although the Forestry Department had said that six thousand square
miles were necessary. 16

The failure of the chiefs to act was due not only to their lack of
energy, but to the distrust of the intentions of the government, the inability
of chiefs and councils to agree, land disputes between stools, and the fact
that chiefs had in the Eastern and Central Provinces already alienated
land to such an extent that none remained available for reserves.

Despairing at the failure, the government, despite native opposition,
in 1926, introduced into the Legislative Council a Foresty Bill, authorizing
it to establish reserves, on the understanding that these reserves should
continue to be regarded as native property. This bill has now become
law.

It appears, therefore, that the system of native by-laws in the Gold
Coast has not been entirely successful. The reason is not difficult to
explain. The government has attempted to persuade the chiefs to enforce
by this means obligations which are largely misunderstood and therefore
unpopular with the natives, and which concern subjects that are really
European in nature. Such matters should more properly be the object
of European enactment until the natives have been educated to the point
where they can intelligently perform these duties.

4 . Native Tribunals

The Native Jurisdiction Ordinance also recognizes and regulates the
jurisdiction of native tribunals, whether composed of the head chief of a
division or the smaller chiefs of sub-divisions or villages, who, with
their respective councillors authorized by native law, may try breaches of
any by-laws, and who also have civil and criminal jurisdiction in a number
of cases. In civil matters, the jurisdiction of these tribunals extends to
cases where the value of the subject under dispute does not exceed twenty-
five pounds, suits for divorce under native law, and suits relative to the
ownership of land held under native tenure. The tribunals may also
punish such criminal offences as petty assaults, slander, causing nuisances,
and the wilful disobedience to the orders of a chief, with fines not exceeding
five pounds or imprisonment not exceeding three weeks. Thus the juris¬
diction of the Gold Coast native tribunals is much less than that of the
native courts of Nigeria. 18 A monthly return of civil cases where the
value of the property under dispute exceeds two pounds in value, and of

ls A Review of the Events of 1920-26, Gold Coast, by the Governor, Sir F. G.
Guggisberg, p. 64.

M Cf. Vol. I, p. 689.

804 THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

criminal cases where fines exceed ten shillings, must be made to the district
commissioner. The amount of fines and fees is prescribed in regulations.
That is, where the value of property claimed is not more than fifteen
pounds, the summons fee is limited to five shillings. The judgment fee
in land cases is one pound, and in cases of appeal, two pounds. All fees
and fines are now retained by the tribunals—a very questionable system
of remuneration inasmuch as it tempts them to impose excessive fines.
Appeals may be taken from a chiefs’ tribunal to a head chiefs’ tribunal
within one month in cases involving more than two pounds, or in criminal
proceedings where a fine of more than ten shillings or a week’s imprison¬
ment has been imposed. Unlike the system in Nigeria, appeals may be
taken from the court of the head chief to the district commissioner in civil
cases where the subject matter involved is more than five pounds and in
criminal cases where the penalty is more than one pound or two weeks
in jail. 17 In the Eastern Province, district commissioners in 1924-25 con¬
firmed fifty-nine decisions, 18 while thirty-nine were reversed. In the West¬
ern Province, there were forty-six appeals in this year, of which twelve
decisions were reversed. 10 Compared with the number of cases which
native courts hear, this number of appeals appears to be small.

Native courts may order imprisonment in a native prison registered with
the government; but not for longer than three months. 20

When the Native Jurisdiction Ordinance was first enacted in 1883, the
native courts had no power to enforce their judgments; on the other hand,
they were subject to little administrative control. Natives were not obliged
to take their cases to their chiefs, so that the young men ran to the British
courts with every complaint. Consequently, the native tribunals did not
work satisfactorily. In 1894, a Commission of Inquiry was appointed to
look into their workings, and in 1904, the Attorney-General wrote:

“The existing state of affairs is wholly unsatisfactory and should not be
allowed to continue. The remedy must take one of two forms, and it is a
question of policy which should be adopted. The time has come either to make
a clean sweep of native courts and abolish their legal status entirely or to put
them on a sound basis and, if necessary, to back up their decisions with all
the force of the executive.

“The first alternative would, in my judgment, be not only a political
mistake, but an act of injustice to the natives of the Colony. The native
court with its native law and its curious form of procedure has been fashioned
to suit the needs of the people; we may abolish its legal status, but it will

17 Cf. Native Court Rules, 1924, Gazette, 1924, p. 1215.

Report on the Eastern Province, 1924-25, p. 6 . Appeals may also be taken
from the district to the provincial commissioner.

19 Report on the IVestern Province, 1924-25, p. 8.

“Native Prisons Ordinances, 1888. Chapter 84, Laws, p. 817.

NATIVE POLICY

805

still be resorted to finally as an informal board of arbitration. For petty
cases, it forms a suitable tribunal; time is no object to the councillors and
what we should consider insignificant matters are patiently investigated at
great length; family squabbles and other unpleasant domestic incidents are
dealt with according to the custom of the country, and the Supreme Court
is spared the necessity of deciding many a case wherein an English judge could
easily come to a wrong decision from faulty interpretation or from mere want
of familiarity with native law and native ideas. Extortion there may be in
some cases, but at all events, the parties appear in person and escape the
payment of the heavy fees charged by Counsel practising in the Supreme Court.

Again, if native courts are abolished, it will mean that every little case will
have to be taken before the District Commissioner, and I doubt whether the
present staff of Commissioners would be sufficient to cope with the extra
quantity of judicial work that would thus be thrown on their shoulders.” ***

Finally deciding in favor of the principle of native tribunals, the
government introduced a bill into the Legislative Council to improve the
system in 1907. It was withdrawn, however, in favor of an amending bill
which was passed in 1910. This bill, which merely amended the Act of
1883, was the law until 1927. 21

At the present time, therefore, a system of native tribunals exists
throughout the Gold Coast, under the control of district commissioners.
Appeals may be taken to the district commissioner and eventually to the
Divisional Court in each province. These commissioners, along with
police magistrates, are also commissioners of the Supreme Court. Bar¬
risters are excluded from the courts of these commissioners except with
their consent. They are excluded altogether from the courts of Ashanti
and of the Northern Territories. Appeals from the commissioners go to
the Divisional Court, a branch of the Supreme Court. 22 The Gold Coast
is one of the few places in Africa where Supreme Court cases are tried
by juries composed largely of Africans. Appeals on points of law, and
not on fact, may also be taken from the Divisional Court to the Full
Court, composed of the six Supreme Court judges. 23

The most profitable source of controversy in the Gold Coast to-day is
the land. Such cases originate in the native tribunals and then go to the
provincial commissioner on appeal. But African barristers are excluded

** Statement quoted by the Colonial Secretary, Legislative Council Debates,
1921-1922, p. 492. 21 Cf. Vol. I, p. 810.

“The jurisdiction of the Supreme Court is, however, limited only to the Colony.
In Ashanti and the Northern Territories, there is a circuit judge having practically
the same powers as the Supreme Court.

“ Supreme Courts Ordinance, 1876, Ordinances, Vol. I, p. 10. In a memoran¬
dum from the members of the Gold Coast Bar to Mr. Ormsby-Gore, a protest
was made against appeals only on law. But appeals both in England and the
United States are usually limited to points of law, and do not extend to facts.

806

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

from arguing these cases in the tribunal. This has deprived them of a
source of revenue, and constitutes a grievance which has probably in¬
fluenced the attitude of many of the educated Africans toward proposals
of the government to strengthen native authority.

Under the Native Jurisdiction Ordinance, any sub-chief may set up a
tribunal and try cases which, under the previous system, had gone to the
head chief. Moreover, the powers of the higher courts are no greater
than those of the lowest headman’s tribunal. While in giving a sanc¬
tion to the chief’s judicial power, the Native Jurisdiction Ordinance
strengthened native institutions, it weakened them in so far as it failed
to recognize the native hierarchy, and allowed native courts to come into
existence which had not existed before. At present, there are seven native
courts in Accra, in comparison with three before the ordinance. Thus it
appears that the government has been partly responsible for the disintegra¬
tion of native institutions—a fact which it deplores.

5. Interference with Native " Rights'*

Apparently realizing these defects, the government introduced a new
Native Jurisdiction Bill into the Legislative Council in 1919. But it at
once met with the opposition of the natives, who, in a petition to Lord
Milner, Secretary of State for the Colonies, alleged that the bill would
“tend to subvert the native constitution of the country.” They objected
particularly to the clause (taken from the Chiefs Ordinance) authorizing
the Governor to confirm the election of chiefs, which, according to the
petition, “virtually constitutes the governor of the colony the maker and
unmaker of native chiefs.” Moreover, the bill would authorize the
Governor to extend or curtail the judicial powers of a chief, making the
chief, according to the petition, “a government creature, a quasi-official.”
The natives objected to the provision that no deposition of a chief should
take effect unless confirmed by the government, on the ground that it
would take “away from the people their safeguard against the tyranny
and unconstitutional acts of a chief—the power and right of destoolment.”

Such interference with the rights of the Gold Coast people was repre¬
sented as “an act contrary to all existing treaties that form the basis of
the relations between the people of this country and the British Govern¬
ment.” The bill also proposed to make the decision of the provincial
commissioner in any land case final and to block appeal to His Majesty
in Council—a provision which was attacked on the ground that it would
deprive the native of the rights of “a British subject.” The petitioners
asked that the condition be restored in which the native courts merely

NATIVE POLICY

807

had concurrent jurisdiction with the British courts—a provision which
would have increased greatly the business of African petitioners. 24

In reply, the government stated that it did not intend to refuse recog¬
nition of any chief or refuse to confirm his dcstoolment provided the elec¬
tion or the destoolment had taken place in accordance with native cus¬
tomary law. 26 In order to make these points more clear, a new bill was
introduced into the Legislative Council in 1921-22. It withdrew some
of the objectionable provisions and also consolidated a number of existing
ordinances, such as the Chiefs Ordinance of 1904, the Stool Property
Detention Ordinance, and the Native Prisons Ordinances. As this bill
amounted to little more than a consolidation of existing ordinances, the
government naturally believed it would meet with little opposition. Its
principal change was to recognize the authority of head chiefs over chiefs
in judicial matters, and to confine land cases to the courts of provincial
commissioners.

Notwithstanding the mildness of the measure, several Africans were
allowed to appear as special counsel to argue against the bill. 20 Repeating
the old arguments about encroaching upon native institutions, one of them
also stressed the fact that “the chiefs are praying that they should not be
deprived of a lawyer’s services” and went on to say: “I emphasize that
prayer for them in the strict administration of justice. ... If lawyers are
indispensable to pilot and protect your Excellency [the Governor] in your
administration of this government, the petitioners humbly demand that
tangible reasons should be given by government as to their avowed inten¬
tion to deprive them, the native rulers, by legislation, of the necessary pro¬
fessional aid of lawyers when their valuable property, liberty, and repu¬
tation are by law placed in the balance of justice.” Another counsel de¬
clared, "In no civilized community are lawyers ignored.” 27

It thus appears from these remarks that the African members of the
Legislative Council were chiefly concerned with extending the opportuni¬
ties for African barristers which the bill would curtail as far as land cases

24 This petition is published in- Legislative Council Debates, 1921-22, p. 445.

“Apparently the government wished to prevent destoolments by cliques.

“One appeared for the Gold Coast Aborigines’ Rights Protection Society,
and another for the Gold Coast Bar.

37 Mr. Casely Hayford, one of the leading African barristers and authors of
the Gold Coast, said: “I think that the bar should be supported rather than
discouraged. Even if they do make enormous fees, it is not undesirable, for
after all, what do they do with the money? Do they not educate and train their
children to become good citizens, and to provide you with Legislators capable of
following your debates? Do they not build good houses and improve your cities?
Do they not invest in articles of merchandise and make money circulate? In
what way, therefore, are they undesirable?” Legislative Council Debates, 1921-
22, pp. 461, 476, 526.

808

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

were concerned. The position of the government was that natives got
justice in the commissioners’ courts without the assistance of counsel; and
that in land cases the commissioner was in a much better position to
determine disputes fairly than Supreme Court judges, unfamiliar with the
geography of the question. Moreover, the exclusion of counsel from the
commissioners’ courts saved the natives tremendous sums which would
otherwise go into lawyers’ fees. Many natives now take land cases on
appeal from the Provincial Courts to the Supreme Courts, where they
employ lawyers, merely to make them “big men” in the community. The
highest ambition of some Africans is to get a case taken to the Privy
Council in London. In one such case, involving the sum to be paid by
the government for the land expropriated for the construction of Takoradi
harbor, African lawyers are said to have taken twenty thousand pounds of
the thirty thousand pounds awarded as compensation. A large number
of the stools in the Gold Coast are heavily in debt to-day because of
lawyers’ fees, to be relieved of which some chiefs have frequently imposed
a special levy upon their subjects.

Now, the administration of justice by political officials is not entirely
satisfactory anywhere in Africa. But it is a practical impossibility to
substitute for them professional European judges; nor would such a plan,
if practicable, possess many advantages. While in theory they would
apply native law, these judges would bring to native cases a type of mind
rigorously trained in European law. They would not have the opportunity
of the administrative officer to acquire personal contact with the natives.
Moreover, the natives do not understand the principle of separation of
powers. Accustomed to the single authority of a chief, whether native or
European, they would not, it is argued, respect an administrative officer
if his decisions were subject to review by a judicial magistrate.

Since the administration of justice by executive officers must continue
for some time, it is difficult to see how the cause of a native would be
improved by admitting an African barrister to their courts. The executive
officer would know none of the fine points of European law or of European
cases familiar to the barristers. He might-even lose his temper with an
African barrister who attempted to cite precedents to him. Moreover,
in deciding native cases, this court would be obliged to apply not European,
but native law, which has nothing to do with European precedents. It
would seem inevitable, on the other hand, that an administrative official,
pressed by a multitude of duties, should sometimes settle cases hastily.
This situation is relieved, however, by assigning one officer on the staff
to judicial duties. Moreover, the control of the Supreme Court merely
through reviewing the records is not entirely satisfactory.

NATIVE POLICY

809

But from the point of view of developing native institutions so that
eventually they may stand on their own feet, the extension of native, not
British courts, is desirable. If native barristers become necessary in such
courts, it will be because they know native and not European law. In¬
creased native jurisdiction will thus diminish the judicial duties of ad¬
ministrative officers as well as British courts and barristers.

In opposing the Native Jurisidiction Bill, the African representatives
declared that in view of the Bond of i‘ 844 and other treaties, the govern¬
ment could not curtail the power of the Native Authority without their
consent. Thus they claimed that the peoples of the Gold Coast were
virtually independent. This argument ran directly counter to the former
argument that the natives were “British subjects” and entitled to the juris¬
diction of British courts. A native could not be a national of the Gold
Coast nation and an Englishman at the same time. Moreover, as the
Attorney General pointed out, the Gold Coast was annexed in 1901,
as a result of which no courts could exercise jurisdiction except under the
direct authority of, or in virtue of recognition by, the British Crown. 28
The extent to which the Gold Coast Government controls native institu¬
tions is therefore a matter of policy. The Gold Coast Government has
very often given way in face of native protests. 20 Likewise, it now with¬
drew the Native Jurisdiction Bill; and the law of 1883 as amended in 1910
still remained in force.

This policy of non-interference has not always worked to the advantage
of the native population or to native institutions. 30 Under the Native
Jurisdiction Ordinance, chiefs have set up courts in defiance of head chiefs.
Native tribunals are, on the whole, not adequately controlled. Fees are
pocketed by the chiefs who receive no stipend from the government, and
who therefore are tempted to make illicit exactions. Gold Coast Africans
oppose the idea of salaries on the ground that they would make govern¬
ment servants out of the chiefs. But this objection would be removed

19 He cited the case of Mutchi vs. Kobina Anna, where the court said: “Had
Her Majesty not recognised these courts, I think it would be clear that it must be
held that their jurisdiction ceased in respect of the British Dominions, for it could
not be assumed that Her Majesty would permit the exercise in her Dominions
of a jurisdiction not her own. ... In fact, however, His Majesty confirms the
recognition within the British Dominions of these native courts by Her late
Majesty, and declares that the executive is acting lawfully in recognising and
regulating these native courts. . . . The Crown may, in annexing territory, con¬
sent to the continuance of ancient local courts. I contend that it may do so
impliedly, and that it is only upon this assumption that the native courts under
the Native Jurisdiction Ordinance exist.” Cf. Legislative Council Debates, 1921-
22, p. 578.

Cf. Vol. I, p. 820, for the government's defeat in regard to land policy.

90 Just as it failed to work to native advantage when the British declined to
accept a protectorate over Ashanti.

810

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

if they were paid out of native treasuries. This same feeling of caution
which it has shown throughout its dealings with the Gold Coast has
prevented the government from imposing direct taxation upon the people
since the days of the Poll Tax Ordinance of 1854. 31 Meanwhile, the
government laments the disintegration of tribal authority. Increased
judicial power, the imposition of direct taxes collected by the chiefs, and
the establishment of native treasuries out of which the chiefs would receive
annual salaries in lieu of present tribunal fees would do much to check
this process which, to the visitor, appears to be much more serious in the
Gold Coast than in Nigeria or in Sierra Leone. It must, however, be
remembered that economic prosperity has been much greater in the Gold
Coast than in the sister colonies and that therefore the amassing of wealth
by commoners has seriously depreciated the position and authority of the
chiefs.

6. The Native Administration Bill, 1927
Determined to bring about changes by new tactics, the Gold Coast
Administration invited the head chiefs on the Legislative Council to submit
proposals with a view to placing the powers of the native authorities upon
a more satisfactory basis. After preliminary conferences in 1925, the
newly established Provincial Councils of the Eastern and Central Provinces
jointly prepared the draft of a bill without, in the first instance, the aid of
the British authorities. 32 After being carefully scrutinized and revised by
His Majesty’s Law Officers, the bill was introduced into the Legislative
Council in 1927. The bill recognizes for the first time the Oman Councils,
consisting of the Paramount Chief, head chiefs, linguists and elders. This
council shall have jurisdiction as a tribunal of first instance or as an
Appellate Tribunal to the Paramount Chief’s Tribunal “to determine all
causes and matters civil or criminal arising from within the State whenever
such causes or matters are governed by the Native Customary Law’’ of the
state. An appeal may lie from the Oman Council to the Provincial
Council, which consists of all the Paramount Chiefs of the province. 33
Its decision in land appeals is final. The Provincial Council shall, acting as
an executive body, try all disputes of a constitutional nature relating to title,
precedences, the office of a stool, etc., arising between two Paramount
Chiefs of the province. Acting as a judicial body, the Provincial Council
settles all disputes relating to ownership of land. Excepting in the case
of an appeal from the State or Oman Council in connection with land,

31 Revenue comes from customs -which are large, due to the prosperity of the
colony. See Vol. I, p. 856.

32 A Review of the Events of 1920-1926, cited, p. 243.

33 Cf. Vol. I, p. 838.

NATIVE POLICY

811

the decision of the Provincial Council may be appealed to the Full Court.
When a land dispute arises between chiefs of two provinces, an effort
should be made to have it settled by a Joint Provincial Council.

The ordinance also provides for increased control over the action of
the native tribunals, while it provides for the creation of tribunal treasuries.

The unique feature of this bill was that it was introduced into the
Legislative Council in the spring of 1927 by an unofficial member, a lead¬
ing chief. This was the first time in the history of the Colony that such
a procedure had been followed. 34

M The Gold Coast Leader, May 7, 1937, in an editorial, “The Truth about
the Present Political Situation," says that thirty-seven Chiefs as against twenty-
three are opposed to the Bill, and that it was introduced by a chief for reasons
of self-interest.

CHAPTER 50

LAND AND LABOR

1. Cocoa

The richest colony in continental Africa to-day, 1 the Gold Coast, is
usually said to owe its wealth to a native boy who in 1879 brought back
some seeds from the cocoa-fields of Fernando Po, where he had been a
laborer. It took several years for the cocoa crop to take root; but with the
aid of the government, the natives exported eighty pounds in 1891. This
figure gradually increased until 1910, when the colony exported 22,631
tons. The greatest increases came subsequent to the World War when the
crop leaped from 66,343 tons in 1918 to 231,000 tons in 1926. Cocoa
exports in 1926 constitute eighty per cent of the value of the exports of
the Colony. Producing nearly half of the world’s production of five
hundred thousand tons, the Gold Coast is the largest producer of cocoa in
the world, her chief competitor being Brazil. 2 The greatest importer of
Gold Coast cocoa is the United States.

In the production of this stupendous crop, the Gold Coast native has
not had, nor has he wished, the aid of European capital or enterprise.
As a rule, the native grows cocoa in small family patches, each family
producing about three-quarters of a ton a year. It takes about seven
years before cocoa trees come in to full bearing. They require very little
attention in the meantime, and the visitor can scarcely distinguish trees
from busK on many farms. Moreover, the native method of drying and
fermenting cocoa is still primitive. As there has been no system of govern¬
ment inspection as to quality, and as traders pay the same price for poor
as for high quality cocoa, the native has no incentive to improve the grade
of exports. In 1927, however, the government prepared a plan of inspec¬
tion, based upon a distinction between grades.

Nevertheless, Mr. W. A. Cadbury, the leading cocoa manufacturer,
testified in 1913, that the quality of the Gold Coast cocoa had greatly

x Cf. the statistical table, Vol. II, p. 889.

1 However, cocoa production in the French Ivory Coast and in Nigeria has
increased in recent years, and eventually these colonies may challenge the su¬
premacy of the Gold Coast. The opinion is frequently expressed that the Gold
Coast has reached the limit of its capacity, which the government estimates to
be two hundred and fifty thousand tons a year.

812

LAND AND LABOR

813

improved since 1908. 3 Following the War, however, disease which pro¬
duced wormy beans put in its appearance, largely because of neglect. The
efforts to eradicate this disease have already been described. 4 The grade
of Gold Coast cocoa is admittedly low in comparison with that of the
cocoa produced on the European plantations of Trinidad. But as the
demand for high grade cocoa is limited, it is the cheapness of Gold Coast
cocoa which has led to its extensive use. Despite the negligent methods
of many native farmers, no one has seriously proposed that European
plantations take over the cultivation of this crop, as they do in Fernando
Po, and as they did in the German Cameroons before the War.

2. The Middleman

Practically all of the cocoa exports are handled by European commercial
houses. They usually maintain a system of stores along the railway line
in charge of Europeans, and a system of “bush” stores in charge of natives.
These stores sell goods to natives and buy cocoa. In other cases, European
firms employ native brokers who, furnished with capital, do a flourishing
middleman’s business, usually buying cocoa at between twelve and twenty-
two shillings a load of sixty pounds, for which they receive a commission
of three to six pence a load. In exceptional cases, some of these native
brokers are said to have made—at least in the boom year of 1920—as
much as ten thousand pounds a year.

Gold Coast farmers have frequently complained that they are not
getting the proper prices for their cocoa because European buyers mo¬
nopolize the trade. This feeling has been intensified, by the creation,
following the War, of (a) the African and Eastern Trade Corporation or
the “Combine” which is an association of a large number of the West
Coast Traders and (b) the “Lever Combine,” the principal member
of which is the Niger Company. Some native traders have attempted
to ship directly to England and the United States, but they have found
it almost impossible to obtain shipping and credit which, they claim,
is controlled by European firms. Attempts of the International Cocoa
Conference to establish a central distributing agency for cocoa have also
aroused native suspicion. The Bank of British West Africa for years
monopolized the banking business of the West Coast. But at the request
of a number of enterprising Gold Coast Africans, The Colonial Bank
(now Barclay’s Bank) entered the Gold Coast and Nigeria in 1917. For
a time it was more liberal in credit to natives than the Bank of British
West Africa. But when the crisis came, following the boom of 1921, it

* Minutes of the West African Lands Committee, paras. 10. 596.

4 Cf. Vol. I, p. 800.

814

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

lost a good deal of its money as well as its nerve and has now become
more conservative.

In order to rid themselves of the European middleman, the Gold
Coast natives have attempted to form Cooperative Marketing Agencies.
One such venture took place in 1921 under the name of the Gold Coast
Farmers’ Association—an organization which exported a hundred tons in
the first year of its existence. The following year an American came to
Accra and struck up a friendship with the officials of this body. He
told them that the natives were being exploited by the European buyer;
and he offered to pay them twenty-five shillings a load, although the regular
firms were offering only fifteen to seventeen. He paid them, however,
only part of the purchase price, and promised to pay the balance later.
Many natives belonging to the Association took him at his word, and he
actually purchased about nine thousand five hundred tons under this
arrangement. Having shipped the cocoa, and still owing the natives about
one hundred and ten thousand pounds, he slipped out of the country and
returned to the United States. Government law officers declare that the
American had been so carefully coached by lawyers, that it was impossible
to have him extradited. The incident dealt a blow not only to American
prestige but also for the time being to the cooperative movement. Plans
are now being made, however, to revive the idea. Natives are also
urging the government to establish agricultural banks with a view to
helping the industry. 5

European commercial houses on the West Coast deny that the price
of cocoa or of palm oil is controlled. They assert that in view of the
competition of the German, British, and American markets, this is im-

*Cf. the Editorial, Gold Coast Independent, August 21, 1926.

In another issue (September 25, 1926), the same paper says, “It is an ad¬
mitted fact that our farmers have for a good number of years been thoroughly
dissatisfied with the prices offered by the buyers for their cocoa. To commence
with, in the absence of grading, practically one price is paid for all quality of
cocoa, whether it is fine, fair, good, or indifferent. . .

The manufacturers and speculators “know that our production is large; that
our farmers are unorganised, and very eager for various reasons, to market
their cocoa as early as possible, regardless of the price that is being offered.
Somehow or other, notwithstanding the millions of pounds that are poured
yearly into this country, in the majority of instances, the farming class remains
as poor as ever, and is entirely dependent upon each year’s output. . . .

“As usual, we have been noting the prices at which forward sales for this
season’s cocoa have taken place in the European and American markets; but
as it is to be expected, the farmer is not by any means likely to get anything
near those prices, after making all reasonable allowances for the profits of
middlemen. Having got what they wanted from manufacturers and other specu¬
lators, it is only natural for the local buyers to depress the market to suit their
own purposes, knowing of course that without organisation and without financial
backing, coupled with the unreasonable rush to dispose of his produce, the farmer
is sure to sell. This state of things is helping to disorganise and ruin the
industry. . . .”

LAND AND LABOR

815

possible. Without making a detailed study of the international cocoa
market, an outsider cannot express an opinion upon this question. Farmers
the world over feel that they are exploited by the middleman. But this
feeling is intensified in West Africa where the farmer is a native and the
middleman a European. So far, the government has followed a policy
of laissez-faire. Except for an Agricultural and Commercial Society, it
has not encouraged the native cooperative movement. It might well study
French policy in regard to the establishment of native cooperative societies. 6
Once different grades of cocoa receive a government stamp of approval,
traders will be obliged to pay more for good quality cocoa than for poor.

3. The Export Duty

Natives have also resented the imposition of the export duty of cocoa.
Such duties were imposed not only upon cocoa, but also upon palm products,
groundnuts, and hides and skins, in the West African colonies in 1916 7
to take the place of customs revenue reduced temporarily by the War.
For some reason, the export duty on cocoa from the Gold Coast was doubled
in 1919, so that it was twice the duty on cocoa in Nigeria. 8 The
unofficial members of the Gold Coast Legislative Council voted solidly
against these export duties when they were proposed in 1916 and again in
1919, and they were carried only by the official majority. Natives be¬
lieved that they paid the tax which amounted to twelve to twenty-
eight per cent of the value of the cocoa. The whole question of the inci¬
dence of these export duties was studied by a Committee on Trade and
Taxation, appointed by the Imperial Government in 1922. 9 This com¬
mittee agreed that an export duty on cocoa was in principle to be deprecated
since it affected production to some degree. While the natives should be
obliged to pay some taxes, it recommended that eventually the export taxes
should be abolished. While originally the export duty was imposed only
as a war measure, the financial depression into which the West African
colonies fell after the War, accentuated by the loss of revenue because of
the abolition of trade spirits, led to the retention of the export duties as a
permanent policy. In 1922, however, the Gold Coast Government decided
to reduce this export duty one-half. Nevertheless, the following year
revenue actually increased probably because of the increase of trade stimu¬
lated by the decreased tax. The price of cocoa fell by almost exactly the
•Cf. Vol. II, P . 44.

1 Cf. the recommendations of the Committee on Edible and Oil-Producing Nuts
and Seeds. Cd. 8247 (1916), p. 22.

8 The Gold Coast duty in 1919 was £4 13s 4d a ton. It was later reduced
0 Report, Cmd. 1600 (1922).

816

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

amount of the reduced duty— 10 seeming to indicate that the consumer
had borne the tax—but this fall may have been merely a coincidence.
Despite further reductions in rates the cocoa duty in 1925-26 yielded two
hundred and fifty-six thousand pounds.

4. Effect on Land Tenure

Native land tenure on the Gold Coast has been similar to that in
other parts of West Africa. Land is divided into Stool Land, Family
Land, and Private Land. “Each subject of the King or Chief has a right
to have alloted to him a portion of the stool land for cultivation. . . .
To natives, other than subjects of the stool, permission may also be granted
to cultivate stool property, but this permission is granted by the King or
Chief with the concurrence of his head men or Councillors. . . .” 11 A
family occupying land has security of tenure against the stool; but all
land for the moment unoccupied is at the disposition of the chief and
councillors in accordance with rules fixed by native law. All of the land
of the Gold Coast is recognized as belonging to the various stools or
native states. There is no such thing as unclaimed land. 12 Moreover,
the sale of land as we understand it was unknown, and as a rule there
was no individual tenure. 13 The development of the cocoa industry has,
however, tended to change these conceptions. Native farmers, not possess¬
ing enough family land, have gone to alien stools; and chiefs, tempted
by comparatively large sums offered as rent, have in some cases disposed
of stool and family land without the consent of their councils.

Moreover, the fact that cocoa is a permanent crop—in the sense that
it is not planted anew each year—has necessarily modified the conditions
upon which native law is built. Under native law, it was customary for
an owner to charge a tenant one-third of the crop as rent, and if he
violated any terms of the agreement, the owner could summarily evict him.

10 Address by the Governor, Legislative Council Debates, 1923-24, p. 17.

“The Acting Chief Justice, Report upon the Customs Relating to the Tenure
of Land on the Gold Coast, London, 1895.

“The court, summarizing the remarks of a barrister, say9, “If this land
was no one’s land and was within the Akwapim country, it must have been
attached to the Akwapim stool, and he enunciated the general principal that
all unoccupied land within the territory under a paramount stool belongs to
such stool. This is practically the principle upon which the Courts of this
colony have proceeded from their conception; and this doctrine has served as
a safeguard to the natives against possible government claims.” Wiapa v. Solo-
man, Renner's Gold Coast Reports, London, 1915. Vol. I, Part 2, p. 410 (1905).

““Rather than sell his land, the Fanti landowner prefers to grant leave to
another, a friend or alien, to cultivate or dwell upon it for an indefinite period
of time, thus reserving unto himself the reversion and the right to resume pos¬
session whenever he please.” J. M. Sarbah, Fanti Customary Laws, London, 1904,
2nd edition, p. 86.

LAND AND LABOR

817

But the British courts have ruled that because of the great value of cocoa—
a permanent crop—this rent is excessive; moreover, the powers of eviction
must be limited, provided the tenant lives up to a reasonable agreement. 14
Some enterprising farmers have also demanded individual tenure in order
to escape the dead hand of family control. More frequently, a farmer
wishes to borrow money for some purpose or other, and gives a mortgage
on land, presumably his own, to the money-lender. It frequently happens,
however, that the land is family property. When the British courts learn
that the property really belongs to the family under native law, they will
not allow such land to be seized for the debt. But in many cases they are
ignorant of the family claims. 16

One firm in Accra has been obliged to buy the land upon which it
has erected its warehouses from three different natives. As soon as it
paid one supposed owner, another native would urge his claim before the
courts! The result has been endless confusion and litigation. Likewise
when the government started a sisal plantation near Accra, four chiefs
claimed to be the owner of the same land. It sometimes happens that
natives will register two deeds the same day for the same property, each
purporting to record a separate transaction. 16 The only security which
natives can give is their land; but in view of this confusion, few Euro¬
pean merchants and no banks are willing to accept such security in return
for a loan.

Apparently out of a desire to advance the English ideas of property,
the British courts have adopted in regard to stool property a rule opposite
from that laid down for family property. In the Lokko case, a native asked
for a loan of sixteen pounds and offered the land which he occupied as
security. Upon the failure to pay, an action was brought to attach the
land. It turned out, however, that this land which Lokko had occupied
belonged to a stool. So the court was obliged to decide whether Lokko
had a title and whether the land therefore could be attached. The court

14 In one case, the defendant declined to pay the plaintiff one-third of the
cocoa proceeds from certain land which he held as tenant. He was thereupon
ejected. The defendant appealed to the courts against the ejectment. Despite
the testimony of a chief that under native law the owner could eject a tenant
who failed to live up to the contract, the court ruled that since there was a
permanent crop involved, the owner could not eject the tenant provided he
met the terms laid down by the court—two shillings a year for cocoa tribute
for each member of the family in addition to the rent. He could not, however,
extend cocoa cultivation without the consent of owner. Pobee v. Takye, 1912,
Renner's Reports, cited, Vol. I, part 2, p. 699.

” Cf. Akempon v. Enyan, 1912, Ibid., p. 625. In this case two brothers
bought land out of monies belonging to a joint account and held the land as
family property. One of them then executed a mortgage to the African Asso¬
ciation which sold it to the plaintiff. The court ruled that the property was
family property and could not be attached. Cf. also Sarbah, cited, Ch. VI.

& Visit to West Africa, Cmd. 2744 (1926), p. 147.

818

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

admitted that by native law family property could not be seized for the
debt of one of its members. But in its opinion, stool property was on a
different footing. The occupation and development for a period of forty
years of the property once belonging to the stool, had converted it into
private property. Therefore it could be sold in execution. 17 It is not
clear, however, whether a mortgage secured on stool land granted to a
European—in-this case it was a native—would be upheld.

Because of this situation, there is a growing demand for some form
of individual tenure on the Gold Coast. While at present titles may be
registered with the government under the Registry Ordinance, this does
not extinguish past claims. Nevertheless, it is believed that the natives
would probably resent any system in which the government would issue
Torrens titles because that would assume that the government owned the
land; any attempt to issue such titles in the immediate future would run
the danger of confiscating land belonging to absent or illiterate members
of the family. Perhaps it may be possible to work out a system of titles,
through the gradual processes of adjudication before the native courts, with
appeal to a European land court. But the real reason for the demand for
individual tenure—to give security upon which natives may borrow money
from Europeans—does not deserve unrestrained encouragement. A sys¬
tem of individual freehold tenure in the Gold Coast would probably lead
to more excessive alienations to Europeans, in return for loans and for
other inducements, than have taken place under the Concessions Ordinance
in the past. 18 The legitimate demand for credit by the natives could be met
by the establishment of cooperative societies or agricultural banks. Such
a source of credit would enable the government to restrict borrowing to
legitimate ends and thus prevent foreclosures.

In a few cases, the cocoa crop has also had the effect of developing a
wage-earning class of natives, employed by large-scale native farmers.
But this tendency does not seem to be widespread, and the basis of cocoa
production still remains in the family.

5. The Public Lands Bill, 1897

As early as i860 the native chiefs started the practice of selling stool
land to foreigners, in violation of native law. This tendency was greatly
increased by the discovery of gold and the mining boom which occurred on
the Gold Coast in 1900. Concession hunters flocked into the country and
chiefs ignorantly and without regard to the interests of their subjects
ceded away the rights to the land with prodigal liberality.

17 Lokko v. Konklofi, 1907, Renner’s Reports, cited, p. 450.

18 Cf. Vol. I, p. 822.

LAND AND LABOR

819

At this time, the British Government had not annexed the whole of
the Gold Coast. Even after the annexation of 1901, it recognized that
the remainder of the country outside of the forts belonged to the stools
or to the natives, and not to the Crown. This policy has even led to a
provision in the Marriage Ordinance that when a native dies intestate
and without heirs, the land shall not escheat to the state as is customary,
but shall be distributed among the natives according to native law. 10 The
Gold Coast Government, alone of the governments of the African colonies,
did not and does not claim mining rights as its own. These also are
recognized as belonging to the natives. A European company wishing to
mine must get a concession from and pay rent to the native owners of the
land involved. 20

Despite the fact that it had never disturbed the native rights to the
land, the Gold Coast Government did not wish to stand by and uncon¬
cernedly watch the chiefs sell the country out to European mine interests.
In an effort to control these concessions, the government framed the Public
Lands Bill of 1897. The preamble of this bill stated that the purpose
of the government was to “facilitate the acquisition of public land by
private persons,” subject, however, to the control of a Concessions Court.
Now the natives claimed that this preamble would have the effect of
converting native into Crown land, making the British Government the
ultimate and paramount owner of all the unoccupied land in the colony. 21

a Sec. 47 (i), Chapter 71, Laws, p. 714. It appears, however, that the Crown has
claimed the inherent right of ultimus haeres to any land for which no other owner
can be found, but that it has not exercised this right. Cf. Sir H. Belfield, Report
on the Legislation Governing the Alienation of Native Lands in the Gold Coast
Colony and Ashanti, Cd. 6278, para. 23. Cf. also H. H. Hayes Redwar, Commen¬
taries on Some Ordinances of the Gold Coast, 1909.

“This is an example: “This Indenture ... by the Nana Attah Fuah . . .
Omanhene of the Paramount Stool of Akim Kotoku and Kofi Odo of the Stool
of Kikoase, both in the Central Province of the Gold Coast Colony, with the
advice and consent of the Councillors and Elders of the said Stool, acting for
themselves and as representatives of the people of the said stools whose consent
is necessary or requisite according to native law and custom for the valid
alienation of land of the Stool of Kotoku, which assent is testified by. the
execution of these Presents by some of such Councillors and Elders ... on the
one part, and the West African Diamond Syndicate, Lt., on the other.”

In one of the schedules, the Syndicate promises not to disturb cultivation
or villages unless necessary for the reasonable working of the land, and to pay
compensation, as fixed by arbitration, in case of damage to the owners. In
another schedule, the people are given liberty to hunt and snare game, collect
firewood, snails, and building material for their dwellings and to till and culti¬
vate their farms and plantations so far as the same can be done without causing
any interference or damage to any of the mining operations of the Syndicate.
These terms are embodied in concessions now being made, not those made
before the Concession Ordinance of 1900. However, a mine must pay a royalty
to the government in addition to rent to natives.

“See “Humble Petition in the matter of a Proposed Land Ordinance, 1898,”
presented to the Secretary of State for the Colonies.

820

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

Opposition to the bill became so bitter that the Gold Coast Aborigines’
Rights Protection Society was formed, 22 and a deputation to protest
against the bill was sent to London, as a result of which the Public Lands
Bill was withdrawn. In its place, the government in 1900 enacted a
Concessions Ordinance.

6. The Concessions Ordinance

Unlike the practice in other colonies in Africa, this ordinance estab¬
lishes a judicial instead of an executive control over transfers of land
between natives and non-natives. Under the Concessions Ordinance, 23
no concession may be certified as valid unless it is approved by a Concessions
Court, which is composed of Supreme Court judges. The court must
satisfy itself that the proper persons are parties to the concession and that
they understand the nature of its terms; that it has been obtained by
proper means and for an adequate consideration; and that the customary
rights of the natives in regard to shifting cultivation, etc., are reasonably
protected.

Mining concessions are limited to five square miles; and concessions
with respect to timber, rubber, or other products of the soil are limited
to twenty square miles. No person shall at one time hold concessions of
more than twenty square miles of mining rights or of forty square miles
of rights relating to timber, rubber or other products of the soil. It
appears, however, that these limitations are evaded by the practice of
“dummying.” 24 No concessions are valid for a period longer than ninety-
nine years.

A person wishing a concession first approaches the chief of the district
concerned, either personally or through a lawyer. After a period of
bargaining, an indenture is drawn up in English which is read over and
explained to the chief and councillors, and then signed. But as one com¬
missioner reported, “Since these documents have usually been drawn in
the complex language employed by conveyancers, the value of the ex¬
planation given by a superficially educated African may be left to the
imagination.” 25 Within the next six months, the applicant must file the
agreement with the registrar of the court, after which an inquiry is held.
If the court is satisfied that the concession conforms to the provisions of
the Ordinance, it orders a survey, and when it is completed, which is after
a prolonged period of time, it issues a certificate of validity. Any native

23 Cf. Vol. I, p. 830. 23 Chap. 87, Laws.

24 Thus the Apol Company and a number of satellites obtained certificates
over this limit. Cf. the testimony of Mr. Hunt, Minutes of the fVest African
Lands Committee, para. 1215.

25 Sir H. C. Belfield, Report, cited, Cd. 6278, para. 59.

LAND AND LABOR

821

may oppose the concession at the inquiry, in which case the inquiry as¬
sumes the character of civil proceedings, which in some cases are long
drawn out and costly. 26

Under this procedure, the court has no knowledge of the initial negotia¬
tions which take place before notice is filed. “Consequently, these negotia¬
tions are carried on without the knowledge or intervention of any officer,
either of the Government or of the Court, with the result that terms
may be agreed upon which are not sufficiently understood at the time by
the native grantor, and are only realized by him when matters have
progressed too far for alteration. No arrangement can be satisfactory
which leaves the native landowner wholly in the hands of the applicant
at any stage of the proceedings, and which fails to provide him with that
official advice and guidance which is the only means by which his interests
can be certainly and effectively protected.” 27

Once notice has been filed, nothing in the Ordinance compels a con¬
cessionaire to develop his holding. He is not even obliged to take out a
certificate of validity after the completion of the survey. It appears also
that a European may prospect a claim without having obtained a certificate
of validity. His rights are challenged only in case of dispute over the
title. As long as he continues to pay the rent stipulated in the indenture,
his claim remains alive. “The omission of a provision requiring the holder
to place his claim before the court is one of the gravest deficiencies notice¬
able in the measure, for not only does it preclude the Government from
forming any accurate estimate of land alienated, but it constitutes a per¬
petual menace to those who are seeking land with the intention of develop¬
ing it effectually. There are at the present time some hundreds of con¬
cessions ‘under notice’ recorded in the books of the Registrar of the Court.
Many of them have stood there for ten years or more, and though in a
great many cases proceedings have probably been abandoned, there is noth¬
ing to prevent any such claim being further advanced if the claimant
thinks it worth his while to do so . . .” (sec. 66) Only the Attorney
General has power to apply to the court for a rule calling on the holder of a
concession to show cause why it should not be cancelled. 28 This power was
exercised following the World War to cancel concessions covering several
thousand miles.

Moreover, the Concessions Court “is situated at a considerable distance
from the locality in which the concession area is situated.” The Judge
“has no personal knowledge of the land, or of the people who own the
land and are responsible for its disposal. He is dependent for information
as to the proper parties to be summoned on the names which appear on the
*°Cd. 6278, para. 61. ” Ibid., para. 62. “Sec. 23, Chap. 87.

822

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

deed of grant, possibly supplemented by others supplied by the applicant
or his counsel . . (para. 67) These disadvantages could be over¬
come by executive control over concessions such as is exercised in southern
Nigeria or in Uganda. 29

For some reason the ordinance does not apply to agricultural, but only
to mining, timber, and rubber concessions.

The extent to which Gold Coast chiefs have granted concessions to
foreigners may be seen from the following table:

Total area of the Gold Coast Colony 24,335 square miles

Total alienations by natives notified in gazette 25,108 “ “

Total struck out by the courts 10,279 “ “

Total remaining alienated 1913 14,829 “ “

Total area the alienation of which is validated

by the courts up to 1914 1,084 “ “* )

These figures show that up to 1914 the native chiefs had signed away an
area larger than the total area of the colony. While the court had struck
out half of these concessions, the concessions which remained covered in
1914 half the area of the Colony. 31 While only a small portion of
these concessions in 1*913, which nevertheless covered nearly one-twentieth
of the Colony, had received certificates of validity, this was not because
of the opposition of the court which had already approved the principle
of the concession in ordering the survey, but because of delay in completing
the survey or in developing the property. As the Deputy Governor of
the Gold Coast wrote to the Secretary of State in 1913, “The point is that
the Ordinance places little or no check on the alienation of their land by
the representatives of the native proprietors. ... It cannot, in such
circumstances, be said that the Government extends to the governed that
protection which duty demands that it should. ... A real danger exists of
serious wrong being inflicted on the general members of a community
by restrictions being placed on their free cultivation of the land which
they share in common when the uncontrolled action of their rulers has
allowed it to become the subject of concessions. . . .” 82 These excessive

20 Cf. Vol. I, pp. 596, 760.

30 Minutes of the West Africa Lands Committee. An earlier return is given
in Alienation of Tribal Lands, Cd. 5743 (1911).

31 In 1926, the total area comprised in concessions was 9,408 miles—about
five thousand miles less than in 1914, largely because of the action of the Attor¬
ney-General. Of this total, only 3,215 square miles are being worked; 2,163
are mining concessions; while 1,052 square miles are in agricultural concessions.
Mr. Ormsby-Gore, in his report, Visit to West Africa (p. 152) gives different
figures, totalling 1,021 square miles, but apparently these are only “validated”
concessions.

" Letter of April 30, 19x3, Correspondence and Papers Laid Before the West
Africa Lands Committee, p. 33.

LAND AND LABOR

823

alienations by chiefs have not always been due to greed. In many cases
chiefs have been ignorant of the extent of the land which they have
alienated and as a result have granted two concessions to the same piece
of land.

Despite the theoretical ownership of the land by the natives, it appears
that the rents paid by concessionaries to native chiefs are inadequate. In
1925 they amounted to only 7415 pounds. 33 The sums thus derived are
theoretically divided into three parts—one-third is retained by the chief;
one-third goes to the stool for public purposes, and one-third goes to the
elders. But while the land in theory belongs to the tribe, the members
as a whole have obtained no profit from the leases. The chiefs usually
employ the rents for personal extravagance or to pay lawyers’ fees. 34
In fact, those stools which receive rents from concessionaries are usually
plunged deeply into debt, while those stools which have granted no con¬
cessions are usually solvent. This state of affairs could be corrected if
rents from concessions were paid into native treasuries. Following the
trouble over the 1911 Forest Bill, the British Government despatched Sir
H. Conway Belfield to the Gold Coast to study the land situation. He
pointed out the weakness of judicial in contrast to executive control over
concessions; and recommended a plan in which all negotiations for con¬
cessions should take place through the medium of the district and provincial
commissioners. If no opposition is entered, a commissioner of lands should
approve the concession. If opposition is entered, the commissioner of lands
should hold a hearing at the office of the district commissioner, subject
to an appeal to the Full Court. 35

No action on these recommendations was taken; and when the West
African Lands Committee, appointed in 1912, learned of the situation on
the Gold Coast, it asked the Secretary of State to secure the immediate
adoption of an ordinance prohibiting natives from alienating land. But
the Governor of the Gold Coast, on receiving this suggestion, declared that
it was the unanimous sentiment of officials that such an action would be
a blow at native rights. The same considerations which led the govern-

53 The court obviously has difficulty in determining what adequate compensa¬
tion i9. Companies holding concessions pay the rent to the treasurer of the
government who in turn pays the native chief. About half the rents come from
the Tarkwa district—where the gold and manganese mines are located. These
rents are only for certified concessions, but certain payments are made by
companies direct to chiefs for uncertified concessions. The treasurer also holds
a balance of unpaid rents amounting to 2093 pounds, which he cannot pay
because of disputes over destoolment; there is no one to receive the money.

““The Tribe finds itself despoiled of a substantial area of its land for a
period which leaves it dispossessed for two or three generations, and receives
no sort of compensation for the diminution of its property.” Belfield, Report ,
cited, para. 35.

,B Ibid., paras. 87-97.

824

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

ment to hold up the Public Crown Land Act of 1897 and the Forestry
Law of 1911, again kept it from saving the natives from themselves.

The natives are so sensitive in regard to the “encroachments” of the
government upon their land rights and the Concessions Court has been
so long in existence that its abolition at the present time would cause a
great deal of trouble. 30 Nevertheless, it might be desirable to appoint as
judges to the court, officials having had experience with land questions,
thus converting it into a semi-administrative land tribunal. In collabora¬
tion with political officers, it could investigate a proposed concession in its
early stages, while it could also decide stool disputes, and gradually work
out some system of native titles. The Concessions Ordinance should also
include some provisions requiring concession holders to develop their
holdings or withdraw. While history precludes the possibility of success¬
fully abolishing the Concessions Court, the experience of the Gold Coast
seems to show to other colonies that executive control over land transfers is
much more satisfactory than judicial control from the standpoint of pro¬
tecting native interests in the land. 37

7. The Mines

The chief form of European industry in the Gold Coast is mining.
The first commercial gold mining began at Tarkwa in 1879. At present,
the annual output of gold amounts to about eight hundred and seventy-five
thousand pounds. In 1914, manganese was discovered, the exports of
which have increased from about four thousand tons in 1916 to three
hundred and forty thousand tons in l'926. Diamonds have recently been
found in the Eastern Provinces and in 1926-27 exports amounted to
363,000 pounds. All of these mines require native labor. In 1924-25 a
total of 10,338 men was employed in the gold mines alone. 38 Nearly
two thousand natives were employed on the manganese mines, practically all
on surface work, and eight hundred and twenty-five on the diamond mines.
The total native labor employed on these mines was therefore about 13,000.

The railways employ four thousand laborers, and the Harbors 2724,
making a total of nearly twenty thousand natives in industrial employ¬
ment, not including those working in cocoa, transport, agriculture, and
the timber trade, and those otherwise employed by the government. 39

88 A Gold Coast native’9 point of view is presented by Casely Hayford, in
The Truth About the West African Land Question, Chaps. IV, V.

87 The Palm Oil* Ordinance and the concessions issued under it are men¬
tioned in connection with a similar ordinance in Sierra Leone, cf. Vol. I, p. 809.

88 Six thousand seventy-one were employed on surface work and 4,267 under¬
ground. Report on the Mines Department, 1924-1925, p. 5.

“ Minutes of the Legislative Council, 1924-1925, p. 6.

LAND AND LABOR

825

According to the 1921 census, there are about twelve thousand persons
employed as clerks. The Gold Coast Handbook estimates that scarcely
two per cent of the total population has been withdrawn from the age-
old occupations of tilling the soil, hunting, and fishing. 40 Taking the
adult male population at four hundred and fifty thousand (and excluding
alien laborers), it would appear that not more than twenty-five thousand
or about five per cent of the males are in European employment.

In view of the relatively small number of natives thus employed, one
might assume that there is no labor shortage in the Gold Coast. But
the contrary is the case. The Acting Civil Commissioner of the Tarquah
District as early as 1882 wrote that “the Natives of these parts are bad
workers, and are employed as little as possible at the time . . . Captain
Burton and Cameron strongly advocate the importation of coolies.” 41

In 1910 the annual report of the West Africa Chamber of Mines
said: “The local supply of native labourers is well-nigh exhausted and the
Industry is faced with a serious shortage.” They believed it was necessary
to import laborers. 42 In 1923-24 the Mining Department declared that
the Tarquah mines could increase their production at least a thousand tons
a month if the labor were available.

The supply of labor in the mines has varied with the productiveness
of native agriculture. Thus in 1911, seventeen thousand men were em¬
ployed and during the War—1917—the number rose to nineteen thousand;
but in 1920—the cocoa boom year—the number fell to 11',250.

In view of the local labor shortage, the mines have resorted to more
remote sources, the first of which is foreign areas, and the second the
Northern Territories. Nearly half of the mine labor comes from outside
territories such as Liberia and the French colonies, particularly the Ivory
Coast and the Upper-Volta, while a few laborers come from southern
Nigeria. 43

In 1921, the Gold Coast government arranged with the government of
Nigeria to allow Nigerian labor to be recruited for the Gold Coast. It
appears that the administrative officers, in some Nigeria districts at least,
gave their assistance to such recruiting. But it proved a failure, and
to-day there are only about three hundred and sixty such laborers em¬
ployed on the mines.

At the present time, the Mines rely upon the Northern Territories of
the Gold Coast for about twenty per cent of their labor—or nearly three
thousand men. The Mining Department in its 1923-24 report, says,

40 Handbook, 1924, p. 356.

"Quoted, Report on the Mining Department, 1923-24, p. 5.

** Report, 1910-1911, p. 93.

* Schedule H, Report on the Mines Department, 1924-25.

826

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

“The reluctance of the Northern Territories’ boys to leave their country,
and of their Chiefs to let them go, is intensified by the dislike of under¬
ground work, and the comparative unimportance to them of the possession
of money militates against the force of the attractions of high wages and
short hours.” In 1911, the Chamber of Mines sent a deputation to inter¬
view the Colonial Secretary, Mr. Harcourt, in regard to such labor.
He expressed the opinion that the experiment of bringing boys down
from the Northern Territories had proved a failure because the “men did
not come willingly”—an opinion with which the Chairman of the Chamber,
Lord Harris, agreed. 44 Plans to import further men from the Northern
Territories were nevertheless made. But the mines, insisting that they
must have government intervention, declared: “The first step that a chief
would take upon being approached by a Labor Agent would be to go to the
District Commissioner and ask him if all were in order. . . . Were the
Commissioner even to tell the Chief that it was purely a matter of mutual
arrangement between his people and the agent, and that they must judge
of the merits of the latter’s proposal, without interference, the efforts of
the recruiter* would be rendered of no avail. . . The mines had no
wish to “force” laborers into their employ, but they did want the Governor
to issue an order instructing commissioners to “support” recruiting in the
Northern Territories. 45

It appears that the government at this period attempted to aid the
mines in finding laborers and that such labor was actually recruited, for a
time, by the government Transport Department. But as a shortage con¬
tinued to exist, proposals were made in 1912 to import East India coolies
and Chinese labor, an idea which met the opposition of the Secretary of
State. 46 Throughout this period, the mines had no means of preventing a
Northern Territories’ native from returning home at his pleasure, since
desertion was not a penal offense in the Master and Servant Ordinance
of 1893. 47

The 1911 deputation urged the adoption of a penal sanction for
desertion upon the Colonial Office, but it declared that in view of the
strained feeling of the natives toward the government 48 it could not at
that time meet the demand. An amendment to the Master and Servant

44 West Africa Chamber of Mines, Annual Report, 1910*1911, p. 91.

** Ibid., p. 113. This line is very similar to that of the Governors of East
Africa to-day. Cf. Vol. I, p. 550.

49 Gazette No. 15 of 1912. Minutes, Legislative Council, January 27, 1912.

47 Master and Servant and Foreign Employment Act, Chap. 77, Laws, p. 750.
This ordinance merely provided that the court might grant damages, or a fine
of five pounds. In default of payment, the party would be liable to not more
than three months in jail.

48 Cf. Vol. I, p. 802.

LAND AND LABOR

827

Ordinance was finally passed in 1912, which authorized the Governor to
make rules dealing with the return to employers of servants who have
deserted. The Governor, however, did not issue any such rules, and the
mines consequently were not satisfied. However, in 1921' the Legislative
Council passed a Regulation of Employment Act, which, for the first time
in the history of the Gold Coast, made desertion a penal offense.

In 1921, the Gold Coast Chamber of Mines organized recruiting on a
large scale from the Northern Territories. 49 As a result of these efforts,
a number of unfit men and boys were recruited, some of whom “were
tuberculous, and soon broke down under the strain of underground work
to which they were unaccustomed. . . . Some were physically unfit, some
were infected with Anchylostomes and others suffered from defective sight,
ulcers and deformities.” 60

Unsatisfactory housing conditions, inadequate water supply and medical
arrangements further contributed to a high death rate. In 1923-24, the
death rate from all causes for Northern Territories’ boys was 75.27 per
thousand and in 1924-25 it was 60.48 per thousand, a figure which the
Department of Mines called “dreadfully high.” 61 In. contrast, the rate
for local labor was only 12.96 per cent. While it was more difficult to
obtain accurate statistics for local labor, which is largely casual, it seems
clear that the death rate of recruited laborers—coming hundreds of
miles from their homes—is much greater than that of local laborers work¬
ing in familiar surroundings. 62

The death rate became so high on the Gold Coast mines that the
Secretary of State for the Colonies prohibited recruiting of boys from the
Northern Territories in July, 1924, and sent Professor Sir William
Simpson, an expert who has made a large number of studies on sanitation
in various parts of the Empire, to investigate. As a result of his recom¬
mendations, the government enacted a Mining Health Areas Ordinance,
1925, under, which it issued regulations providing for the compulsory
medical examination of labor recruited outside the Colony and also for
proper housing and medical care. 63 As a result of these measures, condi-

* Charges were made that officials assisted in this recruiting, which were
denied by the Gold Coast Government. Nevertheless, the Secretary of State
for the Colonies said: “I have decided that the assistance given to recruiting by
political officers in the Northern Territories must cease.” H. C. Debates, June
23, 1924., Col. 8, Vol. 175.

60 Professor Sir William Simpson, Report on the Sanitary Condition of the
Mines and Mining Villages in the Gold Coast Colony and Ashanti, London, 1925,
P- 5 -

Report on the Mines Department, 1924-25, p. 9.

“The statistics for Portuguese labor in the Union of South Africa bear out
the same conclusions, Cf. Vol. I, p. 33.

“These regulations lay down rules in regard to latrines and incinerators.
Mines shall provide an ample and pure water supply and suitable housing. In

828 THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

tions improved to such an extent that the Colonial Office again authorized
recruiting in March, 1925. The death rate now is only 8.3 per thousand
—which constitutes a vast improvement over former conditions. 64

8. Free Labor

The Gold Coast follows other British colonies in exacting not more
than six days of labor per quarter from all able-bodied men for the purpose
of maintaining any road, as ordered by the Governor. Unlike other
British colonies, the Gold Coast provides for the payment of chiefs at a
rate of not less than five shillings or more than one pound a mile. 56 There
is a danger, however, that under this system the laborers will not receive
any of these payments which are in themselves inadequate.

At the present time, there are about four thousand miles of roads in
the Gold Coast of which all but fourteen hundred miles are maintained
by this system of virtually unpaid labor. 58 The observations made in
regard to this free labor in connection with Nigeria 57 apply with equal
force to the Gold Coast. Such a system cannot legally be applied in the
mandated territories of Togoland.

As far as work for the Railway and Public Works Departments is con¬
cerned, the Governor has recently stated that “in no single instance has
there been anything approaching forced labour in the work of development
of the past seven years.” He continued: “Indeed, I can find no record
of forced labour in the Gold Coast in the present century.” 68

the case of every mine having a thousand or more laborers, a European village
master shall be appointed. Every house in which plague, cholera or a number
of other diseases have occurred shall be disinfected. Plans for new native
villages are subject to the approval of the government. No street shall be
less than thirty feet wide, and there shall be a space of at least eight feet be¬
tween buildings or huts on the same side of the street. No room shall be occu¬
pied by more than one man or man and his wife. Floors shall be cemented.
Each room shall be provided with a bed. The management of every mine
employing five hundred or more persons shall appoint a whole-time medical
officer, and provide hospital accommodation which, in the opinion of the gov¬
ernment, is suitable and adequate. The management of every mine employing
two hundred persons shall appoint a dispenser and provide a dispensary. An
inspecting officer, after due notice, may inspect any Mining Health Area.

M Statement of Mr. Ormsby-Gore, H. C. Debates , July 6, 1926. Col. 1870.

“Roads Ordinance, 1899, Ordinances, Vol. II, p. 1042.

6a Fourteen hundred miles are so-called “motorable” roads which are main¬
tained by the Public Works Department which pays its laborers about eighteen
pence a day in the Colonies, and about one shilling a day in the Northern
Territories.

87 Cf. Vol. I, p. 657.

® Review of the Events of 1920-1926, cited, p. 85. In 1900, however, Gov¬
ernor Sir F. M. Hodgson reported that one of the grievances of the natives was
“the compulsory supply of carriers.” Cd. 501 (1901), p. 10.

CHAPTER 51

HOME RULE ON THE GOLD COAST

The results of European education are much more apparent in the
Gold Coast than in Nigeria. Pioneer work has been done by the Basel
Mission, the Bremen Mission, the Roman Catholic Mission, and the
Wesleyan Society, while the government has also established a number of
schools. The fruits of this effort are an intelligent class of Africans who
are found in the towns of Accra, Cape Coast, and Sekondi and elsewhere.
Twelve thousand of them find employment as clerks, teachers, and clergy¬
men ; fifty practice law, and eleven practice medicine. A number also are
cocoa brokers.

While these Africans have not lost all contact with their tribes, as has
the educated class in Nigeria, they nevertheless have demanded some
participation in the European administration of the Colony.

1. African Civil Servants

The response of the government to this demand came in a statement
made by the Governor in 1921: “The Government’s policy is to employ
Africans who are suitably qualified by education and training in any
appointment in any branch of the Government Service. Two reservations
only are made—the Political Service is not open to Africans as they have
opportunities of serving their country in the Oman Councils of the Stools
to which they belong, while the Secretary of State does not at present
contemplate the appointment of African judges.’’ 1 According to the
administration this policy is dictated primarily out of a sense of justice
and incidentally out of the necessity of reducing expenditure. Under the
present system of incremental salaries and pensions, government expendi¬
ture will automatically increase 267,000 pounds within the next ten years.
The most effective way to cut down this sum is to fill vacancies in European
appointments with Africans. 2

An African receives one-sixth less salary than a European, and conse-

1 Legislative Council Debates, 1926-27, p. 17.

3 In 1920, the Gold Coast Government, owing to the fact that it had gotten
into arrears with its construction of public works, because of the War, adopted
a Ten-Years Development Program, providing for the construction of harbors
(the chief one of which is at Takoradi), railways, roads, posts and telegraphs,
public buildings, etc. This program is financed partly out of loans and partly out
of current revenue. Cf. Table, Ibid., p. 78.

829

830

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

quently a smaller pension. An African obtains leave for nearly three
months at the end of every two years’ service, while the European is absent
from duty about six months out of every two years. The fact that an
African receives less than a European for the same work is justified, in the
eyes of the government, on the ground that he is living in his own country.

Since 1919, the government has appointed thirty-eight Africans to
positions formerly occupied by Europeans, including two police magistrates,
a Crown counsel, an Assistant Secretary for Native Affairs, two Assistant
Treasurers, a chief audit clerk, four medical officers, two inspectors of
schools, one headmaster, and one headmistress, a deputy Vice-Principal
of Achimota College, three assistant Superintendents of Agriculture, two
assistant Commissioners of Police, two surveyors, one African probationary
engineer, two assistant railway accountants, and an assistant government
printer, etc. Further progress will depend upon the success of Achimota. 3

The government has adopted the definite aim of eventually replacing
half the European officials by Africans; i.e. within the next twenty years
the number of Europeans employed in the government will be decreased
by one hundred and sixty-two, while the number of Africans will be in¬
creased by two hundred and one, provided sufficiently educated Africans
present themselves for appointment. This program should give an outlet
for some time to come for those educated Africans who do not care to
return to their tribes. No other colony in Africa has mapped out such
an ambitious and such a liberal program. It is only fair to add that no
other colony in Africa has a class of Africans capable of taking advantage
of such a program.

2. Aborigines' Rights Protection Society
While the educated class has welcomed this development, it has ap¬
parently been more interested in securing representation on the Legislative
Council.

Many of these educated natives belonged to what is called the Gold
Coast Aborigines’ Protection Society which came into existence in connec¬
tion with the opposition offered to the Land Bill in 1897. 4 At that time,
the Gold Coast Governor congratulated the chiefs and commoners upon
the formation of this Society and said that the government looked to the
Society “for ready assistance and cordial cooperation at all times in the
difficult task of beneficial government.’’ 5 The Society is composed of

* Cf. Vol. I, p. 848. 4 Cf. Vol. I, p. 818.

“These are the words of the Constitution of the Society, printed as Appendix
A to the Memorandum “A” which accompanied the Petition to the Crown
against the Gold Coast Colony (Legislative Council) Order in Council, 1925.

HOME RULE ON THE GOLD COAST

831

most of the chiefs of the central province together with a number of
traders, lawyers, and other natives at Cape Coast Castle and elsewhere.
Sir H. C. Belfield reported: “There is no doubt that the inception of the
Society was due to the expressed wish of the chiefs themselves, and that
they take as active a part in its proceedings as any of the educated mem¬
bers.” He defines its purpose as one “of opposing and blocking any action
by the Government or by any persons which may, in the opinion of the
members, be subversive of their interests or likely to be prejudicial to their
native customs or their canons of land tenure.” 6

Each member undertakes to contribute annually to the Society the
sum of ten pounds, which is supplemented by special contributions when
any movement is anticipated. Thus in the campaign against the Forest
Ordinance, such contributions ranged from ninety pounds to three hundred
and fifty pounds. According to Sir H. C. Belfield funds were sub¬
scribed by chiefs alone; the lawyers, however, contribute their services gratis.

In the past, native opposition to government policy has been led by
the Protection Society, and the most recent and important contest has
been over the Legislative and Provincial Councils. In their petition
against the Crown Land Bill of 1897, the Gold Coast Deputation re¬
spectfully submitted that the time had come when they “should be allowed
to take part in the work of legislation” for their native land. Toward
this end, the kings and chiefs should elect eight members to the Legislative
Council, according to provinces. Between 1883 and 1926, the Gold Coast
Legislative Council contained, however, only nominated unofficial mem¬
bers. The last constitution, granted in 1916, 7 provides for twelve official
members, and a number of unofficial members appointed by the Governor,
which came to be fixed at nine. Three of these were head chiefs represent¬
ing the country natives; three were educated African lawyers living in
the coast towns; and three were Europeans, representing commercial min¬
ing and banking interests.

Following the World War, a demand arose from all of the West
African Colonies for elected representatives. While this request was first
satisfied in Nigeria and Sierra Leone, it appears that it originated in the
Gold Coast. The immediate cause of this demand was the enactment
by the official majority of the export duty on cocoa and palm oil in 1916,
under instructions from the Colonial Office, and over the heads of the
unofficial members. 8

a Report, cited, Cd. 6278, para. 162.

7 Cf. the Letters Patent, Sept. 20, 1916. Statutory Rules and Orders, 1916,
p. 227.

8 Cf. Vol. I, p. 815.

832

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

3. African National Congress

In March, 1920, a conference of representatives of the four West
African colonies 9 was held at Accra, where the National Congress of
British West Africa—modelled apparently after the Indian National
Congress—was organized. Because of the fact that the Nigerians who
first participated in this congress did not happen to belong to the Nigerian
Democratic Party, the predominant political group in Lagos, Nigeria has
not participated very vigorously in the congress, which is consequently
dominated by the Gold Coast Africans. The headquarters of the organiza¬
tion are in Sekondi, while branches are maintained in each colony. Annual
congresses are held.

At the first congress, held in 1920, a number of resolutions were passed,
the most important of which dealt with the franchise. The congress asked
that a Legislative Council should be established in each colony, half of
the members of which should be nominated and half elected. A House of
Assembly should also be established, composed of the members of the
Legislative Council together with six other “fianancial” representatives
elected by the people, “who shall have the power of imposing all taxes
and of discussing freely and without reserve the items on the Annual
Estimates. . . This plan would thus give the Africans control over
revenue.

In October, 1920, the congress sent a delegation to England which,
with the aid of London barristers, submitted petitions asking the Colonial
Office to adopt this reform. It also discussed West African affairs with
such bodies as the League of Nations Union. 10

In the midst of these discussions, the Governors of the Gold Coast
and Nigeria informed the Colonial Office that the congress was “in no way
representative of the Native Communities on whose behalf it purports to
speak.” 11 In reply, the congress produced evidence to show that it had the
support of leading Africans—and to-day it appears that this is true so far
as the educated classes of Sierra Leone and the Gold Coast are concerned. 12

8 Sierra Leone, Gold Coast, Gambia, and Nigeria. The writer did not visit
Gambia. It is understood that Gambia has not yet received a Legislative
Council having elected members.

& Report of the Proceedings of a Meeting between the League of Nations Union
and the Delegates of the National Congress of British West Africa.

u Several chiefs on the Gold Coast (and several educated Africans in Ni¬
geria) expressly repudiated the congress. This body did not improve its position
by memorializing the Colonial Office without first informing the local govern¬
ment. Cf. “Further Correspondence Relating to the National Congress of
British West Africa,” Gold Coast Sessional Paper X. 1920-1921, p. 14.

12 In opposing the “obnoxious system” of direct taxation which the govern¬
ment is attempting to introduce into Lagos, the Gold Coast Leader (March 26,
1927) has said that if it is successfully collected there, it will be applied to the

HOME RULE ON THE GOLD COAST

833

Nevertheless Lord Milner, Secretary of State for the Colonies, decided that
the time had not yet come either for the principle of election or of official
majorities on the West African Legislative Councils. But shortly after¬
ward, the Colonial Office reversed its opinion and granted the principle of
election to the Nigeria Council. 13 In the following year, the Gold Coast
Government invited the chiefs and also the Aborigines’ Rights Protection
Society to submit suggestions designed to “reconcile elective representation
with the rule” of the Oman or chief. It declined to make any recommen¬
dations as to the elective principle until this reconciliation could be
effected. 14 Thus, it paid more attention to the tribal interests of its
country than did the Nigerian Government.

4. Local Self-Government

Meanwhile the administration introduced into the Legislative Council,
in 1924, a Municipal Corporations Bill, designed to grant local self-
government to the natives of Accra and other cities. Ever since 1894,
the towns of the Gold Coast have had Town Councils, 15 half of whose
members are elected by the ratepayers and half nominated by the Governor.
Since the chairman, who is appointed by the Governor, has a casting vote,
the councils have in effect an official majority. The chairman also acts as
treasurer. The councils may impose local rates on houses, and lands and
other objects; and they have certain administrative powers.

Several commissions have pointed out that because of the official ma¬
jority, the elected African members have no real responsibility imposed upon
them—a condition which has “bred indifference to the work of the
Council” and “fostered ignorance as to their constitutions and duties.” 18
The people of the towns have been largely unconcerned with this system.
Out of 1117 persons on the Accra voting list, only forty-six voted in the
1922 elections; and out of seven hundred and seventeen persons in Cape
Coast, none voted. In Sekondi, there were two votes out of two hundred

Gold Coast, Sierra, Leone, and Gambia. “We believe it will occur to every
sensible African that under the conditions in which we live with our rulers closing
in upon us at every stage it is imperative for us the people of British West
Africa to come together and to think and act together. . . . We must strike for
a measure of control over our affairs which will render us less and less the
butt of political experiment by our rulers. At present, we have firmly estab¬
lished the National Congress of British West Africa, and we are appealing to
all patriotic sons of the soil to arouse themselves, and make a determinate stand
for liberty and justice.”

u Cf. Vol. I, p. 740.

14 Legislative Council Debates, 1923-24, p. 65.

“Town Councils Ordinance, Chap. 66, Laws, p. 679.

““Report by the Town Councils Committee on the Constitution and Work¬
ing of the Existing Town Councils in the Colony.” Sessional Paper XVII,
1922-23, p. 17.

834

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

and ninety-nine. 17 On four occasions, unofficial members had to be nomi¬
nated by the government because of the failure of candidates to present
themselves for election.

In 1913, a commissioner wrote, “To my mind the attempt to impose
suddenly on a native community, having its own established organization,
a constitution, whether it be municipal or otherwise, of gradual and exotic
growth is doomed to failure and I am sure that native interest could only
be properly stimulated by some form of local government based on the
existing political structure.” 18 In 1923, the Town Council’s Committee
similarly declared that the “English system of local self-government is
foreign to the African genius. ... It is absurd to expect the African to
assimilate in a few years a political system which is the growth of centuries
in its home and which, while not necessarily opposed in principle to his
accustomed constitution, is the product of an alien civilisation and is entirely
new to him in its detailed application. . . 10 Except for the recom¬

mendation that the Paramount Chief of the locality should be given a
right to sit on the Council but not speak or vote, the Committee did not
make any recommendations as to how native institutions and this type
of municipal government could be reconciled. 20 It simply advocated giving
more power to town councils which should be recognized on the basis of
elective majorities.

Acting upon this report, the government brought about the enactment
in 1924 of the Municipal Corporations Ordinance, 21 which authorizes the
establishment of Municipal Councils having majorities of elected members,
serving for three years. 22 The Governor may also appoint members not
to exceed one-third of those elected to the Council. To be eligible to be

17 F. G. Crowther, et al., Report on Operations of Town Councils, Accra,
1913.

Ibid.

“Sessional Paper XVII, I922-23, cited, p. 20. It also declared (p. 23) that
“the grant of full democratic institutions to a community before the general
body of the people is fit and ready to exercise its powers and duties is a very
dangerous proceeding. It frequently results in the concentration of power in
the hands of a few persons who have neither the training nor the traditions
behind them which would enable them to administer the government as trustees
of the people and not for their own ends; while the people themselves are
divorced from the guidance and rule of their natural leaders.”

30 It implied on the other hand, that they should eventually give way to
British forms. “As new people and nations have come within the orbit of the
Empire they have come under the influence of its political institutions and as
they have fitted themselves for those institutions so have their privileges been
extended to them. The process, to be sure, must be gradual, but at the same
time it must be steady and continuous and it must incorporate the best features
of the indigenous institutions of the nations concerned. . . .” Ibid., p. 68.

“No. 29 of 1924.

“In case the town has a population of less than ten thousand there shall be
twelve members. In case it has more, fifteen members may be elected.

HOME RULE ON THE GOLD COAST

835

a councillor, one must be conversant with the English language. Both
men and women are eligible to office and both may vote, provided they
occupy or own property the annual value of which is not less than five
pounds. No literacy test is required. Voting for councillors takes place
by wards. A person whose claim to be registered is rejected may appeal
to the British courts. The Attorney-General as well as a native returning
officer may prosecute charges of corrupt practices in the English courts.

The Council, thus elected, selects from among its members a mayor
and deputy mayor. It appoints a person, not a member of the Council,
as town clerk, and a treasurer, who has charge of the town fund. 23 The
Council fixes the remuneration of officials, subject to the approval of the
British Government. It may levy a town rate and draw up estimates,
subject to like approval. To determine the value of property upon which
rates are levied, the Council appoints valuing assessors. Any one discon¬
tented with their decisions may appeal to the police magistrate—a European
official.

While the municipal officers may thus be Africans, the Governor
appoints a health officer and a municipal engineer, who serve as nominated
members of the Council. If it appears from the reports of these officers
that the public health or building ordinances, etc., are not being enforced
by the municipal authorities, representations may be made to the Governor.
In case the Council fails to perform its duties in these or in other respects,
the Governor may appoint a temporary board of three or more persons
to perform any particular duty; and when the Council persistently makes
default, the Governor may order its dissolution.

The Municipal Council is responsible for carrying out the provisions
of a large number of ordinances and provisions of the Gold Coast Criminal
Code, dealing for the most part with the suppression of nuisances, the
imposition of licenses, and health matters. It must also maintain the
roads, public latrines and dust-bins; and it is responsible for the removal
of refuse, the water supply, lighting, markets, and pounds, and the in¬
spection of foodstuffs. It may lay down building regulations and control
congested areas. Persons violating by-laws of the Council on such
matters are liable to a fine of five pounds. The Governor may transfer
any powers which are exercised by a government department to the Town
Council.

The accounts of the Council, kept by an African treasurer, are annually
audited by the British government.

83 No payment may be made out of the Town Fund except under the
authority of the Council; and every payment exceeding two pounds shall be
made by check signed by two members of the Council and countersigned by the
Town Clerk.

836

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

Such is the carefully worked out plan for municipal self-government
under a system of councils having elected majorities and African municipal
officials. Two types of checks are imposed: an African may appeal to
the British courts if he feels that his rights have been infringed upon;
while British medical officers and engineers continue to supervise sanitation.
The government has appointed an administrative officer to assist in the
establishment of these Councils.

It was announced that the government would not grant towns elective
representation in the Legislative Council of the Colony until the towns
had adopted this system of self-government and thus demonstrated their
capacity to govern themselves in local matters . 24

The connection of these two measures was vigorously opposed by many
African leaders who declared the Municipal Corporations measure meant
increased taxation and that it interfered with existing native institutions.
The natives of Accra at the present time are ruled by their head chief,
the Ga Mantse, and a number of sub-chiefs. At a meeting of the Accra
people in 1921, the Ga Mantse moved a resolution expressing sympathy
with the government’s plan for municipal administration, “provided always
that the proposed reorganisation does not in any way infringe upon the
rights, duties and privileges of the Chiefs of the Colony and Native
Custom.” The passage of the Municipal Corporations Ordinance in 1924,
apparently with the Ga Mantse’s approval, took place without the publica¬
tion of the bill two weeks previously in the Gazette, as is the custom with
legislative proposals. Some of the people took offense at this abruptness,
and started a movement to destool the Ga Mantse on the ground that he
should have informed them of the pending ordinance, which they opposed,
not so much because it interfered with native institutions, as because it
meant new taxes. Following a series of incidents which it is not necessary
to recount here, some natives who had previously opposed the Ga Mantse
on another issue held a meeting and pronounced his deposition. Upon
investigation, the government came to the conclusion that the Ga Mantse
had not been destooled in accordance with native custom, but that this
action had been taken by an unruly mob which did not represent the people
nor follow native forms. 25 Consequently, it continued to recognize him as
the ruler of the town. The relationship of the Ga Mantse to the
municipal organization is not, however, clearly established. Presumably
his tribunal will continue to function as there is no provision in the
Municipal Corporations Ordinance for the establishment of municipal

24 Cf. Legislative Council Debates, 1925-26, p. 143.

““Report of an Inquiry under the Commissions of Inquiry Ordinance,”
Sessional Paper, X-192S-I926.

HOME RULE ON THE GOLD COAST

837

tribunals, except that the mayor is ex-officio a justice of the
peace.

Feeling in Accra against the new scheme continued to be so tense
that the government appointed a commissioner to inquire into the objec¬
tions of the people. He reported that public opinion was emphatically
against the scheme, and that the people were suffering from financial
depression. 20

Nevertheless, the government clung to its position that the people of
Accra should put the system into operation before they could elect mem¬
bers to the Legislative Council.

Inasmuch as many features of this municipal constitution are alien to
native ideas, native objections to the scheme are easy to understand.
Despite the fact that they contain an overwhelming majority of native
inhabitants, the cities of West Africa have been built on European lines,
and they are the centers of European business enterprise and government
activity. These cities are, therefore, the last areas in a colony which the
natives can be expected to govern successfully. A tardy recognition of
this fact led the government to announce in December, 1926, that the
application of the municipal ordinance would be postponed. 27

5. The New Constitution

Meanwhile, in May, 1925, a new constitution was granted the Gold
Coast, which provided for the establishment of a Legislative Council of
fifteen official and fourteen unofficial members. 28 Of the fourteen unofficial
members, five are Europeans—three members nominated by the Governor
to represent shipping, banking, and mercantile interests; one elected by
an electoral college selected by the Chambers of Commerce, and one
chosen by the Gold Coast Chamber of Mines. Of the remaining nine
African members, three are to be elected by the towns—one each from
Accra, Cape Coast, and Sekondi. The electorate of the town, as prescribed
in the Municipal Corporations Ordinance, is the electorate for the mu¬
nicipal members of the Legislative Council. 29

The six other African members are “Head Chiefs” elected in each
of the three provinces of the Colony by a Provincial Council of Head
Chiefs. The Provincial Council of the Eastern Province elects three
representatives; the Central Province two, and the Western Province one—

" "Report on Objections to the Municipal Corporations Ordinance,” Sessional
Paper I, 1925-26, p. 12.

” Statement to Legislative Council, November 16, 1926, Gold Coast Leader,
December 4, 1926.

“Letters Patent, May 23, 1925, Gazelle, December 10, 1925, p. 1816. The old
council had eleven official and nine unofficial members.

“Order in Council, April 8, 1925, XX (2).

838

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

in accordance with population. The Council of the Eastern Province is
divided into three sections, one chief being selected from each of the Ga,
Ewe and Akan sections. Each member of the Council has one vote for
every ten thousand inhabitants in his division or stool. The government
hopes that these Councils of chiefs will, in addition to performing this
elective function, also serve to strengthen tribal authority. 30

6. Attack Against the Provincial Councils

Notwithstanding the recognition of the elective principle, the educated
Africans vigorously attacked the new constitution on the ground that it
gave undue representation to the chiefs in comparison with the educated
classes in the towns, and that in establishing these Provincial Councils
and providing for the representation of chiefs on the Legislative Council,
the government had violated native custom. The three cities of the Gold
Coast, having a combined population of about sixty-three thousand, have
three representatives, in comparison with Lagos and Calabar in Nigeria,
who together have four representatives. Lagos and Calabar contain,
however, nearly twice the population of the three Gold Coast cities. In
contrast to the three Paramount Chiefs who are nominated members of the
Sierra Leone Council, six paramount chiefs will represent the natives of
the Gold Coast. From these-figures it would appear, therefore, that the
city population of the Gold Coast is as well represented as the city
population of the other West African colonies, but that the country
natives on the Gold Coast receive a greater representation in the Gold
Coast than elsewhere. In all of these colonies the country population
outnumbers that of the city ten to one. On the other hand, practically
ail of the country natives are illiterate. Moreover, while in Sierra Leone
and in Nigeria the chiefs or representatives of the chiefs are nominated
by the Governor, in the Gold Coast they are elected by the chiefs.

The establishment of these Provincial Councils will, according to native
leaders, tend to create a division between the chiefs and the educated class
in the Gold Coast. In the good old days, they assert, the Gold Coast
chiefs could do nothing without the consent of their councils. Yet through
the Provincial Councils, they will exercise large powers which these
elders cannot control as they should according to native law. According
to custom, a chief may only speak in public through his linguist and in
the vernacular. Yet he is obliged to take a personal part in the debates of
the Legislative Council. On the other hand, only one or two chiefs
in the colony know English, and it is urged that the others, being illiterate,
would be under the thumb of the administration. Native leaders assert
*°Cf. Vol. I, p. 810.

HOME RULE ON THE GOLD COAST

839

that the elections of the Provincial Councils are already under such
control. 81

This effort of the educated commoners, represented by the Aborigines’
Rights Protection Society, to reduce the Gold Coast chiefs to the position
of figureheads, was strangely inconsistent with the past policy of the Society
which had resolutely supported native institutions against imagined
encroachments of the government. This new position was, moreover,
inconsistent with the previous utterances of the leader of the Society, Mr.
Casely Hayford, who a number of years ago wrote in his book, Gold
Coast Native Institutions, as follows: “At the head of the native state
stands prominently the Ohin (king), who is the Chief Magistrate and
Chief Military Leader of the State. He is first in the Councils of the
country, and the first Executive Officer. His influence is only measured by
the strength of his character. He it is who represents the state in all its
dealings with the outside world; and, so long as he keeps within constitu¬
tional bounds, he is supreme in his own state.”

It appears that the African leaders would be satisfied if the chiefs
were allowed to elect any African—and not merely a chief—as their
representative. This proposal, somewhat inconsistent with the arguments
made against Provincial Councils, would, the government believed,
eventually place the representation of the chiefs in the hands of the
barrister class, which already has three seats.

It was also argued that the division of the chiefs into three Provincial
Councils struck a blow at the national unity of the Gold Coast people,
represented by the Aborigines’ Rights Protection Society. One African
paper declared, “We cannot too often remind our people that the Gold
Coast Aborigines’ Rights Protection Society took up the work just where
the Fanti Confederation 82 left it; and, whereas in the Confederation days
the assembly at Mankesim was the national assembly of the people, so is
the assembly today of the Aborigines Society at Cape Coast the national
assembly of the people.” 88 The efforts of the government to establish
Provincial Councils were an attempt to disunite the people. The situation
was, according to the same paper, “one of life and death with us as a
people.” It continued: “We have said before that there is no harm in the
Chiefs of a Province meeting and discussing their own domestic affairs,
but when it comes to coaxing the same Chiefs provincially to settle matters

33 The Gold Coast Leader declared (May 22, 1926), “The issue is one of
life and death with us, for if you perpetuate the possibility of the return of
dummies to the Legislature, our national independence is gone forever. Prob¬
ably that is what has been aimed at all the time, to so gag the people that
while they have a machinery ostensibly of an advanced type, yet to be truly
and really voiceless in the affairs of their own country. . . .”

82 Cf. Vol. I, p. 796. 33 Gold Coast Leader, July 10, 1926.

840

THE NATIy'E PROBLEM IN AFRICA

common to the whole country and apart from the sub-Chiefs and the
people, then we are bordering dangerously upon the stage of disruption
which will end all our national aspirations. . . . Either we dissolve the
Gold Coast Aborigines’ Rights Protection Society, or maintain it at all
costs. If we suffer it to be dissolved, the prop of our nationhood is
destroyed.” 84

In reply the government stated that the Provincial Councils had their
origin in native custom, that the Eastern Province Head Chiefs met in
Council in 1828, in 1852, in 1874, and again in 1918, and that the Central
Head Chiefs had also met together in 1852 and in 1868.

The arguments against the Provincial Councils were vigorously urged
upon Mr. Ormsby-Gore, the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, on
his visit to West Africa in 1926, by a representation of the Congress of
British West Africa and the Aborigines’ Protection Society. They were
also vigorously presented in the Legislative Council by several nominated
members, and in the local press. In the fall of 1926, the Aborigines’
Protection Society sent a delegation to the Colonial Office in London,
asking for the amendment of the constitution. 35

While the educated element thus protested against the constitution,
a number of chiefs supported it. One of them declared in the Legislative
Council, “There is nothing to fear as to the Provincial Council breaking
the constitution, or the institutions and customary laws of this country. On
the contrary, it will tend to the solidarity of the Native Administration.”
He quoted from books written by Gold Coast Africans, who now opposed
the constitution, to the effect that a Gold Coast king had real power. He
also declared that the king would merely act as the representative of his
people on the Council. The linguist could accompany the chief and advise
him at meetings of the Legislative Council. 36

Meanwhile, the government went ahead with preparations for the
meetings of the three Provincial Councils, which met on the seventeenth of
May. 37 In the Central Provinces, eleven out of the twenty-two head

94 In its petition to the King against the Council, the Aborigines Rights’ Pro¬
tection Society declared that the “National Federal system of the people of the
Gold Coast finds its expression in the Society” and that the “creation of the
Provincial Councils must tend to the disruption of the Society and the destruc¬
tion of the national spirit and sentiment. Ibid., December 4, 11, 1926.

“The text of the “Humble Petition” to the King is printed in Ibid., December
4 and 11, 1926. The petition as accompanied by “The Memorandum marked
A.” “In the Matter of the Gold Coast Colony. 0

88 Legislative Council Debates, 1926-27, p. 345 ff.

“According to the Legislative Council Electoral Regulations (Regulation 8
of 1926), each member of the Provincial Council may be accompanied by four
of the councillors of the stool who cannot vote or take part in the proceed¬
ings, but merely advise.

The provincial commissioner prepares a schedule showing the number of

HOME RULE ON THE GOLD COAST 841

chiefs put in their appearance and elected their two representatives; in the
Eastern Province, chiefs from eleven out of the twelve divisions met and
elected three councillors. 38 While the Provincial Council of the Western
provinces met, it flatly declined to elect a representative. One of the
reasons advanced was that they already had a conference of Natural
Rulers in the form of the Gold Coast Aborigines’ Rights Protection
Society. Since this society had discussed the resolutions at a special con¬
ference, the chiefs did not wish to discuss the matter outside of the
Society. 39

Inasmuch as none of the three towns had put in operation the Municipal
Corporations Ordinance by 1926, no elections were held for municipal
members. Finally realizing the difficulties of connecting up local self-
government with elections for the Legislative Council, the Gold Coast
Government asked the Secretary of State to withdraw this restriction and
allow the municipal members to be elected at once. But as time was re¬
quired to secure an amendment to the Letters Patent to this effect, the
government nominated a municipal member from each of these towns for
the period of one year. Yet so strong was local feeling, that a large num¬
ber of Africans who were first approached declined to serve. The members
finally nominated were accused of being unrepresentative of the, people. 40
Thus constituted, the new Legislative Council met in September, 1926.

These disinterested attempts to create a Legislative Council in which
native institutions as well as the educated class of natives may both
participate thus brought upon the government volleys of criticism and
created an antagonism between the educated class and some of the chiefs
which apparently had not existed before. 41 The proposal to have the

votes to which each member is entitled, and presides at the first meeting. He
then withdraws, and the Provincial Council proceeds to the elections. The
members may, however, request the commissioner to preside over the elections.

“ Gazette, 1926, pp. 764, 841.

* Gold Coast Leader, June 12, 1926.

"In his address to the Council, the acting Governor protested against the
“wild rumors” being circulated, one of which was that the government planned
to create a super-Paramount Chief. In its editorial of September 18, 1926, the
Gold Coast Independent virtually repeated the charge because of the support
which the government was giving Chief Nana Ofori Atta in his campaign
against the Aborigines’ Rights Protection Society.

"The Gold Coast Independent says (August 7, 1926), “Only thirty years
ago, when the Gold Coast nation had occasion to oppose the Crown Lands
Ordinance, they did so as one mass—literates and illiterates working together
with Paramount and Sub-Chiefs as one people. Again only in 1911, when the
Forestry Bill was introduced, and the measure was opposed by the people, the
same steps were taken as in 1897. What has happened since? We now see
a distinct cleavage being made by Government between literates or educated
natives, who are styled the Intelligentsia, and Paramount Chiefs as the true
and accredited representatives of the illiterate masses, supported naturally by
the political officers, as if the educated classes are some foreign breeds imported
into the Colony! We find the educated leaders being spoken of as denationalized

842

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

chiefs elect their own representatives to the Legislative Council is probably
sound. Yet the creation of Provincial Councils—inconsistently enough—
is not based on an ethnic principle. It would seem to an outsider that
if native institutions are really to be utilized, an effort should be made
to organize councils upon a real tribal basis. At present, representation
is controlled merely by geography.

7. A Gold Coast Nation

To a visitor, the controversy which is now raging in the Gold Coast
seems to be due to misplaced emphasis. As a result of the present policies
of the administration, the African has been led to believe that the Legisla¬
tive Council is the center of the government of the colony. Perhaps it is
at the present time. But under the theory of native rule, which the Gold
Coast Government has accepted and which is being applied in Nigeria, the
Legislative Council is merely an organ of control; and the real government
of the people should vest to an ever-increasing extent in the stools. At
the present time, the head chiefs of the Gold Coast have very restricted
judicial powers; they have no revenue apart from court fees and fines—in
itself a bad system—and some royalties, the chief result of which has been
indebtedness and litigation. The establishment of a native judicial system,
in which the Court of the Paramount Chief is definitely recognized as
supreme over the courts of sub-chiefs, and the establishment of native
treasuries, fed by direct taxes, would do much toward restoring the
strength of native institutions. Such indeed is the object of the new
Native Administration Bill. The Provincial Councils under this bill will
become the real source of native law. As a chief declared at a meeting
of the Legislative Council, “the Provincial Council will be the backbone
of Native Administration.” 42

The activities of the Councils in this respect will undoubtedly become
much more important than the mere selection of representatives on the
Legislative Council at Accra.

The goal of the Gold Coast should not be an African Legislative
Council—which as at present constituted is a European device. Its goal
should be a united African nation, governed by institutions of local origin.
The Fanti people are a great nation. They attempted to establish a govern¬
ment of their own in 1873—the Fanti Confederation. It failed because of
British opposition. But could not the idea be revived to-day? Such a
Confederation, composed of chiefs and elected representatives, could event¬
ually be given funds of its own with which it could provide for national

or detribalised, and not in any sense the leaders of the illiterate masses, but
usurpers of the rights and powers of the Paramount Chiefs.”

43 Legislative Council Debates, 1926-27, p. 345.

HOME RULE ON THE GOLD COAST _843

needs. A development of the Provincial Council idea, such a scheme
could apply the Nigerian native treasury system upon a larger scale. Thus
a Confederation, which would be subject to European advice, should con¬
stitute a supreme court for native affairs to which controversies between
stools and those over destoolments could be referred. It might wish to
have several representatives on the European Legislative Council. But
under such an institution, the weight of the government would be gradu¬
ally and slowly transferred from British to native authority. This de¬
velopment could first be commenced in Ashanti because native machinery
already exists in the form of King Prempeh’s newly restored kingdom. It
will be many years before an Ashanti nation on the one hand and a Fanti
Confederation on the other will have gained the experience necessary to
enable them to do without European advice. When this time comes and
even before, the Fanti and Ashanti people, having a common origin, will
cry out for unity which would have been achieved by the force of Ashanti
arms many years ago, had it not been for British intervention. A Gold
Coast native paper has recently said, in commenting upon the restoration
of King Prempeh, "The Ashanti and the people of the Gold Coast are
cousins,” and “they are destined in the order of Providence to become
welded together in one national unity and entity.

"It ought to be a proud thing for Great Britain to help to rear a
nation in the Gold Coast and Ashanti which will form a nucleus of the
yet greater nation to be, namely, that of British West Africa, with a
Parliament of its own, in the way of self-government at some distant date
leading up to Dominion Status.” 4S

Many unsympathetic critics have dubbed the educated leaders of West
Africa as "detribalized.” However true the accusation may be in regard
to Nigeria and to Sierra Leone, the statement is unfair as applied to the
Gold Coast. 44 Virtually every educated man proudly acknowledges his
membership in a native stool. Few of them look to the disappearance of
their chiefs. Although they may copy European dress and read European
history, they are proud of the fact that they are Africans. Largely through
the fact of a common racial origin and the activities of the Aborigines
Rights’ Protection Society, there is a national sentiment in the Gold Coast
to-day which exists nowhere else in West Africa and which can be matched
on the entire continent only in Buganda and in Basutoland. 45

® Gold Coast Leader, November 27, 1926, p. 6.

44 Mr. Ormsby-Gore’s statements about detribalized Africans were severely
criticized in two editorials (December 4 and ii, 1926) of the Gold Coast
Leader.

“Its spirit is represented in such books as Ethiopia Unbound, by Casely Hay-
ford, London, 1911. Another writer says, “We are a nation. We have a past.

844

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

In view of the history of the Gold Coast—a history marked by the
vacillation of British policy (or several hundred yean—which has produced
an air of semi-truculent independence among the people, the administration
has a more difficult task than in other West Coast posse■icmi. But
because of this very spirit of independence am o og st them, the Gold Coast
people under careful and imaginative guidance may eventually set an exam¬
ple to the rest of Africa.

We own s concentric system of government; of oae Pace bore sod brad upon
our own soil Witb tbs Aten longue go ooe ran rover a seaboard, J jo miles
In esteot. 1 * Rev. 8. R. B. Anob Abums, T It Geld Cssit Aeries sad Aefiess/
Cearrieare, Liverpool, istt.

CHAPTER 52

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

Whether or not the Gold Coast moves toward the goal of self-gov¬
ernment will probably depend upon the degree to which it can adapt its
native institutions to the impact of western civilization and western
knowledge. Except for the mines, the economic development of the Gold
Coast follows, as we have seen, native rather than European methods,
and hence disturbs the traditional life and the group fabric of the people
much less than in territories such as Kenya, the Belgian Congo, and South
Africa, where the natives are obliged to work for European employers
under unnatural conditions.

1. Health

Thus aided by an economic system which does not of itself produce the
disintegration of native life, the Gold Coast medical service has an oppor¬
tunity really to improve the physical happiness of the population and to
increase the birthrate. While mortality statistics are generally lacking,
they have been kept in nineteen towns, having a total population of 141,643
natives. They cannot be taken, however, as accurate.

Birth, Death, and Infant Mortality Rate in the Gold Coast

Year

1918

1919

1923-

1924-

No. of births

2,031

2,045

1,927

2,075

2,963

2,988

2,941

3,on

No. of deaths

3,164

s ,°83

2,524

3,233

2,916

3,283

3,285

3 , 59 i

No. of still-

births

102

103

102

1 5 3

149

117

124

Infant mortality

per 1,000

births 1

359-6

405

247

231-92’

254.2

203 '

a For Accra only.
a For the year 1922.

3 Report on the Births and Deaths for the period April 1924-March 1925, Gold
Coast, pp. 3, 6.

According to these figures, there were 7,098 more deaths than births
over this period of eight years, and the mortality rate for this period was
23.9 per thousand. It will be noted that in the city of Accra, infant
845

846

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

mortality, i.e ., deaths during the first year, ranged betwen two hundred
and three and four hundred and five per thousand. It thus appears that
the population of the Gold Coast in congested centers, at least, has shown
a decline. Whether or not this is due to the crowded and unnatural
living conditions in the towns in comparison with the country it is impos¬
sible to say. In order to combat the march of disease, the Gold Coast
Government, in addition to a medical service calling for eighty doctors, 1
has erected the finest hospital in Africa, where African doctors and dis¬
pensers will be trained. 2

Altogether the Gold Coast has thirty-seven hospitals containing about
eight hundred beds; and in 1926, the medical service treated ten thousand
inpatients and one hundred thousand outpatients—less than half the num¬
ber treated in either Kenya, Tanganyika, or Uganda. 3 Native welfare
expenditures in the Gold Coast are higher than in any other territory in
Africa, excluding Zanzibar. The financial efforts of the Gold Coast Gov¬
ernment toward the improvement of these aspects of native life are shown
by the table on the next page.

Likewise, the Gold Coast people must learn to become economically
self-reliant, if they are to become worthy of self-government. Partly as a
result of the agricultural service of the government, the Gold Coast farmer
has become wealthy. But, as we have seen, much remains to be done before
he is able to take care of the soil and his crops intelligently. Finally, the
ultimate fate of the Gold Coast will depend upon the degree to which
the local population absorbs the right kind of education.

2. Education

The educational policy of the Gold Coast has followed that of other
British colonies. While the government has undertaken to operate a few
schools itself—notably some very successful Junior Trade Schools—it
has allowed the bulk of the educational work to be performed by the
missionary societies, which it has assisted by grants-in aid. About 29,000
pounds were spent in 1924 on subsidies to mission schools, a figure which
increased to 30,887 in 1926, and which will soon be increased to 70,000
pounds annually. In 1924, a total of about 30,500 children attended
government and assisted institutions. 4

Despite these efforts, the government believes that the results of the

1 These figures are taken from the Gold Coast Estimates, 1926-1927. They
include nine African medical officers and six women medical officers. They do
not include the directors of the medical and sanitation services, nor the per¬
sonnel connected with the Research Institute.

3 Cf. Vol. I, p. 897.

"Cf. Vol. I, p. 386. Cf. also Review of the Events of 1920-1926, p. 184.

* Report on the Education Department, 1924-25, p. 7.

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

847

Gold Coast Expenditures upon Native Welfare, 1926-27

Expenditures

Percentage of
Total

Expenditures 1

Per Hundred

Education

£r 79 , 29 i *

5.78

7.800

Agriculture, Veterinary,
and Forestry

Agriculture

67,982

2.958

Veterinary

* 0,497

•457

Forestry

26,923

1.171

Total

105,402

4.586

Medical and Sanitary
Work

Medical Department

160,436

5*7

6.980

Sanitation

95.756

3.09

4.166

Medical Research

12,742

• 4 *

•555

Total

268,93+

8.67

11.701

Total

£ 553.627

17.85

24.087

* “Total Expenditures” are 3,099,862 pounds. They do not include Ordinary
and Capital Expenditures on Railways, totaling £676,674, nor Special Expendi¬
tures from accumulated balances, totaling £998,528.

1 Includes Achimota College (£29,948).

educational system leave much to be desired. Students do not remain long
enough in school to receive a thorough training, and in the village schools,
at least, they are under incompetent teachers. The program of instruction
in most mission schools in the past has been almost exclusively literary; and
literary subjects have been taught without relation to local life. It is
estimated that the schools turn out annually between four thousand and
five thousand boys fitted only to become clerks, but that the demand for
clerks by employers is probably not more than five hundred a year. As
the Governor recently said, “Failing employment in an office, and strongly
imbued with an unhealthy dislike to manual labour, they fall natural
victims to discontent and consequently to unhappiness.®

The quality of the education which the African now receives is re¬
vealed by the fact that only eighteen per cent of the candidates passed the
civil service examinations for native clerks in 1922, forty per cent in
1923, and eighteen per cent in 1924.

This despite the fact that candidates sometimes manage to steal the
questions!

5 Legislative Council Debates, 1924-25, p. 66.

848

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

The progress of education in the Gold Coast is shown in the following
table:

Education in the Gold Coast *

Date

Government
and Assisted

Schools

Non-Assisted

Schools

(Approxi¬

mate)

Total

Schools

Number of Pupils
at School

Cost of
Education

Boys

Girls

Total

1901

135

120

255

9.S59

2.159

12,018

£ 6,543

1 9 ? 3

15+

230

384

15.453

3.357

18,810

25,374

1919

213

250

463

22,718

4,600

27,31s

54,442

1926

234

300

534

26,039

6,800

32,839

179,000 1

1927-28

213,000 1

1 Estimated.

The number of Education Officers has increased from seventeen in 1919
to fifty-seven in 1927.

3. Achimota

In order to develop an educational system more thorough in its results
and better fitted to the lives of the people, the government has launched
a unique project, now known as The Prince of Wales College, the direc¬
tion of which is in the hands of the Reverend A. G. Fraser, whose success
as an educator in Kandy College, Ceylon, has been striking . 7 The purpose
of Achimota is to elevate the masses through their own leaders, particu¬
larly through African teachers. To train these leaders, a European staff
is at first necessary. Consequently, fifty graduates from English univer¬
sities are being engaged as instructors. In addition to teaching, they will
devote themselves to research in the customs, language, history, music, and
institutions of the Gold Coast people—work which no political officer has
time thoroughly to do.

To prevent the denationalization of the African, instruction in the
early standards of Achimota will be entirely in the vernacular . 8 Only in
the latter years will English be used. Even then one or two courses will
continue to be given in the vernacular.

Instead of teaching the detailed history of England, as is done in many
schools in British Africa today, the Gold Coast children will be taught
folk tales and legends of their own people. This will be followed by a

8 Based on figures given in Review of the Events of 1920-1926, pp. 198, 199.

T At this Church Missionary Society institution Rev. Fraser succeeded in giving
natives an education which, instead of taking them permanently out of their
groups, sent them back to their homes to improve the communities. Cf. V. L. O.
Rierman, History of Trinity College, Kandy, Madras, 1922.

8 Cf. A. G. Fraser, “Denationalization,” The Gold Coast Review, June-Decem-
ber, 1925.

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

849

study of native laws and institutions, showing how they hold native society
together. The advanced natives will be encouraged to write tribal histories.
Finally, they will leam the history of the colony since the arrival of the
Europeans.

Science will be taught in relation to local life. Children will begin
by observing the life of ants, mosquitos, plants, and flowers. Arithmetic
will be taught through the village market, in which each child will become
a stall-holder, and where he will sell goods of a known value. He must
keep his own accounts; and he will soon learn that the best way to do this
is by arithmetic. 9

Achimota intends to have a model school of every type which the
colony needs, beginning with the kindergarten, which has already been
started. Students will be given the elements of a literary and a scientific
education, but adapted to their own lives. In addition, they will be
given a special training, so that instead of flocking into the towns, they
may go back to their villages, as chiefs, teachers, housewives, farmers,
medical assistants, and artisans. 10 It is planned eventually to give work
as high as the first two years in an English university, but no degrees will
be given for the next ten years.

Achimota is now divided into (a) the Prince of Wales School which
consists of a Kindergarten for boys and girls, a Lower Primary School
for boys and girls and an Upper Primary School for girls only
and (b) the Prince of Wales College, consisting of a Boys’ Upper Primary
School, a Secondary School, and a University College. Of the seven hun¬
dred and seventy students, two hundred and thirty will be in the School
and five hundred and forty in the College. The Kindergarten section
opened in January, 1927, and the full opening of both School and College
will take place in January, 1928.

In financing this project, the Gold Coast Government has displayed
unexampled generosity. It plans to invest over 607,500 pounds in capital
equipment, and it now expends 41,000 pounds a year on operating expenses,
a sum which will probably be increased to eighty-two thousand pounds. 11

When this plan was originally proposed, the Africans conceived it as a
project to build a second Oxford. As such, it won their enthusiastic sup¬
port. But while the ultimate aim is still to make a university, Mr. Fraser’s
present plans contain no such ambitions for the immediate future. Con-

9 “Achimota,” Round Table, December, 1925.

10 The higher courses in medical work will be given in connection with the
Gold Coast hospital. Agricultural students will take their last years at the
Kumasi agricultural school.

““Despatch from the Governor on the System of Education at Achimota.”
Sessional Paper IX, 1925-1926, p. 9. Also a Review of the Events of 1920-1926,
P- 143 -

850

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

sequently, the sentiment of some Africans was for a time lukewarm. They
have the suspicion that in devising special courses for Africans, which
Europeans do not take, European school masters and governments are
attempting to keep them in a subordinate intellectual, and therefore social,
position indefinitely. 12 In reply, the Achimota authorities would probably
say that they do not intend to attempt to keep any knowledge from the
African. They merely insist that the educated African should stand on
the right foundations. The African child must learn many things from
the school that the European child learns from his home, such as rules of
hygiene and rules of conduct. The task of the elementary school in Africa
is, therefore, much more important and much more difficult than that of
the elementary school in European countries, and its program of instruction
must be correspondingly varied. Many years ago, the schools of the
United States revolted against an exclusively literary education which
unfitted youths for the life which they were bound to lead. The govern¬
ments of Africa are now attempting to prevent the mistakes from which
European education now suffers. Having acquired the proper digestive
system, the African will be invited to pick fruit off the tree of knowledge to
his heart’s content.

4. Technical Training

The Gold Coast has probably gone farther than any other colony in
Africa in the training of natives for technical positions in the government.
The Public Works Department has mapped out extensive courses of in¬
struction for the purpose of training African engineers, road foremen, and
artisans. Candidates for these different positions are obliged to study the
principles of applied science. A budding road foreman must know the
principles of road construction, including a knowledge of how to lay
concrete culvert pipes. A building inspector who follows a course at the
government survey school must know the theory of building construction.
The present program calls for the appointment each year by the government
of five leading carpenters and masons in each province.

All of the postmasters in the Gold Coast are Africans, including the
postmaster of Accra, one of the three most important commercial centers
in West Africa. The Gold Coast is probably the only place in Africa hav¬
ing African women as telephone operators. Thirty-eight superintendents
of police, twelve senior locomotive drivers, and two hundred and ninety-six
station masters and assistants in this territory are also Africans. Through
holding such positions, the Africans are gaining practical experience in the

u Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois has severely attacked the reports of the Phelps-Stokes
Commission on this ground.

SOCI AL DEVELOPMENT _ 851

application of western scientific knowledge which is essential if they are
eventually to govern themselves.

5. Gold Coast "Extravagance '*

One of the most important problems with which an educational system
will have to cope is that of directing the wise expenditure of money. The
sudden acquisition of riches works havoc with the standards of any people,
and the African is no exception to the rule. Unless they learn to use this
money productively, it will probably do more harm than good. While the
natives have made little use of the savings bank facilities of the Bank of
British West Africa, about four thousand of them have savings accounts in
the Colonial Bank (now Barclay’s); and 6,317 had accounts in the forty-
four Post Office Savings Banks scattered throughout the country, at the
close of 1924. The total amount standing to the credit of these latter
accounts in 1924 was nearly fifty-five thousand pounds, and the interest
which these natives received amounted to about 1,437 pounds. 13 This
showing is probably more creditable than that of any other place in Africa.
Nevertheless, it is doubtful whether Africans will for many years under¬
stand the principle of interest sufficiently well to lead them to utilize
savings institutions to any great extent. They are much more likely to
be attracted by a cooperative society whose funds are definitely devoted to a
productive purpose which they can visualize. So far, the government has
done little to develop the cooperative movement among the natives. 14

While the Gold Coast native thus saves a certain proportion of his
income, it appears that most of it goes into the purchase of imports. The
commercial imports of the Gold Coast, amounting to about 6,500,000
pounds a year, are higher, proportionately, than those in any other colony in
tropical Africa except Zanzibar. 15 In 1924, 2,973,000 pounds’ worth of im¬
ports consisted of scientific instruments, probably for the mines. Of the
imports for ordinary consumption of that year, the following items are of
interest:

Tobacco” 1,850,000 pounds

Spirits, wines, and beers 384,000 “

Chinaware or porcelain 1,200,000 “

Cotton piece goods, etc. 1,280,000 “

4,714,000 pounds

“ Report on the Posts and Telegraphs Department, 1924-25, P- I 8.

M Cf. Vol. I, p. 815.

11 Cf. p. 815. In addition, 1,107,000 pounds of bullion and coin, and 873,000
pounds of government stores were imported in 1924.

” A large proportion of the unmanufactured tobacco is imported from the
United States. The figures given above are based on the Gold Coast Trade Report,
1924, published May 30, 1925, in Gazette, Supplement; Table 5.

852

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

Thus expenditure on drink and tobacco constitute nearly half the total,
which would indicate an unhealthy state of affairs. There is, however, no
way of determining what proportion of the expenditure on tobacco and
spirits is borne by the European, except that the expenditures on gin of
185,275 pounds are for the most part native. It may be assumed that
chinaware and cotton goods are purchased only by natives.

It is difficult to determine what the income of the Gold Coast is, and
what percentage of his income the native expends. In 1925, 218,000 tons
of cocoa were exported from the Gold Coast. Estimating that the native
was paid twenty-five pounds a ton, the native income from this source
would be about five million, five hundred thousand pounds. Imports, on
the other hand, for consumption purposes are probably five million pounds.
It would appear, therefore, that the greater part of the income is spent on
imports two-fifths of which are unproductive, if not harmful, in character.
Any calculations, however, upon the relation of income to expenditure
must necessarily be inexact.

This money question is the subject of frequent discussions in the Gold
Coast papers. One native recently wrote that “wherever you go, you hear
of poverty, no money, hardness of the times. . . .” In his opinion, this
poverty is due to “extravagant living” as reflected in expensive weddings
and funerals. Bridegrooms go to money lenders in order to provide their
brides with luxurious trousseaux and the guests with “sumptuous drinks.”
At funerals, the corpse is adorned “with all sorts of ornaments,” and
“costly coffins and special decorations of the bedstead” are provided.
“The giving of funeral donations has become compulsory, and cases have
happened when some people have gone so far as to borrow money to give
funeral donations. . . . Among the Accras, the longer the body is kept
lying in state, the more donations are expected; the result is that very
often decomposition sets in.” The custom has arisen both on the Gold
Coast and in Sierra Leone to hold memorial services for the dead, after
which the attendants “wend their way in a long line to the house of rela¬
tives of the deceased where they are served with drinks.” One chief is
reported to have expended seven hundred pounds largely for drinks at the
funeral of his cousin.

Litigation has also become “rampant.” “After the cocoa season, crowds
of litigants flock to the coast towns for lawsuits.” This writer estimates
that twenty-five thousand pounds a year are expended in supporting “na¬
tional causes.” Presumably he had in mind the delegations sent to London
upon such matters as the Forest Bill. Finally, gin drinking is more wide¬
spread on the Gold Coast than in any of the other West African colonies. 17

17 Cf. Vol. II, p. 881.

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

853

“A country whose inhabitants are addicted to gin drinking can never pre¬
serve their thinking faculties in good order. . . . Both the merchants and
government have connived at the demoralizing effects which the gin trade
produces. . . 18

The Gold Coast Independent, however, did not believe that the situa¬
tion was as thus pictured. It declared that the number of “extravagant”
weddings could be counted on one hand. Funerals and christenings were
conducted on a communal basis, which kept the poor people from being
pauperized. 19

It is probable that excesses will be overcome only by the right
kind of education. However great Gold Coast extravagance may be,
there are no paupers and no tenements in the country. There is money
enough to go around, and the communal system makes sure that it is widely
distributed.

w “National Poverty the Result of Extravagance,” Gold Coast Independent,
June 15, 1926. In a significant illusion, the writer says that Japan could never
have achieved her present greatness, if her people had wasted their resources.

““Do We Spend Too Much? Gold Coast Independent, May 22, 1926. The
subject was the object of further contributed articles, one of which says that
“Western civilization is another thing that has introduced all over the country
fornication and prostitution.” The writer asks that the Omanhene and councillors
arrange the exact amount of wedding expenses. Not more than “ten gentlemen,
five flock ladies, five cloth ladies, and the real family” should be invited. “Drink¬
ables must be about ten bottles.” Gold Coast Leader, December 4, 1926.

APPENDICES—GOLD COAST
XVII. Average Revenue and Expenditure 1899-1927
XVIII. Average Annual Trade 1899-1926

APPENDIX XVII
GOLD COAST

Average Revenue and Expenditure, 1899-1827

Average Annual Expenditure

Period

Average

Annual

Revenue

Recurrent

Total

Recurrent and
Extraordinary Extraordinary

Average

Surplus

Revenue

1899-19°s

£578,57°

£426,235

£30,764

£456,999

£121,571

1906-1912

893,805

670,755

79,656

750,411

143,394

1913-1919

1,635,650

1,222,765

166,913

1,389,678

245,972

1920-1927

3,829,705

2,954.354

418,267

3,372,621

457,084

APPENDIX XVIII
GOLD COAST

Average Annual Trade— 1899 to 1926

Tonnage Value

Period

Imports

Exports

Total

Imports

Exports

Total

1899-1905

(Tonnage

figures 1899-1912

1,505,428

787,143

2,292,571

1906-1912

not

available.)

2,346,286

1,683,857

4,030,143

1913-1919

170,429

183,428

353,857

4,127,857

4,353,286

8,481,143

1920-1926

247,857

423,429

671,286

8,545,286

8,694,857

17,240,143

SECTION IX

SIERRA LEONE

CHAPTER 53

THE PROTECTORATE

I. Origins

Although Sierra Leone has the smallest area of any British territory
in western Africa, except Gambia, it has one of the most fascinating his¬
tories and presents some of the most interesting problems of them all. The
Government of Sierra Leone owes its origin to much the same impulse as
that which led to the establishment of the Republic of Liberia—the hu¬
manitarian desire to provide a home for freed slaves. Between the four¬
teenth and the eighteenth centuries, European traders, many of whom
were slavers and pirates, touched upon the shores of what is now Sierra
Leone; and several British trading companies, such as the “Company of
Adventurers of London” and the “Company of Adventurers into Africa,”
established forts along the coast. Parts of the territory were, therefore,
occupied by Europeans before Lord Mansfield’s Judgment in 1772 which
declared that a slave became free upon setting foot in England. As a result
of this judgment, some fifteen thousand slaves in England became free and
many of them deserted their masters. In an effort to provide for the
large number of these negroes who soon became destitute, some philan¬
thropic Englishmen formed a society which eventually conceived the idea
of sending the “Black Poor,” as the negroes were called, to a free settle¬
ment which the society would establish in Sierra Leone. In 1787, the first
expedition with this purpose, composed of four hundred and eleven former
slaves and sixty European prostitutes, arrived in Sierra Leone. In 17.91,
the Crown granted a charter to the Sierra Leone Company (among the
directors of which were William Wilberforce, Thomas Clarkson, Gran¬
ville Sharp, and Mr. Thornton) which imported further negro settlers,
some of them from as far away as Nova Scotia. These early settlers
experienced difficulties similar to those encountered by the founders of
Liberia with tribes in the interior. But as in the case of Liberia, the
Government of Sierra Leone, which confined itself to the seaport town
having the symbolic name of Freetown, undertook to deal with the abori¬
ginal tribes upon a treaty basis and not upon the basis of conquest. Thus
the founders of Sierra Leone obtained a grant of about twenty square miles

859

860

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

of land from King Tom, in return for the payment of thirty pounds. In
1808, the British Government established a Vice-Admiralty Court in Sierra
Leone for the trial and liberation of slaves taken from slave ships by British
cruisers off the West Coast; as a result of which the ex-slave population
of the vicinity rapidly increased. In 1821, the British Crown took over
the administration of the colony from the Company. At about the same
time, American missionaries with eighty-nine freed slaves occupied land near
Sherbro which they purchased from the local king. But the climate proved
so unhealthy that eventually they decided to move farther south to Cape
Mesurado—a migration which was one of the earliest beginnings of the
Liberian Republic. For the next seventy-five years, the British limited
their interests to the small strip of territory in the vicinity of Freetown,
known as the Colony of Sierra Leone, the administration of which, to¬
gether with that of the Gold Coast Forts and the Colony of Lagos, was 1
tossed from pillar to post, until finally, in 1*888, Sierra Leone was consti¬
tuted a separate colony. 2

Back of the colony stretched a hinterland occupied by a number of
native tribes and states. Following the conclusion of about one hundred and
fifty treaties with the chiefs 3 the government finally established a protec¬
torate over the hinterland in 1896. Since that date, the Administration of
Sierra Leone has presented two main types of problems: (1) those arising
out of the administration of Africans living in their native environment in
the Protectorate; (2) those rising out of the administration of the Colony,
inhabited for the most part by the descendants of freed slaves who have
always lived under European conditions and who do not, as a rule, know
any native language. We shall discuss the problem of administration in
the protectorate first.

2. The Tribes—the Human Leopard Society

Lying back of the tiny area on the coast which constitutes the Colony,
the Protectorate of Sierra Leone covers twenty-six thousand square miles.
It is inhabited by a population of 1,451,000 people, the majority of whom
belong to pagan tribes. The Mendi tribe, with its branches, numbers
about six hundred thousand. Other natives living in the north belong to
Mohammedan groups such as the Kissies, numbering about forty-seven
thousand. Many of the Temnes, who number about three hundred and

1 Cf. Chap. 46.

a This history is summarized in T. N. Goddard, The Handbook of Sierra
Leone, London, 1925, Part II. It is given in greater detail by F. W. Butt-
Thompson, in Sierra Leone, in History and Tradition, London, 1926.

*A list is given in Appendix I of Goddard, cited.

THE PROTECTORATE

861

ten thousand, have also become Mohammedans. 4 These peoples are divided
up into two hundred and sixteen tribes, each governed by a Paramount
Chief. Of these chiefs, sixty-seven will be found among the Mendes and
forty-one among the Temnes. There is, however, no Paramount Chief
for all the Mendes nor for any other race. But among some peoples, tribes
are bound together by an organization called the Porro Society to which
all male members of the race, of which the tribes are a part, must belong.
A form of free masonry, this society always takes charge of the circum¬
cision ceremonies through which most African children go at the age of
puberty. Many of them hold other ceremonies. A counterpart of this
society for the women is the Bundu Society. Mr. H. C. Luke, the
Colonial Secretary of Sierra Leone, has written: “In contrast to the
women in the East, the women in Sierra Leone are a very important factor
in the life of the community, an indication that polygamy does not neces¬
sarily keep them in subjection. Not only do they exercise influence through
the Bundu Society: among the Mendes and Sherbros it is no uncommon
thing for a woman to be paramount chief. ... It is true that among the
Temne, Susu, and other tribes under Mohammedan influence, women,
although not forming an exception to the statement made above as to
their importance in every section of the population, do not play so prominent
a part in the affairs of the chiefdom as do the women among the Mendes
and Sherbros.” 8

Among the Sherbros will be found the notorious Human Leopard
Society, which is a “combination of cannibalism and a debased form of
magic.” Mr. Luke says:

“The members of the Society would agree upon a victim and select one
of themselves to commit the murder, which was done by means of a three¬
pronged fork made to resemble a leopard’s claw. After the victim had been
killed, the flesh, or a portion of it, was stripped from the body and put to
three different uses: the meat would be distributed among the members of the
Society and eaten; the fat made into a ‘medicine’ called nessi and used to
anoint the forehead and hands of the fraternity in times of crisis, when they
felt in need of a powerful mental stimulant; the heart and other organs cut
up, mixed with a variety of substances having strong magical properties, and
made into another ‘medicine’ known as borfima on which the members of the
Society were sworn to secrecy. An oath sworn on the borfima is as binding
as was one sworn on the bones of saints in the middle ages. No one dares
to break it for fear of the awful consequences which would inevitably follow,

* Report and Summary of the Census of I921, p. 32.

®H. C. Luke, in the Essay on the Origin, Character, and Peoples of the Colony
and Protectorate, preceding A Bibliography of Sierra Leone, London, 1925, pp.
30 ff

862

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

and the secrecy which surrounds the operations of the Society has thus never
been pierced sufficiently to make it possible to analyze all its motives with
certainty. From the fact that often only a small piece of flesh was removed
from the body, and was distributed among a large number of people, it is
probable that it was eaten more on account of the virtue which it was supposed
to confer on those who ate it than for a liking for that form of food, although
the opinion has been heard to be expressed that ‘man beef sweet past all other
beef/ It is also probable that the leopard is the emblem of the Society, not
because its members really believe, or pretend to believe, that at times they
can assume the shape of a leopard, but because, in a country infested by
leopards, the ascription of a murder to these beasts is a convenient mode of
diverting suspicion.” . . .*

The same practices have been carried on by the Human Alligator
Society. In an effort to stamp out this ritualistic murder, the government
has enacted an Unlawful Societies (Human Leopard and Alligator) Or¬
dinance, which provides that any person having in his possession a leopard or
alligator skin, or knife, native medicine or other articles used by members
of these societies, and any person who is a member of such a society is
liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding fourteen years. Chiefs
who directly or indirectly encourage the celebration of the customs of such
societies may be deported from the country. Persons convicted of murder
are liable to the death penalty; and if a person is tried for murder in
connection with a society of which he is a member, but is acquitted, he may
be deported from the Colony or Protectorate. 7

Despite these rigorous measures, some natives, both educated and illit¬
erate, cling with great tenacity to these organizations which have not been
entirely broken up. As the Governor wrote in 1913, “The blind belief of
the natives in the efficacy of the ‘medicines’ concocted by the Society
(especially that known as ‘Borfima’) ; the power and authority enjoyed by
the possessors of these medicines; the fact that periodical human sacrifices
are considered to be necessary in order to renew the efficacy of the medi¬
cines; and a tendency on the part of some natives to cannibalism pure and
simple—all of these causes will contribute to the survival of this baneful
organization.” 8

3. The Hut Tax War

The ordinance establishing the Protectorate over the hinterland in
1896 required every chief to collect and pay over to the government a house

* Ibid., pp. 34 ff.

1 Law$ of Sierra Leone, hereafter cited as Laws, Chap. 222, p. 1516.

"Correspondence regarding Unlawful Societies, Cd. 696 (1913), p. 5. In
I 9 I 3 » 333 arrests under these Ordinances were made, and nine natives were con¬

victed of murder.

THE PROTECTORATE

863

tax of ten shillings a year for each house with four or more rooms and
five shillings for every house with three or less rooms. Upon collecting
these sums, the chief would receive a rebate of five per cent.

These taxes were regarded by the natives as excessive, and following
the refusal of Chief Bai Bureah of the Karene district to pay the tax, a
rebellion took place in 1898 which lasted for three or four months. The
natives vented their feeling toward the Freetown Creole population by
massacring the Creole traders in the Protectorate, together with some
European missionaries. Altogether, it is believed that a thousand British
subjects lost their lives. 9

Following military operations, thirty-three prisoners were convicted
and hanged on capital charges. Sir David Chalmers, a commissioner sent
out to investigate the causes of the war, reported:

“The Hut tax, together with the measures used for its enforcement, were
the moving causes of the insurrection. The tax was obnoxious to the customs
and feelings of the people. . . . There was a widespread belief that it was a
means of taking away their rights in their country and in their property.
That the tax was considered an oppressive and unjust impost is proved by the
unanimous and earnest petitions and representations against its enforcement
in the earlier stages, by the general unwillingness to pay reported by District
Commissioners in the beginning of 1898, and manifested everywhere by the
agreements and oaths of the Chiefs binding themselves not to pay, and their
resistance to payment, and by the opinions of Chiefs and others who know
their countrymen and their modes of thinking.

. . Repugnance to the tax was much aggravated by the sudden, uncom¬
promising, and harsh methods by which it was endeavoured to be brought into
operation, not merely by the acts of native policemen, but in the whole scheme
adopted by the Colonial authorities.” 10

These conclusions were, however, challenged by the Governor of
Sierra Leone, Sir Frederick Cardew, who took the position that the impo¬
sition of the House Tax was an excuse for, but not the cause of the re¬
bellion. He declared there had been no difficulty in collecting the tax.
His contention was upheld by the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Mr.
Joseph Chamberlain.

In considering whether it was desirable that the power of the chiefs
should be broken or that the administration should be carried on mainly
through the chiefs, Sir David Chalmers came to the conclusion that the

*E. D. Morel referred to “such deplorable mistakes as led to the Hut Tax
war in Sierra Leone,” Affairs of West Africa, London, 1902, p. 14.

* Report on the subject of the Insurrection in the Sierra Leone Protectorate,
1898, C. 9388, (1890), p. 73.

864

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

only practical policy was “a regulated administration through the Chiefs.”
He further stated: “The native organization is one to which the people
are accustomed, and are prepared to pay respect, which is suited to them,
and capable, with some guidance and control, of keeping the peace and doing
substantial justice.” 11 He recommended that the government should not
attempt to reimpose the hut tax, but his suggestion was not followed. The
tax to-day, which is called a house tax, is five shillings.

4. The Protectorate Ordinances

Apparently as a result of the Chalmers report, the government enacted
a series of ordinances which form the basis of administration in the Pro¬
tectorate at the present time. These ordinances are:

(1) The Protectorate Ordinance, 1901.

(2) The Protectorate Courts Jurisdiction Ordinance, 1903.

(3) The Protectorate Native Law Ordinance, 1905. 12

All of these ordinances are founded upon the principle of governing the
native population through the Native Authority. Under the first ordi¬
nance, the British Government has divided the Protectorate into the North¬
ern, Central, and Southern Provinces, each in charge of a provincial com¬
missioner. These provinces, in turn, are divided into thirteen districts,
each in charge of a district commissioner. For a time, the Sierra Leone
Administration attempted the experiment of African political officers, an
experiment which failed for the same reasons which led to its failure in
Nigeria. 13 At the present time, however, an African staff officer, called
an “office assistant,” is attached to the office of each provincial commis¬
sioner and undertakes some duties of supervision connected with the chiefs.
The Estimates provide for forty-four administrators—one for every thirty-
nine thousand people. 14

While the administration recognizes the authority of native chiefs who
hold their position by virtue of native custom, the Governor may, subject to
the approval of the Secretary of State, depose any chief who is unfit for
the position and appoint another to his place. Since the consent of the
Secretary of State must be obtained—a policy which is not followed in
other British Colonies—it does not appear that this power is frequently
exercised. At present the British Government pays the native chiefs a
five per cent commission on the house tax totalling 3,240 pounds, plus

”C. 9388, P- 79 - ....

(1) will be found in Laws, Chap. 167, p. 1132; (2) in ibid., Chap. 169, p.
1 * 55 * (3) ibid.. Chap. 170, p. 1174.

13 Cf. Vol. I, p. 719.

M These figures include the Colony.

9 ,

THE PROTECTORATE

865

stipends in pursuance of treaties amounting to 1,348 pounds. In addition
it makes certain presents to the chiefs.

Chiefs are also entitled to receive labor for their farms upon the same
basis as they received it before the establishment of the Protectorate. But
the Protectorate Native Law Ordinance of 1905 (Sec. 15) provides that no
chief shall cultivate an area larger than can be cultivated without prevent¬
ing the people from having sufficient time to cultivate their own lands.
It does not appear, however, that the administration has attempted to fix
a limit to these exactions. In some districts, both chiefs and people have
asked that tribute be registered and commuted upon a fixed basis—an
experiment which has already been successfully carried out in parts of the
Southern Provinces. 15 In many ways, it would be desirable for Sierra
Leone to consider imitating Tanganyika in abolishing tribute (as well as
the five per cent tax rebate which rests upon a bad principle) in favor of
fixed salaries paid out of native treasuries. 10

Probably the most important duty of the chiefs is the exercise of their
judicial power. According to the Protectorate Courts Jurisdiction Or¬
dinance of 1903, native chiefs may decide all civil cases between natives
in accordance with native law, except for land cases arising between two
or more Paramount Chiefs or of a debt claimed by a trader. Likewise,
chiefs have had criminal jurisdiction over natives, except in cases such as
murder, rape, slave trading, and offenses relating to unlawful societies.
Until 1925, the only restriction upon the sentences of these courts was
that they should not inflict punishments involving death or mutilation. In
1925, an ordinance was passed limiting their jurisdiction to offenses in¬
volving imprisonment for not more than six months 17 —a somewhat drastic
limitation of their former powers.

It does not appear that the European officials exercise any supervision
over these tribunals in the way of inspecting registers or returns; nor is the
scale of fines or fees of these courts fixed by law. The only check on these
tribunals is through appeals which natives tried by native courts may
bring to the district commissioner. As a result of complaints that the
fees and fines imposed by the Chiefs’ Courts were excessive, 18 the Legis¬
lative Council enacted an ordinance in 1925 which authorized the adminis¬
tration to make rules to standardize fees paid in various stages of the cases,
which will prevent the wealthy man from dragging out a case by summon-

” Annual Report of the Southern Province, 1924, p. 14.

18 Cf. Vol. I, p. 458.

17 Ordinances, 1925, p. 20.

18 Address by the Governor, Legislative Council, 1923-1924, p. 55. During
1920-1922 the number of complaints to political officers of excessive fines in
criminal cases was twenty-one in the Northern Province, five in the Southern
Province, and fifty-eight in the Central Province.

866

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

ing additional witnesses, the fees for which the poorer native cannot af¬
ford. 19 It also is empowered to regulate the disposal of fines and fees. In
the same year, a law was enacted to the effect that all sentences exceeding
fourteen days imposed by Chiefs’ Courts should be served in government
district prisons, and not in the prisons of native chiefs. It also provided
that the district commissioner should be notified of the offense committed
by such prisoner. Whenever the Paramount Chief sentences a native to
more than fourteen days’ imprisonment, he must transmit a statement to the
district commissioner, which acts as an automatic appeal. 20

To make administrative control of these tribunals complete, the enact¬
ment of an ordinance providing for administrative inspection of monthly
native court returns might be desirable.

In the years between 1920-1922, the administrative officers of the
Protectorate heard on appeal from the native courts 3,386 cases, of which
they modified three hundred and fifty-three, or 10.35 P er cent. 21

Recognizing the desirability of bringing different tribes of the same
race together, the Protectorate Native Law Ordinance of 1905 provided
that the Paramount Chiefs of the several races should form Assemblies of
the Paramount Chiefs of each race, over which an official appointed by
the Governor should preside. These assemblies were to advise the govern¬
ment upon any legislation or other action affecting native welfare. It does
not appear, however, that such assemblies have met. Certainly the object
of gradually building up a Mende or a Temne nation out of the various
tribes into which these people are now divided is desirable.

Slavery has existed among the tribes of Sierra Leone as elsewhere. The
Protectorate Ordinance of 1901 prohibited slave trading, and provided
that every slave brought into the Protectorate for trading purposes was
free. It also provided that a slave might purchase his freedom at a sum not

19 Ordinances, 1925, p. 27. The Court of the District Commissioner may secure
the attendance of native witnesses and defendants before a native court.

30 Ibid., 1925, p. 19.

71 Address by the Governor, cited, 1923-1924, p. 56.

The Court of the District Commissioner hears certain European and mixed
cases involving not more than fifty pounds and it has summary jurisdiction over
criminal offenses. It may impose imprisonment for not more than six months and
a fine not exceeding ten pounds. It may commit an accused party in the more
serious criminal matters for trial by the Circuit Court. The Circuit Court consists
of a Judge of the Supreme Court of the Colony arid has civil jurisdiction in Euro¬
pean and mixed cases the subject matter of which exceeds fifty pounds in value,
etc. It has criminal jurisdiction in all cases beyond the jurisdiction of the courts
of the native chiefs or of the district commissioners. It may inflict capital punish¬
ment or whipping not exceeding twenty-four lashes. But no death sentence may
be carried into effect except upon the warrant of the Governor. It also hears
certain appeals from the Court of the District Commissioner when the subject
matter exceeds ten pounds in value, and in criminal cases. Cf. the Protectorate
Courts Jurisdiction Ordinance, 1903, Chap. 169. Ibid., and J. de Hart, The Judicial
System of the Sierra Leone Protectorate, 1925, Freetown.

THE PROTECTORATE

867

exceeding four pounds in the case of an adult and two pounds in the case
of a child. The 1926 Council enacted another law providing that all
persons born or brought into the Protectorate are declared to be free; all
persons treated as slaves shall become free upon the death of their master.
No claim for or in respect of any slave shall be entertained by any of the
courts.

In the summer of 1927 the Supreme Court of Sierra Leone handed
down a decision stating that under existing legislation a slave owner could
not be punished for forcibly recovering a slave who had escaped from his
possession. This decision, calling attention to the existence of domestic
slavery in Africa, seemed to shock sentiment in England, while it led to
the introduction of new legislation in Sierra Leone.

5. The Bo School for Chiefs

Sierra Leone has done more than any other British territory in Africa
except Tanganyika in attempting to elevate its chieftainship to the intel¬
lectual level of the educated but detribalized natives in the towns. These
efforts have led to the establishment of a boarding school for the sons and
nominees of the chiefs of the Protectorates, established at Bo in 1906. In
1924, there were one hundred and fifty-four pupils in the school, seventy-
seven of whom were Mendes, and twenty-four of whom were Temnes.
Altogether, seventy-seven chiefdoms were represented. While the boys re¬
ceive a literary education, they also are given instruction in practical sub¬
jects which include hygiene, elementary science, practical and theoretical
agriculture, and surveying. Special attention is also given to sports and
games. 22

At present, five graduates of this school are Paramount Chiefs, fifty-
eight are assisting chiefs, and ninety-two are in governmental service. 23
Altogether, four hundred and two boys have been admitted to the school,
which has an eight-year course. While such a period, spent in a European
school would have a thoroughly detribalizing effect, this result, it appears,
is avoided at Bo by the native atmosphere in which the school is conducted,
and by frequent holidays in the boys’ original villages.

6. Agriculture—Palm Concessions

Native life in the Sierra Leone Protectorate, as in all other parts of
Africa, has an agricultural basis. The principal food crop consists of
“hill” or “upland” rice. Within recent years, the government has been
encouraging the cultivation of “wet” rice since the production of the former
73 Cf. Annual Report of the Education Department, 1924, pp. 18 ff.

* Address by the Governor, Legislative Council, 1926-1927.

868

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

variety entailed the destruction of large areas of forests. The Protec¬
torate also furnishes the bulk of the exports of Sierra Leone, which con¬
sist of kola nuts, ginger, and palm products. The latter constitute about
five-eighths of the total exports.

Next to Nigeria, Sierra Leone exports more palm kernels than any
other British territory in Africa. The increase in the export of palm
products may be seen from the following table:

Sierra Leone Exports of Palm Kernels and Palm Oil

Year

Palm Kernels

Palm Oil

Palm
Kernels
and Oil

Quantity

(Tons)

Value

(£)

Quantity

(Tons)

Value

(£)

Total Value
(£)

1901 .

20,475

161,749

660

9,816

«7',5«5

1923 .

59.545

968,797

3,346

102,645

1,071,442

1924.

61,117

1,096,386

3,110

93,141

1,189,527

192s .

63,231

',>52,467

2,988

94,132

1,246,599

The methods of the Sierra Leone native in procuring these palm prod¬
ucts, like those of the Nigeria native, have resulted in waste and inferior
quality. Before the World War, the Sierra Leone Government, in com¬
pany with other West African governments, became alarmed at the condi¬
tion produced by such methods, especially in view of the competition which
the palm plantations being installed in other parts of Africa might in the
future offer to native industry . 24 It was estimated that the present export
of palm kernels could be produced on plantations covering one hundred
and eighty square miles, or less than one per cent of the total area of the
Protectorate . 25 Some commercial interests in England declared that if
the British colonies were to hold their own, European methods, i.e.,
plantations, must take the place of native methods of cultivation.

But the land system in the Protectorate of Sierra Leone, which re¬
sembles the system in the Gold Coast and Southern Nigeria, did not make it
possible for the government to grant leases of Crown land. Land in the
Protectorate is vested in the Tribal Authority. The chief merely acts as

34 On July 31, 1913, Mr. Harcourt, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, said:
“The soap boilers of the world—irrespective of their politics—are tumbling over
one another to acquire the raw material of their industry. They find that they
can do this on a far larger and more advantageous scale in Liberia, the Caraeroons,
and the Congo than they can in British Possessions. But I am the officially-
constituted protector of the natives in our own Colonies, and it is my duty to see
that they are not—so far as I can prevent it—unduly damaged by this foreign
competition. . . .” House of Commons Debates, 1913, Vol. LVI, col. 786.

* Address by the Governor, Legislative Council, 1925-1926, p. 37.

THE PROTECTORATE

869

guardian of the property held by individuals within the tribe. He cannot
ordinarily deprive them of their land, nor does the chief hold land ex
officio. 20 While under native law the chiefs may allow outsiders to come
in and “settle” on the land, they cannot part with it permanently. To
give this principle the support of British law, the administration enacted a
Concessions Ordinance, in 1902. 27 This ordinance provided that no chief
should alienate any land for purposes of cultivation except with the assent
of the Governor. If an outsider wished a grant not exceeding one thousand
acres, the Governor could give his consent if the chief wished to make a
lease for this amount, provided the Governor was satisfied it was for the
benefit of the chiefdom. 28

In 1907, Lever Brothers attempted to secure large concessions in Sierra
Leone. 20 When they found that the Sierra Leone Government would not
tolerate the idea of palm concessions, Lever Brothers requested the British
Government to grant it monopolistic rights over a certain area in which it
could erect palm-crushing machinery and lay down mono-rails. What
they had in mind was an oil-extraction factory to which the natives could
bring their fruit instead of attempting to extract the kernels and the oil
themselves. After negotiations which covered a period of four years, the
Colonial Officio finally agreed to approve concessions embodying these
features. In 1913, the Sierra Leone (and Gold Coast) Legislatures passed
ordinances authorizing concessions 30 over an area of ten square miles for
a term of twenty-one years which could be renewed. Within such an area,
the concessionaire could erect oil extracting machinery to the exclusion
of all other Europeans. The same concessionaire could not hold two
grants within fifty miles of each other. The native was not, however,
obliged to sell his fruit to the concessionaire. Unlike ordinary concessions,
these concessions were granted by the Governor, and not by the chief; but
they were subject to the approval of the Tribal Authority. 81

Thus the purpose of these ordinances was to induce Europeans to erect
mills to extract oil from fruit collected by natives in the same way as
European ginners gin native-grown cotton. In order to induce Europeans
to erect such mills, each concessionaire was given a monopoly of the area
conceded in so far as the erection of other mills was concerned. While the

** J. C. Maxwell, Notes on Land Tenure in Sierra Leone Protectorate, Freetown,
1922.

” Ordinances, Vol. I, Chap. 36, p. 174.

This Ordinance also provided for the establishment of a Concessions Court
similar to that in the Gold Coast. But apparently the Governor determines whether
or not the concession shall be granted.

“Cf. Correspondence respecting the grant of exclusive Rights for the Extrac¬
tion of Oil from Palm-fruits, Cd. 6561 (1912-13), p. 1.

“Palm Oil Ordinance, 1913, Chap. 141, Laws, p. 945.

“Palm Oil Rules, ibid., Vol. Ill, p. 127.

870

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

government did not attempt to fix a minimum price to be paid to natives
for fruit, the interests of the natives in this respect were supposedly safe¬
guarded by the fact that they could sell their produce to European traders
who could enter the area . 32 Nevertheless, these concessions met the opposi¬
tion of the unofficial members of the Legislative Councils of these colonies
and of the West African Lands Committee who recommended that the
Secretary of State take action to prevent the creation of new vested interests
of this nature . 33

It does not appear, however, that the oil extraction concessions were
successful. Their failure, according to Sir Arthur Slater, the Governor
of Sierra Leone, was due to the “natives’ unwillingness to sell their fruit
for a price which compared unfavourably with what they could make by
extracting the oil themselves and selling the kernels.” 34 By converting a
ton of fruit into oil, a native could secure four pounds, whereas the mill
paid him only thirty shillings for the same fruit. 35 Experts also believed
that the wild palms were so thinly distributed throughout Sierra Leone
that no mill could profitably be fed by their produce, and that one such
mill required the fruit of an area covering five thousand acres of planted
palms.

In 1924 a committee appointed by the Secretary of State for the
Colonies, to consider the best means of securing improved and increased
production of Palm Oil and Palm Kernels, reported that just as the forest
rubber industry of West Africa had been practically eliminated by the rub¬
ber plantations of the East, there was a danger that the palm oil and kernel
industry would suffer in the same way. It believed that to place the West
Coast industry upon the proper basis, mills should be erected, and that the
mill-operator should, if he desired, be allowed to acquire a plantation area
for cultivating oil palms, “so as not to be entirely dependent on the natives
for bringing sufficient fruit to his mill.” It agreed that “the ideal arrange¬
ment in British West Africa is that the palms should be cleared and culti¬
vated by their native owners, who should collect the fruit and sell it to
the central mill. . . But they were satisfied that plantations were a
necessary inducement to Europeans to erect mills. 36

Apparently acting upon this belief, and also moved by the fear of Far
Eastern competition, the Sierra Leone Government amended its concession
ordinance in 1922, so as to admit concessions not exceeding five thousand

32 For the Tripartite agreements in the Belgian Congo, cf. Vol. I, p. 527.

“Cf. Minutes of the West African Lands Committee, Africa 1048, p. 48. The
same type of ordinance is found in Chapter 97 of the Law of the Gold Coast.

34 Address by the Governor, Legislative Council, 1925-1926, p. 38.

““Sierra Leone Oil Palm Industries and the Establishment of Oil Palm Plan¬
tations,” Sessional Papers, 1925, p. 163.

M West Africa, Palm Oil and Palm Kernels, Colonial No. 10, 1925, p. 9.

THE PROTECTORATE

871

acres if made for the sole purpose of cultivating the oil palm on scientific
and commercial lines. 37 These leases are, however, granted only by the
Tribal Authority, and not more than one ground comprising an area of a
thousand acres may be thus obtained in any one chiefdom.

This ordinance goes further than the 191*3 oil extraction ordinance, in
that it admits European agricultural plantations of five thousand acres. It
is the first victory, however slight, of the plantation school of industry in
its campaign against native methods of production on the West Coast. 38
The Sierra Leone Government justifies the admission of plantations of
this size on the ground that they will be a good example to natives. But
such an example might better be given by government plantations, such as
Sierra Leone has established at Njala, and by smaller communal planta¬
tions such as have been erected in several parts of the Protectorate.

Commercial firms have also imported a number of palm nut cracking
machines suitable for native operation, which show promise of being suc¬
cessfully used. 39 It does not appear that many Europeans have taken
advantage of the 1922 ordinance to obtain palm concessions. Nevertheless,
should Europeans seek plantations in Sierra Leone, the present restriction
of five thousand acres per concession would not have much effect in pro¬
tecting the native life of the Protectorate. That is to say, ten concessions
of five thousand acres each would demand the same number of laborers
as five concessions of ten thousand acres each. The number of government
plantations is obviously easier to control than that of private estates.

7. Produce Inspection

Sierra Leone appears to have taken more successful steps than most
other territories in Africa in protecting the quality of native export
produce. Under the Native Produce Ordinance, 1918, 40 any person who
sells adulterated produce is guilty of an offense. Palm kernels are deemed
to be adulterated if they contain foreign matter exceeding five per cent of
the total weight. In 1924, a Native Produce (Standardization and Grad¬
ing) Ordinance was passed 41 which authorized the Governor to make
rules prescribing the standard of quality and purity to which such products
must conform. Native Produce Rules not only prohibit dealing in palm
kernels and piassava without a license, but also provide for the determina¬
tion of the percentage of foreign substances in palm kernels as follows.
A hundred pounds out of each allotment is placed on a clean floor. The

* T Ordinances, 1922, p. 31. They are not deemed to be concessions within the
meaning of the Concessions Ordinance, 1902.

** For the controversy in Nigeria, cf. Vol. I, p. 767.

89 Address by the Governor, Legislative Council, 1926-1927, p. 44.

"Chap. 134, Laws, p. 922. ^Chap. 135, ibid., p. 926.

872

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

kernels are mixed thoroughly, and a portion of at least fifteen pounds is
then divided into three samples. The first goes to the owner, the second
to the Inspector of Produce, and the third is weighed, thoroughly cleansed,
and weighed again. The difference between the weights before and after
cleaning represents the weight of the adulterants. 42 Similar rules were ap¬
plied to palm oil and to ginger in 1925. 43

Probably the most important effort to improve native agriculture is the
Njala Agricultural School. Plans have been made for the extension of the
activities of this institution so as to provide an agricultural training center
not only for agricultural teachers, but also for native members of the
Department of Agriculture; each chiefdom may send a native to be trained
to become its agricultural adviser. It is hoped eventually to make the
college at Njala something approaching the Imperial College of Tropical
Agriculture at Trinidad. The course now requires two years . 44

42 Chap. 134, ibid., Vol. Ill, p. 125.

43 Ibid., 1925, pp. 158 ff.

44 “Proposed Sierra Leone College of Agriculture and Protectorate Teachers’
College at Njala,” Sessional Paper No, IJ of 1925.

CHAPTER 54

THE COLONY

From the administrative standpoint, the Colony, as opposed to the
Protectorate of Sierra Leone, is a complicated affair. The “Colony ad¬
ministered as such” consists of the Police District of Freetown, the Head¬
quarters Judicial District, and the Bonthe District. The first district has
no administrative officer at its head but is merely under the supervision
of the Commissioner of Police assisted by a number of Tribal Rulers,
later to be discussed. Part of Sherbro Island, inhabited by an aboriginal
population, is administered on quasi-protectorate lines, i.e., the courts of
the native chiefs are recognized, and the Protectorate Native Law of 1905
applies. Finally, there are parts of the Colony which are administered
exactly like the Protectorate.

I. The Creoles

Freetown, the center of the Colony, is dominated by the Creoles, the
descendants of the expatriated slaves. 1 For the last century, Freetown
has been regarded as the intellectual center of West Africa, because of Fou-
rah Bay College, established by the Church Missionary Society in 1827. The
college has been the only institution in West Africa where an African
could obtain an education which pretended to correspond to the education
received in an English University. 2 Many of the leading Africans of the
Gold Coast and Nigeria, as well as of Sierra Leone, have graduated from
this institution. The college has been affiliated with Durham University
since 1876, and about half of its graduates have received Durham Uni¬
versity degrees. The literary nature of the course is indicated by the fact
that all candidates for entrance have been obliged to pass an examination
in Latin, Greek, mathematics, English, religious or ancient history, and
English history or physical and general geography. The authorities have

s The Creoles are sometimes called the Liberated Africans. They are de¬
scendants of: (1) Settlers brought to the Colony in 1787 and subsequent years,
(2) Nova Scotian immigrants, (3) Maroon immigrants, (4) Liberated Africans
placed in Sierra Leone in accordance with the enactments made for the suppression
of the slave trade. Census of 1921, p. 10.

1 For the early history of this college, see James Denton, “History of Fourah
Bay College,” Jubilee Volume of the Sierra Leone Native Church, London, 1917,
p. 247.

873

874

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

recognized that the curriculum is altogether too literary and classical to
meet the needs of African communities, and plans are now being made
to introduce work in the physical sciences.

As a result of more than a century’s effort of the Church Missionary
Society, a Sierra Leone Native Church has been established, under a
European Bishop, having a membership of about twenty thousand. The
Wesleyan Methodists also have a membership of about twelve thousand.
About thirty-nine thousand out of the eighty-five thousand persons in the
Colony are members of some church—a larger percentage than in any other
part of Africa. Church membership, however, has not materially increased
since l88i. a During the same period, the number of Mohammedans has
increased from about five thousand to sixteen thousand five hundred—
an increase due not to conversion, but to the influx of natives from the
Protectorate.

Of the total population of 85,163 found in the Colony of Sierra Leone,
44,142 live in Freetown. The population of this city increased by about
ten thousand between 1911 and 1*921. But this increase, it appears, was
due more to artificial than to natural causes. As the census says, “In addi¬
tion to the constant immigration of natives from the Protectorate during
the Great War, thousands of men were recruited in the Protectorate for
service in the Carrier Corps and the Inland Water Transport in East
Africa, Cameroons, Mesopotamia and elsewhere. On the conclusion of
their service, they were repatriated to Sierra Leone and have, in many
instances, remained in Freetown. Having through force of circumstances
seen something of the world and something of the doubtful attractions of
civilization, they are at present unwilling to return to their uneventful and
peaceful lives in their own villages in the Protectorate, but prefer to eke
out a precarious existence in the crowded capital of the Colony.” 4 The
result is that the supply of labor is much greater than the demand in
Freetown, and some natives, reduced to poverty, are tempted to crime.
Between 1910 and 1920, the crime rate increased from 23.1 per thousand
of the population to 29.3 per thousand. It is believed that the over¬
population of Freetown, which is presumably responsible for these results,
is only temporary and that eventually the Protectorate will reabsorb its
prodigal sons. The mushroom character of this growth is shown by the
fact that despite the addition of ten thousand residents, the number of
inhabited houses in the Colony during this period declined nearly two
thousand.

While the Creoles or descendants of the original negro settlers of

' Cf. Census of 1921, p. 18.

4 Ibid., p. 5.

THE COLONY

875

the Colony still dominate Freetown, it appears that they are on the decline.
The census for 1911 returned the Creole population as 31,078 in .1911 and
28,222 in 1921, which, including three hundred and fifty-eight mulattoes
counted separately in 1921, gives a decrease in the Creole population of
nine per cent.

The reason for this decline in the Creole population is not attributed
directly to physical causes, but rather to the fact that this population does
not take to agricultural enterprise. The Creoles seek employment as
clerks in offices, in stores, or with the government—the openings for which
depend to a large extent upon agriculture and trade. When these openings
are not found in Freetown, the Creoles look for work in Nigeria or even
the Belgian Congo. The increases in the native population of the Colony
are due to the movement of the natives from the Protectorate who appear
to be occupying farm land in the Colony, and to such people as the Krus,
nearly five thousand of whom have taken up their residence in Freetown for
the purpose of performing work in connection with the Colony’s shipping.
The Kru population has increased more than three thousand -during the
last ten years.

2. The Syrians

Another alien element in the Colony is the Syrians, the number of
whom in 1901 was forty-one, a figure which increased to one hundred
and seventy-five in 1911. Since then, the population has remained vir¬
tually stationary. In 1921, it stood at one hundred and seventy-seven. 0
The number of Syrians was less in 1921 than several years previously because
of the exodus after the riots of 1919. These riots were caused by natives
angered by the competition of Syrian traders who had ruined many native
hawkers, especially women accustomed to pick up money by a little
part-time work. Natives likewise also accused the Syrians of cornering the
rice crop and thus increasing the cost of living. Apparently native strikers
helped to instigate the row. In the riots which broke out, Syrian shops
were damaged and destroyed. The government awarded the Syrians
compensation for these damages to the extent of thirty-seven thousand
pounds, and it obliged the Freetown City Council to pay toward
this sum an indemnity of five thousand pounds, spread over ten annual
payments. 6

s Ibid., p. 9. As early as 1898, the Syrians invaded French Guinea and the
Sudan, undercutting European traders wherever they went. Cf. A. Arcin, His-
toire de la Guinee Franqaise, Paris, 1911, p. 663.

*Cf. Riots (Damages) Ordinance, 1924, Laws, Chap. 182, p. 1307. This act
was deemed to have come into force on January 1, 1919. Cf. also Legislative
Council Debates, 1922-1923, p. 104.

876

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

3. Km Labor

The Kru people, originating in the Kru Coast of Liberia, 7 are unique
among the tribes of the West Coast in that they earn their living by going
to sea. Until recently, few harbors of the West Coast have possessed
wharves alongside of which it is possible for vessels to dock. Even now,
except at Lagos, Dakar, and Matadi, it is the general rule for a vessel
to anchor out in the roadstead and lower cargo and passengers by means of
“mammie” chairs into small boats which are then rowed ashore by native
oarsmen. The deck work of loading or unloading these boats is performed
by Kru boys whom European vessels pick up on their outward voyage at
Freetown or Monrovia, and discharge at the same points on their home¬
ward voyage. When a vessel nears Freetown, it telegraphs to its agent
the number of boys and the headman it wishes. The agent thereupon
notifies the headman who collects the boys and takes charge of them
during the voyage. Usually a boat takes on from fifty to eighty men;
and in case the ship’s captain has not specified a particular headman, the
company asks the tribal ruler of Krutown to designate one. Upon selecting
a headman, the company usually makes an advance of wages of a pound a
head—which the headman distributes. On shipboard, he is given rations
which he likewise distributes among the men, while he receives a check
for the total amount of wages due the men at the end of the voyage. A
headman usually receives a wage of four shillings a day, and a deckhand
a wage of from two shillings to two shillings six pence. In addition, the
headman invariably levies a tribute of four to five shillings from each man
at the end of the voyage. Frequently, the headman also subjects these boys
to other exactions.

In 1903, the Sierra Leone Government attempted to see to it that the
customary tribute to the headmen partly went to the development of the
Kru community in which these men lived with their families when not at
sea. At that time, the government issued a regulation providing that the
headman of each gang of Krumen should pay a shilling to the Tribal Au¬
thority for each member of the gang, and that this money should be dis¬
bursed by the Tribal Authority for such purposes as the relief of the poor
and sick, the burial of the poor, education, and the relief of distress. These
rules also provided that no Kruman could go to sea without reporting to the
Tribal Authority. Rules also provide that every Kruman engaged on
any steamer who disobeys the order of a headman is liable to a fine not
exceeding one pound; if he refuses to work efficiently in loading or un¬
loading a vessel in Freetown he is also liable to a fine. Apparently in
’The Krus are also discussed in connection with Liberia; cf. Vol. II, p. 774.

THE COLONY

877

the belief that these sums were not being properly expended, the Governor
in 1906 directed that these sums should be paid by the shipping company
directly into the treasury or to the Post Office Savings Bank. At that
time, it appeared that each Kru paid to the headman a sum of five shillings
and that it was the .intention of the regulations to deduct one shilling for
the Tribal Fund so that the total sums paid out by the Krus would remain
five shillings. But instead of following out this understanding, the head¬
men, unbeknownst to the government, obliged the men to pay six shillings
in all.

While few complaints against this system were made before 1914,
the War altered conditions. As a result of the increased demand for labor,
other tribes came into the town to work. But the end of the War brought
a shipping slump, while the supply of labor continued to grow. In 1920,
a number of Kru deck-hands approached Elder, Dempster and Company,
the leading English steamship company, and the government, protesting
against the exactions of these headmen. This led the administration to
institute an inquiry. While neither the Krumen nor the companies ex¬
pressed the wish to abolish the system of working through headmen, both
agreed that in order to limit their exactions the headmen should pay off
the deck hands at the Kru court in the presence of the Tribal Ruler. Dis¬
putes over wages could then be decided by the ruler. 8

This procedure was resented by many headmen who now started a
campaign against the Tribal Ruler who had cooperated with the govern¬
ment in limiting these levies. They accused him of having made illegal
exactions, and asked that he be removed from office. Upon investigation,
the government found it was true that the Tribal Ruler in 1923 had
started, but with the approval of the Kru community, the collection of a
“special fund” for the purpose of assisting their relatives in Liberia to pay
a heavy fine imposed by the government of that country. The government
found that there had been some irregularities in the collection and expendi¬
ture of this fund, which it attempted to correct by authorizing the Com¬
missioner of Police to make a periodic examination of the Kru accounts.

The government decided, however, that the charges of the headmen
against the Tribal Ruler were unfounded. A small minority, nevertheless,
continued to make trouble, and created so much disorder that the Governor
deported the leader, who was a native of Liberia.

In 1924, complaints were again made that the Tribal Ruler of Krutown
was collecting from the headmen an unauthorized levy. After inquiry, the
government learned for the first time that instead of deducting a shilling
for the tribal fund authorized in 1905 from the five-shilling levy, the

8 Address by the Governor, Legislative Council, 1922-1923, pp. 64, ff.

878

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

headmen had, for the last twenty years, collected a total of six shillings,
one of which they paid to the tribal fund. Following the War, the new
population of Krutown increased the demands on this Fund which became
so heavy that the Tribal Rulers decided to make the headmen pay over
to the fund an extra shilling per man which would reduce their income to
four shillings as was the intention of the regulation of 1905. This at once
aroused the opposition of the headmen who protested to the government.
In an investigation, a government commissioner learned that because of
the increased population, there was much unemployment among the Krus
and that the average boatman was ashore half the year. The investigation
also brought out the fact that headmen made many exactions above the regu¬
lar six-shilling assessment. This was particularly true of an “employment”
fee charged some natives for finding them a job. It was the custom of
some headmen to advance to a native in return for a commission money
which they had borrowed from a money-lender. At the end of the voyage,
these advances were deducted from the Kruman’s pay. While the com¬
missioner did not believe the customary exaction from deck hands nor the
system of advances should be done away with, he believed that the Kru ruler
should be authorized to make regulations strictly prohibiting any exactions
beyond four shillings, and providing that all advances of headmen should be
made in the Kru court house in the presence of the Kru Tribal Ruler or
a representative as a witness. 9 It appears that such regulations were
issued.

From the steamship company’s standpoint, this system of employing
men through headmen possesses distinct advantages. From the standpoint
of the native deck hand, the advantages are perhaps less. Nevertheless,
the system saves the native the trouble of dealing directly with the em¬
ployer, and it has apparently been created by the Krus themselves, and not
by the European shipping companies. It does not appear that the Kru
deck hands wish to abolish it, nor even to dispense with the customary
four-shilling levy. They merely wish to be relieved of irregular exactions.

Inasmuch as these Krus are employed on vessels stopping from port
to port, they are practically at the mercy of their headmen and the ship’s
captain. In the past, complaints that these laborers were ill-treated have
been more frequent than they are at present. In order to provide them a
form of redress, the Government of Sierra Leone has enacted a Manual
Labor Regulation 10 which authorizes (sec. 12) a Tribal Ruler to inquire
into any complaint made by a laborer belonging to his tribe against his

"“Papers Relating to Amounts paid by Kru Seamen and Headmen to the Kru
Tribal Fund, and the Administration of that Fund,” Sessional Paper No. I of
I925, Sierra Leone.

10 Chap. 120, Laws, p. 855.

THE COLONY

879

employer. If satisfied that the laborer is entitled to relief, he may
apply to a British court for a summons, which shall be granted free of
charge. It would appear that under this power, the chief could bring
about the arrest of a ship captain upon the entrance of a ship into
Freetown harbor. 11

4. Tribal Administration in Freetown

Freetown has made perhaps more successful attempts to group together
natives living in industrialized conditions under tribal authority than any
other city of Africa. The Tribal Administration Ordinance 12 authorizes
the Governor to recognize chiefs over tribal groups living in the city. At
the present time, fourteen different groups are thus recognized in Freetown
and Waterloo. Living in communities of their own, natives.are under the
authority of a chief selected by the community such as the Tribal Ruler of
Krutown, which is probably the most advanced of these communities.

Before granting a petition from a community for the recognition of a
chief, the Governor refers the request to the Corporation of Freetown 13
for its opinion. If it has no objection, the Governor usually recognizes
the chief. Thus recognized, the Tribal Ruler has power, acting with the
headmen, to make rules in regard to about a dozen subjects such as indebted¬
ness, the relief of the poor, burial, education, and the registration of births
and deaths, which are subject to the approval of the Governor and of the
Corporation of Freetown. Having been approved and published in the

“These regulations also provide that any laborer or boatman who refuses or
neglects to perform his work is liable to a fine not exceeding two pounds and, in
default of payment, to imprisonment for one month. But if the court finds that he
has just cause for neglecting work, it may refuse to impose the fine, or it may
order the employer to compensate the person for having to attend court.

Laborers working outside of the Territory under contract are controlled by the
Native Labor (Foreign Service) Ordinance (Chapter 133), which provides that
no native laborer shall be engaged for service outside the Territory unless he has
the consent of his chief, or in case he has no chief, unless he has the certificate of
a magistrate issued after he is satisfied that he is physically fit, that he is not
abandoning his family, or that he has provided for their maintenance, and that he
is above sixteen. An employer or recruiter wishing to recruit labor for service
outside the Colony must first obtain a permit from the Colonial Secretary, good
for a period of three months, to recruit the number of men specified. Contracts
are signed before the magistrate, who must furnish a list of the persons on such
contracts to the police who check the names at embarkation. Such contracts are
limited to thirteen months, and the employer must provide return passage. At
least half of the wages must be paid upon return. When a magistrate believes
that an employer has ill-treated the laborers, the Governor may cancel the con¬
tract; and every laborer whose contract has been cancelled shall be conveyed to
his home at the expense of the government which is authorized to take action to
recover these charges from the employer.

The master of the ship shall not discharge any member of his crew who is a
native of British territory in any foreign port, except in the gresence of the British
consul. Deck passengers who have been laborers must carry their certificates.

“Chap. 217, Laws, p. 1408. M Cf. Vol. I, p. 882.

880

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

Gazette, they enter into full force. The chief may also levy taxes upon
members of the group for tribal purposes, and may impose a fine upon a
person refusing to obey the rules or pay these contributions. Such a
person may appeal to the European Police Magistrate who, if he does not
consider the fine excessive, may order its collection. He may also in¬
crease or diminish it.

In addition to exercising this legislative power, the Tribal Ruler, who
is recognized for a period of five years, is obliged to assist the police and
justices of the peace. While he may himself try minor offenses, he hands
over to the European authority the natives charged with crimes such as
robbery with violence and murder.

Some of the rules issued by these Tribal Rulers are of interest. Thus
the Tribal Administration Rules for the Krus provide that all members
of the Kru tribe resident in Freetown are subject to the Tribal Ruler.
All unmarried Kru girls over sixteen must register with him. The ruler
is authorized to settle disputes between members of the Krus relating to
indebtedness, the pawning of property, personal property, responsibility
for the maintenance of aged and sick relatives, and all other matters affect¬
ing the peace and well-being of the tribe. The rules also provide that no
Kru boy under sixteen may be included in a headman’s gang to work on
a steamer. Any person who incites another to drink sasswood for the
purpose of “proving witch” is guilty of an offense. The rules also define
the purposes of and fix the rates for contributions for the Tribal Fund
discussed above. 14 The eldest member of each Kru family is responsible
for the proper burial of its deceased members. 15

Rules for the Foulah community likewise provide that every Foulah
man shall pay the sum of one shilling monthly to the Tribal Authority
to he used for communal purposes.

By such means, an attempt is made—unique in Africa—to maintain a
form of the old tribal control over natives in the towns who otherwise
would, as they do in most towns in Africa, live an undisciplined existence.
While this experiment has not entirely prevented the demoralization 'in¬
evitably produced by city life, one is led to believe that the effort has
been well directed.

5. The Legislative Council

In Sierra Leone, the same demand for native representation on the
Legislative Council has arisen as in the Gold Coast. The Sierra Leone
Legislative Council has existed since 1863. 18 Between 1903 and 1924,

14 Cf. Vol. I, p. 877. *La<ws, Vol. Ill, p. 546.

19 Before this date, however, various other councils existed. Cf. J. L. John,
“Memorandum on the Evolution of the Legislative Council of Sierra Leone,”
Legislative Council Debates, 1924-25, pp. 232 ff.

THE COLONY

881

the council contained five official and four nominated unofficial members,
of whom three were Africans and one a European. As a rule the three
African members all came from the vicinity of Freetown. The Protec¬
torate had no representative, despite its great numerical preponderance.

Following the establishment elsewhere of legislative councils having
elective members, the Duke of Devonshire said: “What has already been
granted to Lagos and Calabar cannot reasonably be refused to Freetown.” 17

At about this time, the West African National Congress asked for a
council including five elected Africans to represent the Colony, and two
nominated Africans to represent the Protectorate. Partially granting this
request, the government announced in December, 1922, that a new legisla¬
tive Council would be established composed of eleven official and ten un¬
official members, three of the latter to be elected by qualified voters of
the Colony, two representing the city of Freetown and one the remainder
of the Colony. Of the seven members nominated by the Governor, two
would represent the commercial interests, two would be Africans from the
Colony, and three would be Paramount Chiefs, one from each province
of the Protectorate. At least one of these chiefs should be a Mende and
another a Temne. Two years were occupied in drafting the delicate con¬
stitutional instruments necessary to effect the change. The council was
finally established in November, 1924. 18

In granting representation to the Protectorate in the Legislative Coun¬
cil, a difficulty arose because of the legal nature of a Protectorate, the chiefs
of which might not be able to take an oath of allegiance to the Crown. The
Secretary of State first ruled that they could not do so; but he later
reversed this opinion. It was pointed out elsewhere that soldiers enlisting
from the Protectorate had taken such oaths for a long time. 19

The electorate for the council is confined to male British subjects or
natives of the Protectorate capable of reading and writing English or
Arabic, and having resided for twelve months within the electoral district
in which they wish to vote. Sierra Leone is the only one of the three
colonies having elected representatives which exacts a literacy test for
voters. In the urban electoral district, a voter must also own property
having an annual rental value of not less than ten pounds, or have a yearly
salary of not less than a hundred pounds. In the rural electoral district,
he must have property of not less than six pounds in annual rental value or

17 Despatch, November 29, 1922, Sessional Paper, No. 1 of 1923. An Under
Secretary of State for the Colonies had also recommended elective representation
for Grenada, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent, having populations smaller and not more
advanced than Sierra Leone.

“Sierra Leone (Legislative Council) Order in Council, 1924, Laws, p. 906.

19 Legislative Council Debates, 1922-1923, p. 181. For this difficulty in Tangan¬
yika, cf. Vol. I, p. 430.

882

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

a yearly salary of not less than sixty pounds. A member must possess
property to the value of two hundred and fifty pounds for the urban and of
one hundred pounds for the rural electoral district. The number of
voters who registered in 1923 in the urban district was 1016, and in the
rural district, three hundred and thirty-nine. A smaller proportion of
voters registered in the rural than in the urban district. In the first elec¬
tion eighty-nine per cent of the registered voters took part—a percentage
considerably higher than that usually cast in elections in Nigeria, or, for
that matter, in the United States. Only twelve out of 1214 ballots were
spoiled. 20

Shortly after the new council came into existence, the railway strike 21
occurred, which afforded the elected members an opportunity to vent their
grievances against the government. While these members have no actual
power, the strike incident showed that they had a forum from which they
may loudly express their grievances. So far, most of the elected members
have maintained a policy of unbending opposition to the government, which
according to officials has made the task of administration more difficult
than before.

6. The Freetown Municipality

In 1893, the British Government established a form of government
in the city of Freetown which vested more power in an African community
than exists in any other city in Africa. The management of the city was
placed in the hands of a council composed of a total of fifteen members,
twelve of whom were elected by the people 22 and three appointed by the
Governor. Elections were held in wards. This council elected from
among its own members a mayor who was in charge of the general
administration of the city. Among the nominated members, the govern¬
ment appointed to the council a medical officer of health and the com¬
missioner of police. 23

In establishing the Freetown Municipality, the British Government
for some reason did not follow the practice of other parts of the Empire
in establishing civic bodies at first having a government majority. The

20 Unlike the Council of Nigeria, the Council of Sierra Leone contains a repre¬
sentative of missionary interests in the form of the Bishop of Sierra Leone. During
the railway strike, the Bishop, as a member of the council, came to the support
of the government, which antagonized a number of Native Church members.
Experience would appear to show that as a member of the council, a missionary
must take a stand on political questions which will injure his religious work.
Many missionaries, therefore, believe it is better to have their interests represented
by a layman rather than by one of the clergy.

* Cf. Vol. I, p. 887.

”To be eligible, a councillor has to own property worth two hundred pounds.

21 For the consolidated law, cf. Freetown Municipality Ordinance, 1924, Laws,
Chap. 80, p. 566.

THE COLONY

883

African population of Freetown did not pass through any educative stage,
but was called upon to assume at once the obligations of governing the hub
not only of the Colony, but also of the Protectorate.

Under these circumstances, it is not surprising to find that popular
interest in the government of the municipality has not been great. Under
the law, every man who owns or occupies property having an assessed annual
value of six pounds and who has paid his city rate is eligible to vote. But
in 1924, there were only six hundred and seventy-four registered voters in
the city, or about half of the number who registered for the Legislative
Council elections. 24

The number is less than that registered in 1900—eight hundred and
forty-eight. This decrease is largely due to the fact that taxpayers in
arrears cannot vote. Election campaigns have also been vigorously criti¬
cized. The mayor, an African, commented upon the election of 1915-16 as
follows: “The electioneering campaign this year has been of a disgraceful
character when compared with many others that have taken place in
previous years. I trust the vulgarity to which it descended will not be
repeated again. Men who can stoop so low as to be parties and join issue
with hooligans should be debarred by legitimate means to make entrance
to the City Council of Freetown impossible. . . .” 26

Throughout the course of its history, the City Council of Freetown,
composed almost entirely of African members, has been entrusted with
power over the following subjects: fire protection, public markets and
slaughter-houses, roads, sanitation, building regulations, water supply,
cemeteries, places of public recreation, and street lighting. 28

While from the beginning, the Sierra Leone Government agreed to
keep the roads of Freetown in repair, the corporation was originally
required to keep them clean. But in 1912, following an investigation
by Professor W. J. Simpson of sanitary conditions in West Africa, the
administration relieved the city of the responsibility of carrying out -this
and other sanitation provisions, including the regulation of buildings.
Henceforth, the undertakings of the City Council were limited primarily
to fire protection, markets, street lighting, cemeteries, and water supply.

In order to finance these activities, the council has levied a city rate,
together with a water rate, which have amounted to thirteen per cent of
the annual value of city property—a rate half that paid in English munici¬
palities. This rate has not, however, furnished the council with sufficient

** Sierra Leone Blue Book, 1924, p. 63.

* Quoted by the Governor, Legislative Council, 1925-1926, p. 124.

" Cf. Sec. 106, Freetown Municipality Ordinance; and Report of the Commis¬
sion of Inquiry into the Affairs of the Freetown Municipality, by Sir Charles
O’Brien, May-July, 1926, p. 6.

884

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

revenue, and it has been obliged to resort to grants-in-aid from the Sierra
Leone Government. The Colonial Administration also renders services
to the municipality in the way of sanitation, police, and the upkeep of roads,
amounting to about thirty-six thousand pounds a year. On the other
hand, the Corporation loses about 2750 pounds a year in municipal rates
because of the exemption of Colonial Government property from local
taxation. In order to finance a waterworks extension, the Corporation has
also contracted a loan from the Colonial Government.

Despite this aid, the Corporation of Freetown showed a deficit in
eight out of the twelve years between 1912 and 1924. While this deficit
may have been partly due to post-war conditions, it was also due to the
failure of the Corporation to collect its taxes. During the last twenty-five
years, the arrears in the city rate have been more than ten per cent in all
but five years, and since the War they have exceeded twenty per cent. 27

Accumulated arrears in the city and water rates for the year 1923-24
amounted to 2,468 pounds. These rates, the responsibility for the collec¬
tion of which rests with the Freetown Corporation, are the only direct
taxes which the inhabitants of Freetown are obliged to pay. 28 In some
years, the council has attempted to prosecute defaulters, but most of the
time it has been only lukewarm in these activities. The African editor
of the Sierra Leone Weekly News complained: “Year in and year out
this condition of things has continued. We must frankly state that there
could be no justification on the part of the Council for failing to carry out
this important though unpleasant duty. The situation becomes all the
more unjustifiable when it is considered that it has been found that the
defaulters are not generally among the poorer classes; both in the matter of
licenses and the payment of municipal rates, it is believed that the de¬
faulters are amongst the well-to-do citizens (sic) than otherwise.” 29

In another article, the same paper declared that “it has been an open
secret that even some of the Councillors who impose the taxes and should
be examples in this matter, have too often been at fault. . . .” The
British auditor of the municipality accounts likewise has stated: “The
longer the Council is content to allow householders to evade their dues,
the more the habit of procrastination—with the hope of ultimate evasion—
will become installed in the mind of the people.” 30

Financial difficulties were created not only by the failure to collect

21 “Freetown Municipality,” Appendix to the Address by the Governor, Legis¬
lative Council, 1925-1926, p. 148.

* No direct taxes are collected in the Colony.

* Quoted, “Freetown Municipality,” Address, cited, p. 149.

*° “Auditor’s Report on the Accounts of the Municipality of Freetown,” 1923-
1924, Sessional Paper, No. 7 of 1925.

THE COLONY

885

taxes but by a loose control of the city funds. In February, 1926, the town
clerk was convicted on a charge of false pretences with intend to defraud
the city treasury. His conviction was followed by that of a clerk in the
service of the municipal government for forging a requisition of the City
Council. In the spring of 1926 more serious proceedings still were taken
against the Mayor, the City Treasurer, and a Municipal Foreman of
Works who were convicted on a charge of conspiracy to defraud. Other
employees were similarly convicted.

The Mayor of Freetown, who was sentenced to nine months’ imprison¬
ment, was tried under the Jurors and Assessors Ordinance which authorizes
(sec. 41) the Attorney General in the case of public officials charged with
criminal offense affecting Government property to demand trial by a judge
and assessors in place of trial by jury. 31 In ordinary cases the accused may
elect to be tried by assessors. While the judge is bound by the opinion
of the jury, he is not bound by the opinion of the assessors. The accused
does not have the right to challenge an assessor; but it is the practice of
the Chief Justice to heed the objections of the accused in making a selection.

In trying the Mayor of Freetown, the Attorney General invoked the
provisions of this ordinance so that the trial was conducted by a judge and
one African and two European assessors. All three of these assessors ex¬
pressed the opinion that the charges against the Mayor had not been
proved; but the judge overruled their objections, as he could legally do
under the ordinance, and sentenced the Mayor to nine months’ imprison¬
ment. He also denied the Mayor’s request for an appeal. Despite the
legality of the action, the sentence at once brought forth the violent criticism
of the African residents of Freetown, few of whom believed that the
Mayor, whose reputation had previously been spotless, was guilty. Whether
or not the Mayor had committed the offences with which he was charged,
it was inevitable that the procedure by which he was convicted would cause
ill-feeling. Sierra Leone might either follow the system of jury trials, 0 x try
the cases by a bank of three judges, one of whom might eventually be an
African. Apparently realizing that the procedure employed in obtaining
this conviction had produced harm, .he government released the Mayor
before he had served a third of his sentence. 32

31 Laws, Chap. 106, p. 747.

M The African World, August 14, 1926, p. 107. In his report on West Africa,
Mr. Ormsby-Gore upheld the Assessors Ordinance on the ground of the “circum¬
stances obtaining in Freetown, which consists of a comparatively small community
most of whose members are personally known to each other,” and also because
the “educational standard of many of those entitled to serve as jurors is still low.”
He also believed that trial by jury would in cases involving racial antagonism
be a travesty on justice. Cmd. 2744 (1926), p. 160. It would appear, however,
that the maintenance of a “dummy” system of assessors, without the right of appeal,

886

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

Distressed at the condition of municipal affairs, the Sierra Leone Gov¬
ernment asked the Secretary of State to appoint a special commissioner to
investigate and make recommendations in regard to the Freetown Munici¬
pality. This task was confided to Sir Charles O’Brien, late Governor of
the Barbados. He found that the municipal accounts had not been correctly
nor carefully kept. 33 The colonial auditor could not legally compel the
council to adopt any suggestions as to the improvement of accounts.

In his inspection of the municipal undertakings of the Corporation,
the commissioner found an equally depressing state of affairs, except in
the case of the water works, which an African engineer conducted with
remarkable efficiency. But in regard to other municipal departments, the
commissioner stated: “The City Council has failed to provide Freetown
with municipal services of even moderate efficiency. The condition of
the markets and the slaughter houses is deplorable. The street lighting
is inadequate. The cemeteries are ill-kept. It cannot be pretended that
the fire brigade provides any serious protection against fire.” 34 He went
on to say: “The aggregate revenue of the Corporation has in recent years
been over £15,000 a year. It is difficult to perceive what civil services
have been rendered with this money. There is no evidence of any con¬
siderable capital expenditure for some time past. The revenue which the
Council has enjoyed should have been sufficient with honest and business¬
like management to have kept in an efficient state the civic undertakings
which are now in decay.” As a result of his investigation, the commissioner
was led to conclude not only that the Colonial Government should take
over the fire protection of Freetown, but also that the present system of
municipal government should be supplanted by a council composed of five 38
members nominated by the Governor, including an official in the Colonial
Treasury, one official of the Sanitary Department, two representatives of
the European commercial community, and either an African or a Euro¬
pean at the option of the government, together with five elected members.
If the number of electors who vote is less than 55 per cent of the total
registered voters, the election should be void. There would thus be
virtually an official majority. The Governor should also appoint a Euro¬
pean official as mayor. The Colonial Audit Department should be given
greater powers with regard to municipal accounts.

will merely provoke inter-racial feeling, while rendering the system of justice open
to the possibility of abuse.

"The cash book had not been posted daily, nor even balanced at the end of
the month; abstract and classification books had not been correctly kept; the
journal had not been used; the ledger had not balanced, and balance sheets had
not been forthcoming. Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Affairs of
the Freetown Municipality, 1926, p. 14.

84 Ibid., p. 18. "Excluding the mayor.

THE COLONY

887

In his address to the Legislative Council, in November, 1926, the
Governor of Sierra Leone indicated that he had recommended to the
Secretary of State that some such changes should be made. In December,
1926, this experiment in local self-government along European lines, in¬
stituted in 1893, came t( > an end. The blame for the failure cannot, ac¬
cording to the commissioner, “be placed upon the shoulders of Africans
alone.” He continues: “The institution was not an organic growth. It
was forced full-fledged upon a people who were not ripe for the experi¬
ment. They were expected to work, without any preliminary training, a
type of institution which those who imposed it upon them had only
learned to work through centuries of experience. They had no practical
knowledge of what was implied by the provision of satisfactory municipal
services; and they had, therefore, no standard of comparison by which to
measure the success of their activities.” 3R

This ill-fated experiment cannot be taken as evidence that the African
is permanently incapable of self-government. It simply bears out similar
experiences in the Gold Coast and Nigeria indicating that Africans cannot
be expected to carry on the administration of what are, after all, European
communities. The native population of Freetown owes its existence to
European enterprise. The city is primarily European, in so far as the
problem of administration is concerned. The experience of Freetown
would appear to indicate that the future political development of the
African must follow along native lines, and that this development will come
by granting increased judicial and financial responsibility to tribal author¬
ities. In this system, the African “scholar” class, which crowds the towns,
will occupy an anomalous position. New systems of education will send
many of them back to their communities. The others, it appears, must be
content, as far as politics are concerned, with occupying positions of sub¬
ordinate authority in European offices, or with serving as a minority upon
European councils. Eventually, they may evolve an experience which.will
justify imposing “European” administrative duties upon them. But it
should be emphasized that the real future development of Africa lies in
the development of institutions which have originated in Africa and not in
Europe. These institutions may eventually approach the form of European
institutions, but the changes should be gradual, and they should arise out
of the native group instead of being imposed from without.

7. The Railway Strike

The trials of Sierra Leone have been industrial as well as political in
nature. Under the influence of British example, the natives of Sierra

*® Report, cited, p. 23.

888

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

Leone employed on the government railway have organized a labor union,
and have staged several strikes. In 1919, an organized railway strike
broke out, led by some employees who claimed that the government had
failed to pay them a promised bonus. It was followed by a strike of the
African employees in the Public Works Department. A strike of two
thousand four hundred native policemen also occurred at about this same
time, virtually all of whom were as a result dismissed. 37 The Syrian riots
which took place during this period were believed to have been instigated
by the railway strikers.

In January and February of 1926, a more serious strike occurred,
organized by the African Railway Workers’ Union. It appears that this
was the first industrial disturbance in Central Africa patterned on a
European model. This strike was apparently caused by the efforts of the
Railway Administration to improve the standard of work of the native
employees of the road. In 1925, the Governor reported that the standard
of work of these Africans remained “deplorably low” and that the staff
seemed “almost completely to lack a proper sense of their duty to the
Government” or to the public. 30

So great was their ignorance, that the general manager informed the
native employees that they would be entitled to their incremental increase
in salaries only after passing a simple examination in arithmetic, general
rules and regulations of the railway, electric train staff instructions, ticket
inspection, and station accounts. But the clerks as a body declined to take
the examination. The administration retaliated by refusing to grant
salary increments which the employees otherwise would have received.
The employees demanded the payment of these increments regardless of
the examination; they also asked that a larger number of Africans be
appointed to pensionable establishments. Other employees demanded higher
wages. Failing to receive satisfaction, the Railway Union without serving
notice on the administration ordered the men to strike. Meanwhile, it
proceeded to organize a strike fund. The Governor replied by dismissing
the junior clerks and by employing strike breakers, some of whom were
West Indians. The general manager of the railway published a notice
stating that he had been informed that “certain members of the staff
contemplate ceasing duty without warning or permission.” He warned
the staff that “anyone so ceasing duty” would be “regarded as dismissed,

n Statement of the Governor, Legislative Council Debates, April 9, 1926, p. 72.

" Address by the Governor, Legislative Council, 1925-1926, p. 90.

The Governor also said that African employees on the railway and elsewhere
practiced extortion on “illiterates,” refusing to handle their consignments without
having their palms liberally greased. To escape such practices, many illiterates
preferred to carry their loads long distances.

THE COLONY

889

and as having broken his service” and if subsequently again employed
would only be “re-engaged as a new entrant at such rates of pay and on
such conditions of service as Government may decide.” 30

At the end of six weeks, the government had succeeded in breaking the
strike. It declined to take back into the service thirty-seven pensionable
employees, some of whom had worked for twenty years. Others it took
back only after a temporary reduction in pay ranging from thirty shillings
to six pounds. These measures led the Africans to declare that the govern¬
ment was attempting to destroy the Railway Union and that it denied the
right of the Africans to strike. 40

The government denied that it had any intention of breaking the
union; its responsibility was to maintain the country’s system of communica¬
tion; if the men chose to strike, the government was entitled to employ
men to take their places. This was not an ordinary industrial dispute
in which the government was a neutral party. “This was a revolt,”
according to the Governor, “against Government by its own servants.”
The Secretary of State for the Colonies telegraphed: “The strikers must
Realize that as Government servants who have left their work without
leave, they are liable to the penalty of instant dismissal.” In the debate
on the strike, the Governor went so far as to imply that even if the
employees were not Government servants, they would be liable to a fine
under the Manual Labor Regulation of the Colony which makes any
laborer who refuses to perform his work without “just cause” liable to a
fine not exceeding two pounds and, in default of payment, to imprisonment
not exceeding one month. In other words, the Master and Servants Ordi¬
nance of Sierra Leone, mild as it is compared with the ordinances found in
East and South Africa, operates to make strikes of any kind illegal. 41

On the other hand, the African strikers resorted to measures of violence
which led the General Manager of the railway to declare: “In my twenty-
two years of railway service, I have seen strikes in England and elsewhere,
but it was not until I came to Sierra Leone that I saw the disgraceful acts
which were done by strikers, and there is no denying these incidents.
When I left Boia, two rails were removed in front of my train at one place,
and another loosened. At another, a rail was placed across the line. The
men lighting up the engine were stoned. When the first train arrived at
Bo, a mob armed with sticks attacked the train; rails were removed or
loosened on curves, at steep banks and at the approach to a bridge;
telegraph poles were pulled down, wires cut, and telegraph instruments

“Quoted, Legislative Council Debates, April 9, 1926, p 7.

Cf. ibid., passim.

41 Cf. the remarks of the Governor, ibid., pp. 67 ff.

890

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

interfered with, preventing telegraphic communication with the Protec¬
torate.” 42 In the midst of the strike, one of the Freetown newspapers
hinted that since there was unrest in the Protectorate over the slavery
proposal of the government, there was a chance of another rebellion—a
statement which the Governor branded as “dastardly.” 43

From reading the debates of both sides in regard to this strike, it does
not appear that the strikers had any grievances which warranted a strike
and that the methods which they used to bring about and to carry it on
were uncalled for. While the government acted with severity, its duty
was to maintain the communications of the Territory. At the same time,
the strike still further intensified the racial feeling already acute over the
question of the Municipality of Freetown. The Governor, Sir Arthur
Slater, found himself, to use his own words, hated by the Freetown com¬
munity. In a melancholy statement, he declared that in their attitude
toward the strike, the people had proved unworthy of the principle of
elective representation. “That the people should have thus pitiably be¬
trayed their own cause” made him profoundly despondent. He con¬
tinued: “It was said . . . that by my attitude in the strike I have
put the clock back fifty years. I agree that the clock has been put
back, but I am quite content to leave it to posterity to decide whose is the
hand responsible.” 44 This strike was of more far-reaching importance in
that it revealed the development of the same type of industrial problem in
Africa which has tormented Europe and America for so many years. In
Africa, this problem is made infinitely more difficult by the fact that the
employer is European and the employees are primitive people. At the
present time, it appears that the Sierra Leone legislation makes any
organized protest against conditions of employment illegal and that the
administration regards any strike of government employees as a disloyal act.
Regardless of the merits of the Sierra Leone railway strike, the enforce¬
ment of such a policy will in the future lead to industrial violence made
worse by racial bitterness.

Whatever may be the defects of administration in Liberia, one does not
find there the chasm separating the rulers from the ruled which exists in
Sierra Leone. From this standpoint, it cannot be said that the British
experiment in founding a home for freed slaves has been as successful as
has the similar experiment in Liberia. Despite the fact that the Creole
community of Freetown has had a hundred years to build up a new group

** Debates, cited, p. 24.

43 Ibid., p. 71.

** Ibid., p. 79.

THE COLONY

891

to take the place of the tribal institutions out of which they as slaves
had originally been torn, progress in this direction has been discouraging.
The example lends weight to the belief that the development of Africa
must come through the evolution of groups rooted in the soil.

APPENDICES—SIERRA LEONE
XIX. Native Welfare in British West Africa

r. Native Welfare Expenditures—Sierra Leone

2. Native Welfare Expenditures—British West Africa

3. Medical Work—British West Africa

4. Native Education—British West Africa

XX. A Statistical Comparison of British West
Africa and British East Africa

APPENDIX XIX

Native Welfare in British West Africa
i. Native Welfare, Sierra Leone*

Department Amount (<£)

expenditures

Education . 37.298 5.47

Agriculture and Forestry

Administration, Inspection, and Research. 10,645 1.56

Agriculture . 14,411

Forests

Veterinary. 2,438

Total ... 38,611

Medical and Sanitary

Medical Department . 56.353

Sanitation Department . 22,563

Total . 78,916

Total . 154.825 22.73 s

1 Given in amounts and in percentages of total ordinary expenditures of
£681,609. (This figure does not include railways.)

* Source: Sierra Leone Estimates for 1926.

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

Total Welfare

% of Ex¬
penditures

P» to to ft
n o\ wi

: :

Amount

per ioo

persons

pi oo oo

GO vs",

'*• o O oo
* ? 2 ^

Medicine and
Education
Sanitation

% of Ex¬
penditures

-t- tv. oo ^

VO vo VO OO

VO OO « VO

Amount

per ioo

persons

OO VO o Ov

O N o

1 •> *! -t

Pi M vo to

Education

% of Ex¬
penditures

VO 00 P-. 0 \

Ov r^. rf- OO
(4 VO VO to

Amount

per ioo

persons

*o 0 ■+ oo
r^. pj n to
» OO d- CN

N N ti M

Agriculture,
Veterinary
and Forests

% of Ex¬
penditures

to 0 oo to

VO tfvo O
pi to vo to

Amount

per ioo

persons

O' O + O
+ oo O -
O VO VO vo

- vi- (i ■

Colonies

Nigeria .

Gold Coast.

Sierra Leone .

Average British West Africa.

MEDICAL WORK—BRITISH WEST AFRICA

897

3. Medical Work
British West Africa

Colony

Admission to
Hospitals

Outpatients

Doctors

1926-1927

1,862

49 . 430 1

22 4

72 s

22,590

182,101 *

1 Ibid., Sierra Leone, 1924, p. 16. This figure is divided between 10,95J new
cases and 38,475 subsequent attendances.
a 1926 figures, cf. p.

* Annual Medical and Sanitary Report, Nigeria, 1924, p. 23.

4 Includes six African Medical Officers and three Junior African Medical
Officers.

‘Includes 8 African Medical Officers.

4. Native Education
British West Africa 1

Colony

No. of Government

Average

and Assisted Schools

Attendance

Sierra Leone .

126

11,301

Gold Coast .

234

30,500

Nigeria ..

283

36,211

1 In comparing these figures the fact should be remembered that Nigeria has a
population nine times that of the Gold Coast. The latter territory has about
750,000 more people than Sierra Leone.

APPENDIX XX

A Statistical Comparison of East Africa and West Africa

SECTION X

FRENCH WEST AFRICA

West Africa

CHAPTER 55

THE FRENCH OCCUPATION OF WEST AFRICA 1

With the exception of a few islands, the outstanding one of which is
Madagascar, and a barren area along the Red Sea, the French territories
in Africa lie upon the West Coast. 2 These territories fall into three main
groups: French West Africa, French Equatorial Africa, and the mandated
territories of Togo and the Cameroons.

The area covered by these territories is truly immense. One can now
travel from the French port of Algiers on the Mediterranean Sea, across
the Sahara desert to Lake Chad, and then down the Ubangi and Congo
rivers till he reaches Brazzaville, and remain all the time under the shelter
of the French flag. This part of the Greater France thus extends from
thirty-seven degrees latitude north to about four degrees south of the
Equator. Except for British enclaves, Liberia, and a few insignificant
holdings of Spain and Portugal, the whole of the hump of Africa is in
French hands. These three groups have an area of 2,601,395 square miles
which is more than twelve times the area of France. Probably half of
this consists of sandy desert, and much of the interior is uninviting steppe
or savannah country. Relief from this monotony is found in parts of the
French Congo, Gaboon, Dahomey, and the Ivory Coast—territory covered
with heavy tropical forests and the oil palm.

I. The Native Population

Within this vast territory, a population of about fifteen million people
is found. Probably nowhere else in Africa do people show such diversity
of social organization and of racial composition as in these areas under
French sovereignty. This fact is explained largely by geography. France’s
central African empire is separated from the Mediterranean by the Sahara
desert, and by an intervening strip of territory called the Sahel, the most
important city of which is Timbuktu. To the south of the Sahel, another
strip of territory lies, called the Sudan.

'The holdings of France in North Africa, Algeria, Tunis, and Morocco, are,
of course, excluded from this discussion. The writer did not visit Madagascar,
which explains why it is not discussed here.

1 Except for names such as the Cameroons, which have international usage, we
have followed the French spelling of proper names.

901

902

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the contact between the Medi¬
terranean and the Sudan was continuous, and it led, as we have seen, 3
to the establishment of a number of empires such as the Ghana, Sosso, Mali,
and Songhai Empires in the Sudan having a high degree of civilization.
While the social and political organization of these empires has long
since disappeared, the racial elements which the northern invaders intro¬
duced still remain. Nomadic and pastoral peoples who belong to the
white rather than to the black race will be found throughout the northern
part of French West Africa.

The Moors, totalling about 295,000, occupy the greater part of the
colony of Mauretania, and part of northern Sudan. The Touaregs, who
closely resemble the Moors, inhabit the Sahara, the Sudan, and the Niger.
They number about 250,000. An invading race of much more importance
and of a darker skin is the Fulani (Peuls) who number about i,6oo,0O0. 4
They have scattered themselves throughout the whole of French West
Africa except in the forest regions along the cOast and have intermarried
with a large number of native groups. The result of their mixture with
the Ouolofs is a group called Toucouleurs, who number about 146,000.
Finally, there are the negroes proper, the most important group of which
in West Africa is the Mande, which constitutes the majority of the
native population of the Sudan and of Guinea. The two leading families
in this group are the Bambaras 6 and the Mandingos (Malinkes), each of
which numbers about a million people. The least advanced members of
the Mande group are the Sarrakoles and the Diolas. The latter people
live a very elementary existence in that part of the Senegal called the
Casamance. In the greater part of Senegal, two negro tribes, the Ouolofs
and the Sereres, numbering about half a million, who, as a result of long
contact with Europeans have acquired considerable intelligence, live side
by side.

The Mossi people living in the Upper Volta, are of even greater
numerical importance, numbering about 1,650,000. These people are
divided into two main native kingdoms: the Kingdom of Yatenga, and the
Kingdom of Ouagadougou, each of which is ruled by kings who date back
to the thirteenth century. The basis of the Yatenga kingdom is the
village presided over by a village chief, assisted, in some cases, by a
religious chief who is also chief of the land. These villages are grouped

* Cf. Vol. I, p. 679.

4 The standard description of these various races is found in M. Delafosse,
Haut-Senegal-Niger, Paris, 19x2, two volumes, Paris, 1912. One of the earliest
studies is A. Hovelacque, Les Negres de I’Afrique sus-tquatoriale, Paris, 1889.

6 Cf. Ch. Monteil, Les Bambara de Segoti et du Kaarta, Paris, 1924; also J.
Henry, Les Bambara, Munster, 1910, and G. Cheron, La Sociiti Noire de I’Afrique
Occidentale Fran^aise, Paris, 1908.

THE FRENCH OCCUPATION OF WEST AFRICA 903

under a higher chief in units which the French call “cantons,” some of
which are commanded by the king, others by the nobles, and others by
ordinary Mossi. 8 In most cases, the chiefs of the villages and of the
cantons are named by the king.

The head of the Yatenga kingdom is called the Yatenga-naba to dis¬
tinguish himself from the Moro-naba of Ouagadougou. He is selected
according to a curious and difficult principle that all the collateral branches
of the royal family should be represented in turn on the throne. This has
led to many disputes which usually have been settled by force. The king
is assisted by four ministers, the first of whom is the Togo-naba, who is
the mouthpiece of the king. His chief duty is to invest the new sovereign
at his coronation. The second minister is the Rassam-naba, who was
originally chief of the slaves, but who is now the minister of finance;
the third is the Baoum-naba, or mayor of the palace, who introduces
visitors to the king; while the fourth, the Ouidi-naba, is the head of
the horses, and in time of war, chief of the cavalry. 7 Following in some
respects the practice of the kingdom of Uganda, these ministers are not
taken from the aristocracy, but from the commoners, and even from slaves.
These rulers have levied tribute and taxes, and maintained a well-organized
judicial system. Curiously enough, the Mossi have left the ownership of
the land in the hands of the Foulses, the people who inhabited the country
before the Mossi invasion.

For a time following their conquest of these people, it appears that the
French wished to reduce the Mossi kings altogether. One writer says,
“The French conquest has hastened the end of the power of the Nabas;
it is absolutely indisputable that it has rendered a great service to the
Mossi in sheltering them from the caprice and the arbitrary nature of
these avid and cruel tyrannies.” 8 But at present, the French tolerate,
and in theory encourage the native institutions of the country.

In the Upper Niger and Upper Dahomey, similar native states once
existed. In the tropical forest belt along the coast, there live negro tribes,
who have no large scale organization, which the presence of thick forests
really makes impossible. Such disorganized peoples, living in independent
villages, will be found along the Ivory Coast, French Guinea, and the
Gaboon. The chief people of the Ivory Coast forest belt are the Agnes
and the Baoules. While the negro proper occupies a large part of French
West Africa, the Bantu is found south of ten degrees latitude north, in
the Cameroons, and in French Equatorial Africa.

'Cf. L. Tauxier, Le Noir du Yatenga, Paris, 1917, p. 344.

T Cf. also L. Marc, Le Pays Mossi, Paris, 1909, Chap. VIII.

* Ibid., p. 145.

904

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

After having made this summary description of the peoples who occupy
French West Africa, we shall discuss the methods by which the French
established control over this territory.

2 . The Occupation of Senegal

Most of this vast territory was added to the French empire within the
short space of twenty years. The headquarters of the conquest were located
in two tiny island towns in Senegal, Goree, which is a jewelled fortress
lying off the Cap Vert (now the seat of the city of Dakar), and Saint
Louis, named after the lie Saint Louis lying sheltered in the Seine, which
is located a few miles from the mouth of the Senegal river.

Intrepid explorers from the Mediterranean countries touched the pro¬
truding hump of Africa during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
As early as 1364, French sailors from Dieppe are supposed to have dropped
anchor off Rufisque. The sixteenth century saw the whole of West Africa
the scene of a lively slave trade with Europe. In 1659, an agent of the
Compagnie normande, one of the monopolistic chartered companies created
by the old regime, established what became the city of St. Louis. A few
years later, in 1677, one of Louis Quatorze’s admirals drove the Dutch
out of the island of Goree; while agents of another chartered company,
the Compagnie du Senegal, occupied towns along the coast, such as Rufisque
and Joal, after signing treaties with the chiefs. 9

A few years later, Andre Brue, a celebrated director of the Compagnie
du Senegal, made a voyage up the Senegal river, establishing trading posts
along the shores. 10

During the wars of the Revolution and Napoleon, the British occupied
the French posts in Senegal, but retroceded both Goree and Saint Louis to
the French in 1817.

The territory lying back of these “comptoirs” was inhabited by a
large number of native states similar in organization to the states found
along the Gulf of Benin. One of the oldest and most important of these
states was the state of Djolof, inhabited by the Ouolof people and headed
by a king called the Bour. For a time, this state had certain suzerain
rights over the native kingdoms of Oualo, Cayor, Baol, Sine, and
Saloum.

At the end of the eighteenth century, the people of Cayor revolted
against the Bour of Djolof and became an independent kingdom under a

* Cf. J. Machat, Documents sur les tstablissements Franqaise de VAfrique Occi-
dentale au XVIII Siecle, Paris, 1906.

10 Cf. E. F. Berlioux, Andre Brue ou VOrigine de la Colonie Franqaise du
Senegal, Paris, 1874. Cf. also Cultru, Histoire du Senegal du XVe Sitcle a 1870,
Paris, 1910, Chaps. I-VII.

THE FRENCH OCCUPATION OF WEST AFRICA 905

leader called the Darnel of Cayor, who came to rule the territory between
Saint Louis and Deander. 11

From ancient times, the chiefs of these states lying along the coast
and the banks of the Senegal river followed the custom of imposing heavy
duties or “coutumes” upon traders. 12 In many cases, natives destroyed
the property of European traders and even took some of them into cap¬
tivity. For a hundred and fifty years, the French Government followed
a policy of negotiating treaties with these various chiefs, granting freedom
of navigation and trade on the river and in other parts of Senegal and
limiting the size of the duties which they exacted. The French did
not for many years attempt to interfere in the internal adminis¬
tration of the tribes. Some of the earliest treaties, made in 1785,
were with the Moors. Between this date and 1853, ten treaties were
made in which the Moors agreed to protect French commerce. 13 As
soon as a treaty was made, the Moors proceeded to break it. A military
expedition followed, as a result of which a new treaty would be imposed.

Following the retrocession of these posts in Senegal by the English at
the close of the Napoleonic wars, the government of the Restoration,
anxious to revive the drooping economic condition of France, outlined
an ambitious project to colonize Senegal with large plantations of cotton,
indigo, and other products, along the lines which Van den Bosch was
developing in the Dutch East Indies. To undertake this enterprise, the
government despatched to Senegal as governor, Colonel Schmaltz, an
officer who had lived a number of years in the Dutch colonies in the
Orient. Several companies, such as the Societe Coloniale Philanthropique,
sent out two hundred colonists to the peninsula of Cap Vert, but the
climate, the lack of labor, and the unkindly soil made the project a dismal
failure. Moreover, the available land was already occupied by the
natives. 14

Other attempts to establish plantations along the banks of the Senegal
river were made. In order to obtain land for its plantations, the govern¬
ment made treaties with the chiefs of Oualo, who granted it “perpetual
possession of all the places where it may wish to establish itself in the
kingdom of Oualo” in return for the payment of “coutumes” amounting
to about ten thousand francs a year. 15 The government established experi¬
mental farms and gardens under the charge of scientific experts from
France; and premiums were given to planters. In 1824, Oualo was divided

11 Cf. Vol. I, p. 907. u Cf. p. A for the same practice in Nigeria.

“ G. Poulet, Les M cures de VAfrique Occidentale Franaaise, Paris, 1904, p. 152.

14 C. Faure, Histoire de la Presqu’ile du Cap Vert et des Origmes de Dakar,
Paris, 1914, p. 48.

,S G. Hardy, La mise en valeur du Senegal de 1817 a 1854, Paris, 1921, p. 7.

906 THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

into four cantons, each with a head appointed by the Governor, who at¬
tempted to settle disputes between the concessionaires and the natives.
But the Traza, a branch of the Moor people, from across the right bank
of the Senegal river, claimed that the Ouolof people did not own the
land which the French had leased, and they pillaged the plantations and
made life miserable for the emigrants. Difficulties also arose over labor.
For a time, the Minister considered negotiating with the Spanish Govern¬
ment for the importation of labor from the Canary Islands. While he
did not carry out this project, he did send to Senegal about one hundred
and forty colored prisoners from Martinique. Native prisoners were also
put to work. The administration obliged other natives, held for civil
liabilities, 16 to secure their eventual freedom by signing a contract for
not more than fourteen years, agreeing to work on these plantations. 17
An attempt was also made to recruit free labor, but with little success.
Meanwhile, the Traza continued their raids; according to French writers,
they were supplied with guns by British traders who, anchored off the port
of Portendic, wished to divert the trade in gum from French hands.
Effecting an alliance with the kingdom of Oualo, the Moors came to
dominate both sides of the Senegal river and for a time threatened the
entire position of France in Senegal. After considerable fighting, the
French reduced both tribes and obliged them to sign treaties of peace in
1835. 18 In these military operations, most of the plantations were de-

lfl “Provenant de saisies ou de confiscations.”

17 French merchants suggested that they furnish the government with slaves
whom they had received before the abolition of slavery, in payment for goods from
different chiefs. These slaves should work for the government for fourteen years
and then receive their freedom. But the French Government refused to approve of
the project. Hardy, cited, p. 147.

“Hardy, cited, p. 321.

In the treaty of September 3, 1783 (E. Hertslet, The Map of Africa by Treaty,
London, 1896, p. 539), ceding Senegal to France, Great Britain retained the right
of carrying on the gum trade from the mouth of the River St. John to Portendic
Bay. Elsewhere, the Colonial Pact prevailed; i.e., the government reserved all
trade to French merchants.

In the war which took place between France and the Moors in 1834-35,
French Government established a blockade which destroyed the trade of the
British merchants engaged in the gum trade, whom the French accused of supplying
arms to the Moors. After fruitless negotiations, the British and French Govern¬
ments referred this matter to the arbitration of the king of Prussia. In an award
made in 1843, the king declared that France was liable to damages to which the
claimants “would not have been exposed if the said Government, when it sent to
the Governor of Senegal the order to establish the Blockade, had simultaneously
notified that measure to the British Government. . . Ibid., pp. 542-543. But
notwithstanding the omission of the notification of the blockade, the French Gov¬
ernment was not liable for “losses incurred in consequence of commercial enter¬
prises in which the Claimants engaged after they had, through other channels,
positive knowledge of the formation of the Blockade of Portendic,” etc. Ibid.,
P- 543-

In a treaty of 1857, the British Government gave up its rights in the Bay of
Portendic in return for the French factory at Albreda, on the Gambia river.

THE FRENCH OCCUPATION OF WEST AFRICA 907

stroyed, and the French attempt to colonize West Africa, as the British
seventy years later colonized East Africa, came to an unsuccessful end,
at a loss of a million francs. Frenchmen now turned to the "commerce
de la gomme,”—a kind of rosin similar to kopal.

Following the subjugation of the tribes along the lower Senegal, trouble
arose in the Futa district along the Upper River. French convoys bring¬
ing gum out of the country, were attacked by caravans of Peuls and
Moors—in what was called the Futa War. After further operations,
the French signed a new set of peace treaties with the kinglets of Futa
and of Galam between 1838 and 1842. Having finished this diplomatic
task, the French were obliged to turn their attention again to the Traza—
the leading Moorish state which had no intention of living up to its
promises. By this time, local officials were tired of negotiating with these
tribes as if they were European states. The tribes did not, apparently,
understand the obligations which they contracted, probably per-force, nor
did they attempt to live up to them. The local officials therefore wished
to annex the territory and administer it directly. Nevertheless the home
government instructed them to continue the policy of alliances. Revolts
again broke out, and, as a French writer says, "la pacification a 1'amiable
etait toujours a recommencer.” 10

3. Cap Vert

The French first acquired a "legal” hold upon the coast between Saint
Louis and Dakar in a treaty of 1765 between the Darnel of Cayor and
His Very Christian Majesty, the King of France, in which the Darnel
ceded in perpetuity the land along the coast including Cap Vert. Within
this area, he promised to exact no taxes or "coutumes.” The French
King agreed to pay the Darnel one hundred and eighty bars annually, of
which one-third should be in iron, and two-thirds in merchandise. 20

Despite the signing of this treaty, no steps were taken to occupy Cap
Vert. For forty years, the relations between Goree and the mainland were
those of two independent countries. In the meanwhile, the Lebou tribe
inhabiting the Cap Vert tired of the exactions of their over-lord, the
Darnel. In 1795, they revolted and founded a republic governed by a
council of chiefs, and an elected Serigne or head chief. Consequently, the
Lebous did not recognize the treaty in which the Darnel ceded Cap Vert
to the French. When the French returned to Goree at the close of the

Cf. Convention between Great Britain and France relative to Portendic and
Albreda, March 7, 1857, Hertslet, cited, p. 544.

18 Hardy, cited, p. 323.

* The text of this treaty is printed in Faure, cited, p. 6.

908

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

Napoleonic War, the Lebous obliged them to pay fees for the use
of water and other privileges on the peninsula which the Darnel had
ceded in the treaty of 1765. At this time, the Governor of Senegal, Baron
Roger, did not claim these rights. He declared: . . The peninsula

of Cap Vert does not belong in fact to the King of France. . . . These
treaties having remained unenforced, no longer even being known to the
chiefs of the country and not having, moreover, been established in return
for a reasonably sufficient price, it would be a virtual usurpation to take
possession of the land.” 21 Frenchmen wishing to settle on the peninsula
should make agreements with the chiefs.

Difficulties now arose between the French inhabitants of Goree and
the Lebous over shipwrecks, which frequently occurred on the rocks off the
peninsula. Regarding the shipwrecked vessels as their property, natives
pillaged the cargo and made prisoners of the sailors—a practice which had
been forbidden in the treaty of 1765. After negotiations, the French
signed a new treaty in 1826 with the chiefs of Dakar in which they
promised to inform the commandant of Goree whenever a shipwreck
occurred, and to respect the lives and property on board such vessels.
Destitute passengers would be cared for by the chiefs in return for
compensation. 22

Notwithstanding these promises, the chiefs proved unable to restrain
their subjects from pillaging. Difficulties also arose over the presence of a
marabout 23 at Dakar who was preaching holy war, as a result of which
the natives of Dakar attempted to stop the Europeans from getting water
at their wells. Following further negotiations the chiefs agreed to a new
treaty in 1830, which stipulated that the inhabitants of Goree no longer
needed to pay any kind of tax for obtaining beef, fire wood, etc., at Dakar,
nor certain anchorage fees, but that they should continue to pay for
water, stone, and sand for building purposes. 24

A third treaty was signed in 1832 in which the French purchased
land on the peninsula for a cemetery for a sum of three hundred francs.

Despite these treaties providing for the protection of shipwrecked
vessels and crews, the natives of the peninsula of Cap Vert continued
their pillaging, notably of an American ship, the Charlotte, and of a
Greek ship, the Holy Trinity.

Further difficulties arose over the charges which the Lebous imposed
for water and sand, which led Governor Protet to attempt to make a
new treaty—a suggestion which the natives declined to accept. These
exactions continued despite the provisions of the treaty of 1830 (which the

31 Faure, cited, p. 12. 23 For text, cf. ibid., p. 57. 33 A Moslem priest.

"Text of the Treaty of April 22, 1820, ibid., p. 66.

THE FRENCH OCCUPATION OF WEST AFRICA 909

French Government at home had not ratified). Consequently Governor
Protet resolved that the inhabitants of Goree could be relieved of these
aggravating visitations only by the occupation of the peninsula. Its strategic
military position and its possibilities as a commercial outlet for a vast hinter¬
land strengthened this desire. In 1852, Governor Protet attempted with¬
out success to make another treaty with the natives. In 1855, a dis¬
tinguished engineer, an official in the government, Pinet-Laprade, drew
plans for a fort at Dakar and for a railway between Saint Louis and Goree.
The construction of the fort the French Minister of Colonies authorized in
1857. Upon the completion of the fort, the commandant of Goree obliged
the natives to redeem the annual “coutumes” in favor of a lump sum.
He then ran up the French flag. At this time—June, 1859—a notice in
the Moniteur du Senegal declared: “Our domination over the peninsula
of Dakar and over its inhabitants is now really established, and under
rational conditions.” 25 Forty-two years after the retrocession of the island
of Goree by England, the French occupied the mainland.

In 1850, the French establishments in Senegal faced financial bank¬
ruptcy, a condition which reflected the commercial situation. Many of
the French merchants were despondent because the abolition of slavery in
1848 had deprived them of a labor supply which they had previously
rented from the chiefs. An interministerial commission in Paris, appointed
to inquire into the situation, was obliged to decide whether to withdraw
altogether from Senegal, or firmly to establish French authority. The
committee finally decided in favor of the latter alternative. The application
of this “forward” policy came to be confided to one of the great figures in
French colonial history, General Faidherbe, who became Governor in
1854. The policy of “pacification without conquest, development without
territorial occupation” now came to an end.

4. General Faidherbe

While the French were having their difficulties with the Lebou people,
traders were experiencing similar trials with the Moors, who paid little
attention to early treaties. In one of the punitive expeditions despatched
against these people to enforce these obligations, Moctar Sidi, a Moor chief,
was captured and interned in the Gaboon. But the Under-Secretary of
State for the Colonies ordered his release, declaring: “The arrest of
Moctar Sidi, under circumstances which I regard as a violation of inter¬
national law, has inspired in the populations of the Futa hatred and mistrust
to which part of the aggressions which they have since so frequently
launched against the traders and ships of Senegal may be attributed.

“Faure, cited, p. 124.

910

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

The Republic governs only by principles of honor and of loyalty. It must
show that it does not approve acts of this nature and that it repudiates
responsibility for them. This will be at the same time good policy, be¬
cause we will thus testify to the natives that the government intends to
practice toward them the principles of justice and of loyalty which it
asks them to respect in their relations with it.” But as a French writer
points out, these delicate sentiments aroused only a slight echo in the
hearts of the chiefs who once again embarked on their campaigns. 20

In 1854, ^e French Minister of Colonies authorized the Governor to
bring about the suppression of the “escales” and the exactions upon French
trade. Likewise, the Minister authorized the Governor to remove the
control which the Moors had imposed upon the black population on the
left bank of the river. But the Moorish leaders had other ideas on the
subject. Taking the initiative, they served notice on the French to
evacuate the islands below Saint Louis. At this fighting commenced, and in
haughty tones the leader of the Moors told Faidherbe that instead of sup¬
pressing the “escales” and tolls, he would increase them. He also de¬
manded the immediate destruction of the French forts, and asked that
before engaging in any negotiations, Governor Faidherbe should be re¬
called “ignominiously” to France. 27

Following his military operations against the Moors, ending in their
defeat, Faidherbe negotiated a number of new treaties in i 858, 28 which
provided that the chiefs of the three Moorish nations could levy an export
duty of three per cent on the gums exported from the right bank of the
Senegal river. In order to collect these duties, the Moorish chiefs re¬
stricted trade to a limited number of trading posts on the river. This
system did not, however, satisfy the French merchants who demanded
complete freedom of commerce—a demand which the government granted
in a decree of March 22, 1880, after making a new set of treaties with
the Moorish chiefs establishing free commerce and substituting for the
three per cent export duties, a fixed indemnity. 29 The total annual indem¬
nity paid to these various chiefs as a result of these and later conventions was
37,175 francs. Under these treaties, the Moors accepted the protection
of France. In return, the French promised not to interfere with their
customs or their internal affairs—that is, with the Moslem courts. Crimes
committed by French subjects would, however, be tried before French
tribunals. No European could obtain a concession from the Moorish

M Hardy, cited, p. 327.

27 Le General Faidherbe, Le Senegal, Paris, 1889, p. 137.

28 Cf. De Clercq, Recueil, cited, Vol. 7, p. 388.

*Act additional of April 2, 1879. Ibid., Vol. XII, p. 397, also cf. p. 556.

THE FRENCH OCCUPATION OF WEST AFRICA 911

chiefs without the authorization of the French Government. The chiefs
of the Traza and Brackna nations were authorized to collect rent from
natives who lived on the left bank of the river when they crossed to cul¬
tivate land on the right bank. 30

Thus, the French gradually abolished the duties which these chiefs
imposed on commerce, in favor of fixed annual payments. The Maure¬
tania budget for 1926 appropriates 101,060 francs for the payment of these
Moorish chiefs. It likewise appropriates more than 48,000 francs for the
salaries of native cadis. 31

In i860, Toro was annexed to the colony, which did not, however,
affect the autonomy of the people except that hereafter the Governor
named the chiefs. By means of these and other treaties, Faidherbe broke
up the union of various chiefs in the interior of Senegal and abolished the
exactions which they had imposed upon European commerce. These
treaties virtually established a French protectorate over the hinterland
between Dakar and Goree.

The territory between Cap Vert and Gambia which was dominated
by native states, such as Baol, Sine, and Saloum, still remained independent.
Following police operations among these states, Faidherbe made treaties
with the kings of Baol, of Saloum, and of Sine fixing at three per cent
ad valorem the export duties which they might charge, and authorizing
French merchants to purchase land and to build stone houses within these
kingdoms. 32

By 1861, the only native state in Senegal which the French had not
placed under control was the state of Cayor, which extended between
Saint Louis and Goree. In 1859, the Darnel had conceded the French the
right of constructing a telegraphic line between Saint Louis and Dakar.
His successor declined to execute the treaty. 33

But following military operations, the French obliged the Darnel to
sign a treaty granting these and other rights—a treaty which was soon
violated. Meanwhile, a dispute as to the succession of the Darnel had

30 Poulet, cited, pp. 152®.

iX Budget Local de la Colonie de la Mauritanie, 1926, pp. 25 and 27.

83 Faidherbe’s philosophy is illustrated by the following passage: “Civilization
only makes great progress in the world as a result of the formation of vast empires
by conquerors; these last are, while living, veritable scourges, but soon, in the midst
of the ruins which they have accumulated, are manifested happy consequences of
their passage on the earth. They have created between men facilities of commu¬
nication which did not exist in the state of division ( fractionnement ) # in which
savage countries were found facilities thanks to which material and intellectual
exchange become possible to the great profit of progress.” Cf. Faidherbe, cited,
p. 158.

** Faidherbe, cited, p. 258. He was also accused of selling his subjects as slaves
to the Moors.

912

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

occurred, which led the French to recognize Lat-Dior as Darnel, in a
treaty of January 12, 1871. 34 He submitted to French protection until
1882, when, becoming aggressive, he opposed the construction of the
railway between Dakar and Saint Louis despite the fact that he had ceded
land to the French for this purpose in a treaty of September 10, 1870. 35
At this, Lat-Dior was deposed. In an attempt to regain his position,
Lat-Dior was killed in 1886. His death terminated the Era of the Darnels.
Thenceforth the Cayor was divided into provinces administered by chiefs
named by the Governor. At this time the French Government imposed
treaties upon ten other tribes in Senegal. The effect of these treaties was
to place all of these chiefs under the suzerainty and protection of France.
They promised to embark upon wars only with the preliminary consent
of the French authority. 38 In an additional act of the same date, Lat-Dior
promised to furnish workmen to the government who would be paid 75
centimes a day if rice were also furnished. If not, 1.25 francs a day,
which in gold is three times what natives receive for the same work to-day. 37
The French Government was to be sole judge of disputes between the
tribe and its neighbors. The chiefs would continue to judge disputes be¬
tween natives according to native law, but mixed cases would be tried by
the French authority. The French alone were guaranteed the right to
trade in the country. The chiefs promised to maintain the ways of
communication, to favor the development of agriculture, and to facilitate
the purchase of land. The government could undertake the construction
of railways, telegraph lines, and forts. In the treaty of August 28,
1883 (art. 5), the Darnel of Cayor agreed to furnish laborers for rail¬
way construction who would receive a wage and ration fixed by the
Governor. The treaty of February 2, 1883, with N’diambour provided
that “nothing is changed in the powers, customs, and institutions of the
country; the actual chiefs reserve their former rights and privileges.
The Bour of N’diambour promises to administer his country with jus¬
tice. . .

In accomplishing the occupation of Senegal the French negotiated
nearly 130 treaties with native chiefs between 1785 and 1891. 38

From the administrative standpoint, the colony of Senegal rests upon

“De Clercq, Recueil des Traites de la France, Vol. 12, p. 481, footnote.

“ Ibid., Vol. XII, p. 481.

“The texts of these treaties have been compiled in E. Rouard de Card, Les
Traitis de Proteclorat conclus par la France en Afrique, 1870-1895, Paris, 1897,
Chap. X.

37 Cf. Vol. II, p. 32.

“The list is given in A. Sabatie, Le Senegal, sa Conquete & son Organisation,
1364-1925, Saint Louis, Senegal, pp. 333, 347. Faidherbe made about seventy of
these treaties. Cf. M. Olivier. Le Senegal, Paris, 1907, p. 32.

THE FRENCH OCCUPATION OF WEST AFRICA 913

the ordonnance du Rot of September 7, 1840, 39 establishing a governor,
a council of administration, a general council of ten members, eight
chosen among the European and native proprietors or merchants in equal
numbers and two chosen among the retail merchants of Saint Louis
and a local council, of five elected members for Goree. From Goree
and Saint Louis as a base the Governor gradually placed the tribes in
the interior of Senegal under the protection of France by means of
treaties. Meanwhile he organized an administration over the towns which
Frenchmen had occupied. In 1859 these areas were divided into three
arrondissements, of Saint Louis, Bakel and Goree, each under a Com¬
mandant. In 1872 the two communes of Saint Louis and Goree were
created, followed by Rufisque in 1880. A General Council composed
of representatives from these communes was created in 1879. 40 In 1882
the Senegal government attempted to extend its direct authority through¬
out the whole of Senegal when it divided the territory into seven different
“cercles.” But, according to a French author, “the attempt of assimilation
by this organization did not give the results which had been expected.
Territory inhabited by natives of races, of religion and of customs so
different from ours, placed directly under the regime of Direct Adminis¬
tration, had to be successively reestablished as a simple protected terri¬
tory.” 41 An arrete of January 15, 1890, disannexed the interior beyond
the coastal strip, and from that time down until 1920 Senegal has been
divided into the Territory under Direct Administration which included
the four communes of Dakar, Goree, Rufisque and Saint Louis together
with their suburbs or bainlieues, so-called Mixed Communes, and
escales or trading posts, and a strip of land a kilometre wide on either
side of the Dakar-Saint Louis railway, together with certain lands along
the river and the sea. 42 The remainder of Senegal, acquired through
treaties with various chiefs, was called and administered as a protectorate.
This same distinction between annexed and protected territory was for a
time followed in Guinea, the Ivory Coast and Dahomey.

5. The Sudan

Faidherbe realized that Senegal was the key tG a vast continent, and
he dreamed of carrying the Flag into the Sudan—a vast unknown which

39 Bulletin des Lois du Royaume de France (hereafter cited as Bulletin des
Lois), Vol. 21, 1840, p. 671.

r,cf. P . 967.

Sabatie, Le Senegal, cited, p. 352.

43 Cf. Decree of February 13, 1904, P. Dareste, Reuceil de Legislation, de
Doctrine & de Jurisprudence (hereafter cited as Recueil), 1904, p. 146.

914

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

challenged the curiosity of explorers 43 —and of establishing a line of com¬
munications between the Niger River and the Senegal.

The work which he started was carried on by Briere de Lisle, Borgnis
Desbordes, Colonel Gallieni and Colonel Archinard. Four native fanatical
rulers called almanys obstructed the French invasion. The first was El
Hadj Omar, the founder of a Toucouleur empire who, hard pressed by the
French, and after many years’ resistance, committed suicide in 1864. His
son, Ahmadou, defied the French until his escape from the territory in
1893. The French appointed his brother as king under a French resident
at Massina; but in 1902 the king was retired and direct administration
installed. A French writer says, “The Toucouleur chiefs, installed as pro¬
vincial chiefs by El Hadj and his successors, were suppressed by extinction:
at the death of each of them, the cantons and the villages which they com¬
manded were returned to their original chiefs.” 44

About 1879, another fanatic, Samory, founded a Mandingo em¬
pire at Oussaoulou. Taking the title of Almany, he came to dominate
all of the territory in the vicinity stretching from Liberia to the head¬
waters of the Niger. While he claimed to be a Moslem, he did not know
Arab nor the Koran, and he devoted himself chiefly to the organization
of a remarkably effective army. Following two years of fighting, Samory
accepted French protection in a treaty of 1887, which defined the limits
between the French Sudan and the Almany’s territory, and which provided
for freedom of commerce between the two zones. 45

Samory nevertheless continued to send his cavalry into French terri¬
tory. After making fruitless representations, Colonel Archinard unsuc¬
cessfully attempted to bring him to submission. Samory continued to pillage
until he was finally captured by the French in 1898. He was deported
to the Gaboon where he died in 1900.

Still another marabout, whose name was Mamadu Lamine, and who
had received his inspiration from a trip to Mecca and to Constantinople,
now attempted to establish a Moslem empire and vanquish the French
in a Holy War in the Upper Senegal. He was brought to terms in 1887
after two years of fighting. In 1883 the French established a station at
Bamako.

43 The search for the Niger, and French rivalry with the English, or the journey
of Rene CailU to Timbuktu, in 1828, cannot be described here.

** M. Delafosse, cited, Vol. II, p. 338. J. L. Monod, Histoire de VAfrique Occi¬
dental Fran(aise, Paris, 1926, p. 244.

® For text, cf. De Card, cited, p. 230.

THE FRENCH OCCUPATION OF WEST AFRICA 915

6. The Volta and Guinea

By means either of treaties or of conquest, the French gradually occu¬
pied the interior of Africa as far as Timbuktu, finally occupied in 1894.
Following the Congress of Berlin, held in 1885, a scramble for territory
took place between the powers. The leading French explorer was Lieu¬
tenant Binger, who, unaccompanied by white companions, left Bamako
in the French Sudan and crossed over to Sikasso, down to the republic of
Kong, in what is now French Guinea, and then retraced his steps north¬
ward until he came to the Mossi kingdom of Ouagadougou. 48 He then
returned to Kong and finally reached the coast at Grand Bassam. In
this trip, he negotiated a number of treaties with native chiefs. He was
followed by French officers who imposed a French protectorate upon the
Ouagadougou empire in 1897, which is now part of the colony of the
Upper Volta.

Below Senegal, the west coast of Africa is marked by a large number
of tiny rivers emptying into the sea—an area which the French called
“Rivieres du Sud.” As early as the fourteenth century, Normandy sailors
traded along this coast which for several hundred years was the center of
the slave industry. Following the Napoleonic Wars it was frequented by
traders from Goree who received protection from a hovering French
cruiser. About 1825, the Governor of Sierra. Leone negotiated a series
of treaties with the chiefs of the “Rivieres du Sud,” which would have
placed all the territory between Sierra Leone and Gambia under British
control. But under the influence of the “Little England School,” the
British Government declined to ratify the agreements. 47 Taking advan¬
tage of this interlude, France now proceeded to make treaties in 1857,
1859, 1865, and 1866, with the chiefs for the occupation of the territory.
Some chiefs accepted the suzerainty of France and others guaranteed the
right to trade, subject to the payment by each trader of annual sums,
such as fifty gourds in merchandise. 48

This set of treaties was followed by another in 1878-80 in which the
chiefs promised not to cede any part of their country without the consent
of the French Governor, in return for which France agreed to pay them

48 His story is told in Le Capitaine Binger, Du Niger au Golfe de Guinie, par
le Pays de Kong et le Mossi, Paris, 1892, two volumes.

41 Cf. Arcin, Histoire de la Guinee Fran^aise, Paris, 1911, p. 292; also J.
Chailley’s introductory remarks, p. viii.

48 For the texts of these agreements, cf. ibid., pp. 336 ff.

916

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

an annual indemnity. 40 The French authority would decide cases involving
French subjects. One treaty provided that only French schools could be
established. 50

Having acquired this foothold on the coast, the French now turned
their attention to the hinterland which was marked by a massif called Futa-
Djallon, the source of many rivers of West Africa, including the Niger.
This territory for a time had been conquered by another Moslem mara¬
bout, Karamoko Alfa, who proclaimed himself Almany of Futa. As a
result of dissension, this state was later divided between two Almanys who
directed a kind of Futa confederation composed of a number of diwals or
provinces. 61 The federation accepted the protection of France in a con¬
vention of July 5, 1881. It agreed not to impose any exactions upon
French commerce. 52

In return French merchants were obliged to pay the Almany a fixed
duty of a thousand francs for each trading .house and five hundred francs
in merchandise to the local chief. 53 The French government also agreed
to pay certain rents to the Almanys, but these provisions were suppressed
by a supplementary convention of March 3, 1888. Shortly afterward,
civil war between the two leading families reduced the country to anarchy.
Consequently, the French sent troops into the country and in a new
treaty of February 6, 1897, established a definite protectorate. In this
treaty, the French government promised “to respect the present constitution
of Futa-Djallon” under the control of a French resident who was established
at Timbo. The chiefs could nominate a successor to the present Almany
subject to the approval of the Governor of French Guinea. The same pro¬
cedure would be followed in the case of the chiefs. It was agreed that
further conventions would regulate conditions under which land concessions
would be made to French citizens and under which taxes would be imposed.
Part of the taxes would be reserved to the Almanys and to the chiefs of
the diwals. 54 It does not appear that such conventions have been made.

While for a time France observed these treaties, disorder continued
to such an extent that she felt obliged to establish more direct control. A
number of chiefs who led a revolt in the Futa were executed in 1900.

“ Texts, ibid., pp. 371 ff.

“Article 7, Treaty of June 14, 1883, with the King of Bramaya, De Card,
cited, p. 202.

“Cf. Arcin, cited, Chap. II, Part I.

“The preamble of the first treaty said: “The Futa-Djallon, bound by a long
and old friendship to France, knowing that the French people do not attempt to
extend their possessions in Africa, but merely to establish friendly relations to
further commercial exchange; knowing that for a long time the French have never
mixed in the internal affairs of their allies and that they will respect in an abso¬
lute fashion the laws, customs, manners, and religion of others.”

63 De Card, cited, p. 205. 64 Arcin, cited, p. 634.

THE FRENCH OCCUPATION OF WEST AFRICA 917

Desultory fighting of one kind or another, nevertheless, continued until
1906. During this time, the administration gradually reduced the former
domain of the Almany, breaking it up into smaller areas. The whole of
French Guinea is now divided into cantons, each of which has a chief
appointed by the government. 65

7. The Ivory Coast

The Ivory Coast, the territory lying between the Gold Coast and
Liberia, has a similar history. While along the heavily forested coast the
natives were organized into dozens of little tribes, several large native
states dominated the interior. French traders and missionaries settled
along this Coast as early as the seventeenth century. In the nineteenth
century, English trading houses appeared, at a time when part of the
territory as far as Lahou, or Bingerville, was under the king of the
Ashantis. 56 French traders who were also present were protected by a
French cruiser. In 1842, the commander of this vessel made a number of
treaties with the native kingdoms, 57 following which the French established
trading posts and garrisons at Assine, Grand Bassam, and Dabu, which
were governed by a resident responsible to Senegal. During the Franco-
German War of 1870, the garrisons were withdrawn. But the govern¬
ment continued to pay a subvention to a French merchant who, acting
as resident, maintained a small police and paid the “coutumes” to the
native chiefs. Later on, he reported to the French establishments in the
Gaboon. In 1887, Lieutenant Binger made his famous trip across from
the Sudan, finally arriving at the coast in 1889, bringing with him four
protectorate treaties. Bingerville takes its name after the explorer. In
1887, M. Treich-Laplene negotiated five treaties with tribes which com¬
pleted the task of linking the Upper Niger with the Ivory Coast. 68 In
these treaties, the chiefs undertook not to conclude any conventions with
third states except with the previous approval of France. The treaties
reserved to French subjects the exclusive right of trading and they agreed
to maintain religious liberty. In return, the French government promised
to pay an annual indemnity to the kings. 69 In following years, the position
of the French in the interior was seriously menaced by the famous leader,

88 Cf. Budget du Service Local de la Guinee Fran^aise, 1926, p. 75.

“Cf. Vol. I, p. 788.

M De Clercq, cited, Vol. IV, p. 615; Vol. V, p. 162; Vol. V, pp. 100 and 163;
Vol. XV, p. 342.

“The texts found in De Card, cited, p. 190.

“In Article 5 of the treaty of January 10, 1889, with the chief of Kong, the
French undertook “not to interfere with the exercise of the Moslem religion.”

For a similar provision in Northern Nigeria, cf. Vol. I, p. 729.

918

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

Samory, and by native revolts. In 1896, Administrator Clozel and others
were besieged for sixty-three days at Assikasso. 60 Between 1902 and 1906,
French troops met with violent resistance from the Baoule people. For a
moment, the capital, Bingerville, was even threatened by a native invasion.
When M. Angoulvant became governor in 1908, only a small strip along
the coast had been subdued. 61 At this time, “commerce was nearly nil,
and there was no security.” The record of the past fifteen years had not,
therefore, been particularly brilliant. In the opinion of the new Governor,
this was because the French administration had followed the mistaken
policy of pacific occupation, and had allowed the natives in the interior
to acquire arms and ammunition. In 1908, the government adopted a
“methode rigoreuse,” and military expeditions scoured the country until
it was finally “pacified” in 1*915. Chiefs who had fomented revolt were
deported; the natives were disarmed; others were interned; war fines were
imposed on various tribes amounting to more than 700,000 francs between
1910 and 1912. 62 In order to keep the natives under control, the govern¬
ment regrouped native villages. Thus the Akoues, who had been divided
into two hundred and forty-seven camps, were brought together in seven¬
teen different villages “facilement accessible,” while the Ngbans who for¬
merly were divided into three hundred and twelve villages were concen¬
trated into forty-seven. 63

8. Dahomey

Lying snugly between Togo and British Nigeria, Dahomey was the
final territory to come under French control. In the sixteenth century
the kingdom of Abomey came into existence, and spent the next two cen¬
turies in almost constant warfare with the Yoruba kingdom to the south.
The King was also obliged to contend with local enemies, the Kings of
Porto Novo and of Grand Popo, not to mention others. 64 Many are the
tales which have been told of human sacrifice and slave trading to which
these kingdoms were addicted. In a treaty made in 1868, France secured
the port of Cotonou and established a protectorate over Porto Novo. This
port and Cotonou were occupied in 1885.

After a struggle, the French obliged the King of Abomey, in a treaty
of 1890, to respect the French protectorate over Porto Novo. 65 But the
King, Behanzin, did not respect the agreement; and after correspondence,

80 Cf. F. J. Clozel, Dix Ans a la Cote d’Ivoire, Paris, 1906, Chap. II.

“Cf. the map, G. Angoulvant, La Pacification de la Cote d’Ivoire, Paris, 1916,
p. 14.

Ibid., p. 243. 83 Ibid., p. 246.

M It is believed that the Kings of Porto Novo and of Abhomey originally be¬
longed to the same family of Allada, the members of which quarreled.

“Convention of October 3, 1890, De Clercq, cited, Vol. XVIII, p. 599.

THE FRENCH OCCUPATION OF WEST AFRICA 919

in which the King said: “If you wish war, I am ready,” the French
Government sent to Dahomey Colonel Dodds who after a hot campaign
drove the King out of the country. In a proclamation issued in Decem¬
ber, 1892, Colonel Dodds, now promoted to general, banished Behanzin
and placed the kingdom of Dahomey under the exclusive protection of
France, except for certain territories which were annexed. 66 Behanzin was
deported to Martinique and later to Algeria where he died in 1906, while
his ministers and a number of mulatto advisers were sent to the Gaboon.

General Dodds now set about to dismember the kingdom of Abomey.
In 1894 he created two new kingdoms, having their capitals at Abomey
and Allada. He then recognized Ago-li Agbo as King of Abomey, with
whom he made a treaty definitely establishing a protectorate. The King
promised to suppress slave traffic and human sacrifice. Mixed cases would
be tried by the French vice-resident; commerce would be free; no concession
of land could be made without the authorization of the French Govern¬
ment; France could establish public works; French schools could be opened
in the population centers; the King would favor their establishment and
“use his influence to propagate the French language. . . .” 07 The French
Government likewise established a protectorate over the kingdom of Allada.
Meanwhile King Tofa of Porto Novo continued to accept loyally the
French protection accepted in 1882.

While the French maintained Ago-li Agbo as King of Ahomey, the area
of which had been reduced by half, it deprived him of his former revenue,
and did not pay him the annual sum of ten thousand francs which they
had promised him. The King was nevertheless obliged to maintain a
royal following; and when funds were not forthcoming, his followers
made trouble. The French took advantage of these difficulties in 1900 68
to deport the King to the Gaboon and to divide the kingdom into nine
cantons, directly under the authority of the Resident of Abomey. At the
death of the King of Porto Novo in 1913 his kingdom suffered a similar
fate. The only recognition accorded to the memory of these kingdoms
takes the form of pensions. Eighteen thousand francs is paid to the son of
Behanzin, thirty-six hundred to Ago-li Agbo, and thirty thousand to the
paramount Chief, Houdji. 69

86 De Card, cited, p. 100; F. Francois, Notre Colonie du Dahomey, Paris, 1906,
Chap. I. Also J. Fonssagrives, Notice sur Le Dahomey, Paris, 1900. Chaps. Ill
and IV.

67 Text in De Card, cited, p. 188.

08 Afrique Fran^aise, Bulletin Mensuel du Comite de L’Afrique Frant^aise et
du Comite du Maroc (hereafter cited as Afrique Fran^aise), 1900, p. 181. He
was later allowed to return to Dahomey as a private citizen where he occupied a
farm. Ibid., 1910, p. 345.

® Budget du Service Locale de la Colonie du Dahomey, 1926, p. 17.

920

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

A number of revolts occurred in Dahomey during the World War,
and a state of siege was declared in Porto Novo in 1922. 70

9. Tibesti

Between 1906 and 1914, the French attempted to reduce to submission
the ferocious Teda people of Tibesti 71 in territory once claimed by the
Turks who intermittently committed depredations upon the sedentary
populations of Air, Damerghu, Fachi, and Kouar. During the World
War, the menace of the Senussi and other considerations obliged the French
troops to evacuate Tibesti. In reoccupying the territory in 1*919, the
French followed a new policy. Instead of securing the submission of
village after village, as they had previously done, they determined that it
was best to win over the most influential chiefs, “those having real authority
over the tribes.” 72

In 1920, the Derde, or chief, of Tibesti accepted in the name of the
whole country the terms of submission offered him by the French military
authorities. He agreed to stop raiding into French territory, and to restore
all French arms in his possession, and captives taken in French territory.
He would pay tribute to the French of two hundred sheep and two hundred
goat skins the first year, and one hundred and fifty sheep and two hundred
goat skins in the following years. In return, the French would consider the
Derde Chaffai as the only chief of Tibesti, and he would command the
country in “our name.” The Derde’s rival, Guetty, the French would
remove, so that the Derde’s authority would go unchallenged. French
troops, it was agreed, would support the authority of the Derde wherever
it is necessary.

Thus the French followed a policy of supporting the powers of one
chief in order to reduce others. Having pacified the country, the French
proceeded to reduce the privileges of their former allies who had assisted
in the occupation. 73

10. An Empire Occupied

Before the Franco-German War of 1870, the French Government
made no concerted effort to establish its control over West or Equatorial
Africa. From the year. 1800, and even before, down to the advent of

70 Cf. Vol. II, p. 17.

71 While geographically, Tibesti falls in Equatorial Africa, it is actually admin¬
istered as part of the Niger territory.

72 Captain Rottier, “Etude sur le Tibesti,” Bulletin du Comite d’Etudes His-
toriques et Scientifigues, 1922, p. 29.

78 Captain Rottier says: '‘To bring pressure on the chiefs, the best means was
to show them by tangible proofs that their interests were rather with us than
against us.”

THE FRENCH OCCUPATION OF WEST AFRICA 921

Faidherbe in Senegal, French merchants attempted to trade in territories
under the theoretical jurisdiction of native chiefs. In order to protect
these merchants, French government officials negotiated, in good faith, a
large number of treaties. But the chiefs who affixed their marks to these
treaties did not understand, apparently, the obligations which they con¬
tained. Apparently many of them did not wish to protect the lives and
property of Europeans. In most cases, the chiefs were not strong enough
to make their subjects respect treaty rights nor to prevent European
traders, aided by western liquor and firearms, from committing widespread
abuses.

Unfortunately, no native historian has presented the native side of the
case, and French histories do not give all the details which one finds in
regard to British colonies, for example, in Claridge’s History of the Gold
Coast. Yet it seems clear that had the native societies in Senegal, as on
the Gold Coast, presented an organization capable of adapting itself to
the exigencies of western trade, their political independence would have
been maintained.

But after a hundred and fifty years of patient negotiations, the French
Government came to believe that the primitive people who occupied this
territory could not possibly cope with the demands of the European capi¬
talistic system. Neither the French nor the British Government felt that
the resources of Africa should be locked up indefinitely from the outside
world, parts of which were already becoming overcrowded, nor that it
could prohibit European traders from leaving the homeland to enter this
territory. Consequently, both of them came to take the position—and it
is a remarkable tribute to their willingness to act fairly that they did not
take this position until after a hundred and fifty years—that if anarchy
was to be prevented in these territories, a more direct form of control had
to be imposed.

Following the War of 1870, the French motive changed. Spurred by
the defeat by Germany in 1871, the motive became political, and French
military officers and government officials began to scour Africa with a view
to linking up the Mediterranean with the Congo—a task in which, from
the standpoint of exploration and adventure, they were brilliantly success¬
ful. As the result of their energies, a huge empire was acquired, extending
across the Sahara Desert to Lake Chad and down into the heart of Africa. 74
Its very vastness has proved so top-heavy that the French have been obliged
to install, in parts of this territory at least, an administrative system which
led, as we shall see, to abuses. Had the French government been preceded
in its occupation of Equatorial Africa by traders as it had been preceded

74 Cf. Vol. II, p. 214.

922

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

in Senegal, the history of the former territory might have been
different.

This change from commercial to political and nationalistic motives had
another noticeable effect. While to-day the Stools of the Gold Coast,
the Emirs of Kano and Sokoto, and the kings of Yoruba and Benin,
in British Nigeria, live a flourishing existence, the Kings in French terri¬
tory have been obliterated, and despite original treaties to the contrary, the
power of the native authorities in French territory has been destroyed. The
consequences of this policy are discussed in a later chapter. 76

Some French scholars take the position that apart from a few king¬
doms in Senegal and on the Ivory Coast, there was no organized society in
West Africa at the arrival of the Europeans in the 19th century. Those
kingdoms which did exist were, in the opinion of this school, without influ¬
ence and deprived of real administrative power. They controlled only
an infinitesimal proportion of the population in relation to the tribes living
in complete anarchy. Some of them, such as the Nangana, Issala, Degari,
Oule, Birifor, Lobi, and Bariba, are said not even to have lived in organized
villages; while other groups, such as the Bobo and Senoufo, who included
hundreds of thousands of individuals, lived in loose village organizations.
To these examples from the Sudan, many other instances in the forest
areas, such as among the Angi, the Balantes, the Diolas, could be added.
Some French authorities therefore justify the establishment of direct
administration in West Africa on the ground that there was a total
absence of social organization, except for the family. But the fact remains
that the French authorities did make agreements with a large number of
chiefs in occupying Africa who no longer exist; and that in British Africa,
the social organization of which is similar to that in other parts of the
continent, tribal institutions have-been preserved and their powers developed.

75 Cf. Chap. 69.

CHAPTER 56

THE FEDERATION OF WEST AFRICA

Having acquired these vast areas in Africa by swift and spectacular
methods, the French were confronted with the problem of organizing an
administration which could maintain order and carry on development.
Inasmuch as most of this territory was occupied from Senegal as a base,
it was for a time being administered by the Governor of this, the oldest
French colony in Africa. But between 1880 and 1890, each of the colonies
of West Africa was gradually organized under a Governor who depended
directly upon the Minister of the Marine and later upon the Minister of
Colonies in Paris.

From the administrative standpoint, French colonial policy was origi¬
nally marked by instability and over-centralization. The organization of
these territories in West Africa constantly varied, sometimes to meet local
conditions arising out of opposition by native tribes, and sometimes to meet
administrative whims. This was particularly true of the hinterland of
Senegal which has been passed back and forth from the colony of Sudan
to the colony of the Haut-Senegal-Niger to be divided up following the War
into several other colonies, notable the colony of the Upper Volta—and
the territory of the Niger. In thirty-seven years in the first half of the nine¬
teenth century Senegal had thirty-four governors. 1 It seems that this
tendency of instability has now about disappeared as far as personnel is
concerned. The Governor of French Guinea has held this position since
1912, the Governors of the Niger, the Upper Volta, and of the Sudan have
occupied their positions since 1919, while the Governor of Dahomey has
held his post since 1920.

French as well as outside observers have frequently complained of the
high degree of centralization which prevails in the French Government at
home as well as abroad. All colonial legislation takes the form of a decree
prepared by the Minister of Colonies and promulgated by the President of
the Republic. While as a rule such decrees are drafted by the local gov¬
ernment on the spot, the Minister of Colonies frequently consumes a long
time in issuing decrees; and sometimes they are issued over the head of

1 Hardy, cited, p. 356, and cf. Faidherbe, cited , p. 370.

923

924

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

local authorities. 2 Originally a tight control was similarly exercised over
the local budget.

To overcome the difficulties of centralization and to remove economic
barriers to labor recruiting, 3 the French Government has attempted to
increase the initiative of local authorities and to convert the Colonial Office
into an organ of control, as it is in the British Empire, 4 through grouping
the various colonies into two federations: (i) Afrique Occidentale Fran¬
chise, commonly called “A. O. F.,” and (2) Afrique £quatoriale Fran¬
chise, called “A. E. F.,” the first of which will now be discussed.

The population of French West Africa is shown on the following page.

I. Its Establishment

The first attempt to group together the territories of West Africa came
in a decree of June i'6, 1895, when the Sudan, Guinea, and the Ivory
Coast were all placed under the Governor of Senegal, \Vho acted as Gover¬
nor-General of the Federation of West Africa. The number of colonies
in the Federation has grown until at the present time there are eight
colonies in the Federation—Senegal, French Guinea, the Ivory Coast,
Dahomey, Sudan, Mauretania, the Niger and the Upper Volta. In addi¬
tion should be mentioned the District of Dakar. 5 The object of the Fed¬
eration was to transfer part of the power over legislation and finance in
the colonies from the Colonial Office to the Governor-General. This early
experiment did not prove entirely successful because the federal government
did not have a distinct personnel nor financial resources of its own. It was

a According to the Senatus-Consulte of May 3, 1854 (sec. 18), legislation for
the French colonies except in the Antilles and Reunion, takes the form of a “simple”
decree. Neither the French Parliament nor the Council of State imposes any legal
control over the president in enacting such decrees. Decrees relating to the colonies
are promulgated in the Journal Officiel dela Republique fran^aise or in the Bulletin
des lois. (There is also a Bulletin Officiel du Ministere des Colonies). But they
do not enter into force in the colony until they are promulgated by the Governor
of the colony, i.e., published in the local Journal Officiel. The Governor thus has
great power in delaying the application of a decree. A. Girault, Principes de
Colonisation et de Legislation Coloniale, fourth edition, second part, I, pp. 171 ff.

“Cf. Circular on Labor, March 6, 1912, Journal Officiel du Senegal, 1912, p. 223.

* The French Colonial System is unique in its system of Inspectors. Under the
authority of a “Direction du controle” in the Minister of Colonies in Paris,
inspectors visit every colony every two or three years. The Inspector has the
right to see every document, but he has no power to act. He merely reports to the
Minister of Colonies upon the conduct of administration. Cf. A. Girault, cited,
Second Part, Vol. I, pp. 352-371. The same principle is applied within the colonies.
Each Governor has an Inspector of Administrative Affairs who visits adminis¬
trative districts under his authority. These various inspectors have frequently
been criticized as- superfluous. Cf. the remarks of M. Archimbaud, Rapport,
Budget General, Chambre des Deputes No. 1970, p. 17 (1926).

“Cf. Vol. I, p. 962.

926

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

merely an addendum to the Government of Senegal. The Governor of
Senegal already had his hands full since he was obliged also to administer
the territories of Senegambia and the Niger—through a delegate at Kayes.
In decrees of 1902 and 1904, the French Government made important
changes by moving the capital of the Federation from Saint Louis to Dakar,
appointing a Governor-General independent of and above the Governors of
the various colonies, and establishing a budget for the government-general
fed by the customs duties which formerly went to each colony. 6 Under this
system, each colony retains its financial and administrative autonomy and
it remains under a Lieutenant-Governor named by decree who is respon¬
sible for the administration of each colony which is divided into cercles or
districts under Commandants. 7 The Lieutenaftt-Governor is assisted in
this work by a secretariat containing different bureaux, such as finance,
the public domain and political, military, and economic affairs. The or¬
ganization of government bureaux varies with each colony. In some
colonies, they are all directly under the Secretary-General, an official at the
head of the secretariat, who corresponds to the Chief Secretary in a British
Colony. In other cases, the bureaux depend directly upon the Lieutenant-
Governor. In addition to the bureaux, a number of departmental services
depend directly upon the Lieutenant-Governor, such as the Departments
of Public Works, Posts and Telegraphs, Direct Contributions, and the
Treasury. The service of Direct Contributions is responsible for the assess¬
ment, but not for the collection of the direct contributions or taxes collected
from the French citizens and subjects. This administrative organization
resembles in many respects the administrative organization in France. In
each colony a Military Commandant has charge of military affairs. He is
kept in touch with the Governor through a military cabinet and he is
responsible to the Commandant at Dakar. The Lieutenant-Governor
also has a personal “cabinet,” headed by a chef de cabinet who occupies a
position similar to the private secretary of a British Governor. The judi¬
cial service of each colony is headed by a Procureur de la Republique who
is responsible to the Procureur General at Dakar. 8

All departmental heads are completely subject to the Governor. A
department head in a French colony cannot issue any orders, nor discipline,
appoint or dismiss an official in his own name. The head of the Education
Department cannot even grant scholarships in the schools on his own

"Decrees of October 1, 1902, and of October 18, 1904. Under the 1902 decree the
expenses of the Government General were borne by a special section of the
budget of the territories of Senegambia and the Niger, but in 1904 the Government
General was given a budget of its own. Bulletin des Lois, 1903, Vol. 67, p. 693.
Recueil 1902, p. 320; ibid., 1905, p. 6. The text of the 1904 decree is printed in
the appendix.

7 Cf. Vol. I, p. 983. "Cf. Vol. I, p. 1002.

THE FEDERATION OF WEST AFRICA

927

authority; all of these matters take the form of a “decision” or other
action of the Lieutenant-Governor acting ordinarily on the advice of the
department head concerned. 0 Such a system unifies the administration but
it frequently slows down the efficiency of departmental machinery and
increases the number of wheels in the French administrative bureaucracy.

Except in Senegal, which has a Colonial Council, 10 the Lieutenant-
Governor of each colony is assisted by a Council of Administration of which
he is president. It contains four government officials, two elected repre¬
sentatives of the Chambers of Commerce and Agriculture, and a number
of natives who were at one time appointed by the Governor-General upon
the advice of the Lieutenant-Governor. 11

Since 1925 the Councils of Administration of the Sudan, Ivory Coast,
French Guinea and Dahomey have each contained three native subjects as
rfiertibers, elected by a native electoral college. 12

Although half of the membership of the Council is unofficial, deadlocks
do not arise because the Council has no real power. The Lieutenant-Gover¬
nor is merely obliged to consult it upon twenty different subjects which
include the budget, new taxes, loans, public works, and concessions relat¬
ing to works of local interest. In other cases, the Lieutenant-Governor
may take the advice of the Council whenever he deems it necessary.

The Lieutenant-Governor is assisted also by a smaller body called the
Privy Council. In Senegal this body is composed of the Lieutenant-Gover¬
nor, the Secretary-General, the Procureur de la Republique, the Military
Commandant, a member selected from the Chamber of Commerce of
Saint Louis, and three unofficial members, one of whom is a citizen and
two, subjects. This body must be consulted on a total of fourteen sub¬
jects such as the draft estimates, the final accounts of receipts and expendi¬
tures, and all proposals to modify taxes. 13

In each French colony the commercial interests are organized in
semi-government Chambers of Commerce and Agriculture, of a type un¬
known to Anglo-Saxon countries. Membership is limited to Frenchmen. 14

The number of members in each Chamber of Commerce is limited by
arrete of the Governor-General. Thus the Chambers of Commerce of
Dakar and Rufisque each contain fifteen members, that of Saint Louis

•Cf. Vol. I, p. 986. 10 Cf. Vol. I, P . 967.

11 Decree of December 4, 1920, Journal Officiel de VAfrique Occidentale Fran-
iaise (hereafter fited as Journal Officiel), 1921, p. 81.

“Cf. Vol. I, p. 981.

“Article 2, Decree of March 30, 1925. Appendix.

14 Corresponding members of foreign nationality may, however, be elected;
they may participate in the meetings but do not have a right to vote. Article 4.
Arrete of the Governor-General, August 16, 1923, Recueil, 1924, p. 325. In Togo,
however, foreigners are admitted to full membership in the Chamber, apparently
because of the Mandate, cf. Vol. II, p. 366.

928 THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

contains twelve and that of Kaolack, nine. 15 These members are elected
by the heads of the commercial firms in these respective centers. Estab¬
lishments are given representation in proportion to the size of the business
license which they pay. 16 These chambers are supported by the proceeds of
an additional license tax which every merchant must pay whether he is a
member of the chamber or not, and which is collected by the government.
It is the policy of the government to consult these bodies in regard to
economic questions. Sometimes the chambers perform activities in their
own name. Thus the Chamber of Commerce of Turcoing has received a
five thousand hectare concession for sheep grazing, and the Chamber of
Commerce of Rufisque has a concession for operating the wharf. Appar¬
ently the first administrative duty imposed upon the Chambers of Com¬
merce is that of inspecting groundnut exports. 17

Each colony in the federation retains its own budget which is fed by
the native head taxes and some local fees. All customs duties are now paid
into the central government. These budgets do not, moreover, have to be
submitted, as does the budget of the government-general for approval to
the Minister of Colonies, but merely to the Governor-General at Dakar,
which thus expedites administration and makes possible the re-allocation of
expenditure to meet new needs.

2. The Government-General

In order to supervise the work of these eight colonies, the government-
general has been established at Dakar. The Governor-General is the
depositaire of the powers of the President of the Republic. He alone has
the right of corresponding with the home government. He is assisted by an
advisory body, called the Council of Government, composed of the Lieu¬
tenant-Governors of the eight colonies and other officials, making a total
of nineteen official members; and also the deputy from Senegal, two mem¬
bers of the Colonial Council of Senegal, a French citizen elected by the
Municipal Councils of Dakar and of Goree, two members elected by the
Councils of Administration from each colony, and one citizen and one
subject. 18 Thus about ten of the forty-four members of the Council of
Government are natives. 19

M Arrete of November 15, 1923, Journal Officiel, 1923, p. 802.

ia Cf. the table, ibid., p. 803.

17 Cf. Vol. II, p. 47. Also Allocation par le President de la Chambre de Com¬
merce de Dakar, April 19, 1926, p. 3. A decree of March 9, 1925, also authorized
the establishment of Consultative Councils of Agriculture and Industry. Recueil,
1925. P- 327-

The colonial delegates to the Superior Council of Colonies and the Chambers
of Commerce of Senegal are also elected.

“Article 1, Decree of March 30, 1925. The Lieutenant-Governor of each
colony and the Governor-General of the Federation is assisted by a Permanent

THE FEDERATION OF WEST AFRICA

929

The Council of Government meets only once a year since more frequent
meetings are virtually impossible because members must travel tremendous
distances. It meets in an imposing brick structure opposite the Palais du
Gouvernement at Dakar. Unlike the Colonial Council, the Council of
Government has no power of deliberation. Debates seldom occur, and no
committees are appointed to study matters in detail. Its chief business is
in passing upon the budgets of the eight different colonies. These budgets
are not, however, discussed chapter by chapter. In 1925, the session of
the Council lasted only about four days, in contrast to sessions of the
Colonial Council which frequently last two or three weeks. Sometimes the
Council also discusses the principle of new decrees, such as the measures
relating to agricultural credit and the protection of native labor. 20
Neither the Council of Administration in the capital of each colony nor
the Council of Government at Dakar has any power comparable to that of
a Legislative Council in British territory.

The French citizens in French Guinea, the Ivory Coast, Dahomey,
Upper Senegal (now the Sudan) and the Upper Volta are represented in
the Economic Section of the Superior Council of Colonies at. Paris, an
advisory body to the Minister of Colonies. 21 Elections for this position
take place every four years in the colony concerned at which it is cus¬
tomary to choose a deputy or other public man in France to represent local
interests upon the council. The citizens of Dahomey, however, last year
chose a local merchant for the position.

In theory the Governor-General relieves the Minister of Colonies
of the necessity of making many decisions and hence decentralizes control.
Presidential decrees still lay down general principles of legislation, but
in promulgating them, the Governor-General may issue more detailed ar¬
retes defining the principles that should be carried out, or adapting them to
meet local conditions. The Lieutenant-Governor of each colony issues
arretes applying these principles to his colony, subject to such modifications
as the conditions of the colony may require. Thus the labor decree of 1926
authorized each Lieutenant-Governor to draw up the scale of rations, etc.,
to which employers must conform. 22 The Governor-General must approve
the most important arretes of Lieutenant-Governors, especially those relat¬
ing to local taxes. The federation thus embodies the principle of “legisla¬
tive” decentralization.

Commission, composed of three or four officials and several unofficial members.
These commissions must be consulted on a number of matters, and in a sense
correspond to the Executive Council in a British Colony.

20 Cf. Vol. II, pp. 29, 46.

21 Decree of September 28, 1920, Recueil, 1921, p. 109.

B Cf. Vol. II, p. 31.

930

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

The same principle is also in theory applied to administrative matters.
The decree of 1904 established a secretary-general in the office of the
government-general for the purpose of watching over various administra¬
tive activities in the various colonies, such as ordinary matters in connection
with health, public works, and education. Departmental services of the
government-general have also been established to relieve each colony of the
burden of providing transport facilities affecting more than one territory,
and to perform other activities of an exceptional nature, such as the estab¬
lishment of special research institutions in agriculture or in medicine. In
all other matters, the departmental services of the central government are
merely supposed to advise. The responsibility for the actual execution of
policies is placed upon the Lieutenant-Governor of each territory.

3. Decentralization

As a matter of fact, a great many difficulties have arisen in defining the
respective spheres of the government-general and of the colonies. M.
Roume, the first Governor-General, signed few arretes compared with
later occupants of that office, and each colony did virtually what it pleased.
In 1909, the office of the Secretary-General of the central government was
suppressed, which left the colonies still more freedom, but it was revived in
1916. Subsequent Governors-General were of a more dictatorial nature
and tended to restrict the autonomy of each territory. This tendency
alarmed Governor-General Van Hollenhoven who, in a circular of July
28, 1917, declared that department heads in the central government should
not correspond directly with the Governors nor give orders to department
heads in the colonies. He declared that all correspondence between Dakar
and the colonies should be in the name of the Governor-General and of the
Lieutenant-Governor concerned, except correspondence in regard to judi¬
cial and military matters, etc., for which separate services existed.

The circular declared that the Lieutenant-Governor had absolute con¬
trol over movements of personnel in his colony, except for certain persons
named by decree. He had unlimited power over the appointment and
dismissal of native chiefs. The Governor-General warned the Lieutenant-
Governors, however, against frequent changes in personnel which de¬
moralized European officials and which, in the case of chiefs, would lead
to the disorganization of native society. He expressly asked them to
prohibit local administrators from changing or applying disciplinary penal¬
ties to native chiefs. . . . “This question is of capital importance for the
political direction of your colony.” 23

Despite the above pronouncement, exigencies produced by the World
43 Journal Officiel, 19x7, pp. 441 ff.

THE FEDERATION OF WEST AFRICA

931

War increased the centralizing tendencies of the Dakar Government.
When M. Jules Carde became Governor-General in 1923, he found that
the departmental services were really directing and initiating the work
of the services in the colonies and that the Lieutenant-Governors had very
little discretion or initiative of their own. In a circular of August 16, 1923,
and in arretes, he attempted to return to the Lieutenant-Governors the
powers of which they had been deprived. The purpose of the government-
general, he declared, was to “orient the evolution of the group of Colonies
under its charge, by coordinating their efforts, dividing the general bur¬
dens in proportion to their capacity, defending ... the interests of this group
of Colonies of which it constitutes the tie.” Nevertheless, the powers of
the Lieutenant-Governors remained what they were. All correspondence
must carry the signature of the Governor-General or of the Lieutenant-
Governor and not of the department concerned. “In order that my
control may be exercised, I must find confronting me only one person
responsible, which is you. This responsibility you cannot and should not
place upon any one else.” Even a technical report from the colony must be
signed by the Governor. 24 In order to exercise his control more simply
and to shift the burden to each local colony, the Governor-General re¬
organized the central administration by reducing the number of “Services.”
Thus the Service of Personnel and of Archives, the Geographic Service,
and the Services of Domaines, Police and General Security, Agriculture,
and Posts and Telegraphs, not to mention other services in the central
government, were suppressed and their duties transferred to “Directions”
and “Inspections.” At the present time, there are four such Directions,
(1) the Direction of the Cabinet, (2) the Direction of Finances and Ac¬
counts, (3) the Direction of Political and Administrative Affairs, and (4)
the Direction of Economic Affairs. Likewise, there are three General
Inspections, i.e. (1) the General Inspection of Public Works, (2) the
General Inspection of Sanitary and Medical Services, and (3) the Inspec¬
tion of Education. 25 Similar departmental services are found in each colony
but they are agents of execution, acting upon the order of the Lieutenant-
Governor who is advised and controlled by the Governor-General at Dakar,
who defines policy on the advice of the Directions and Inspections.

M. Carde also transferred a number of lesser duties to the Lieutenant-
Governors which had hitherto been exercised by the Governor-General,
such as the right to determine the amount of trade powder which might
be imported into the colony, to expel foreigners, to delimit agricultural and

u Circular of August 16, 1923, Journal Officiel, p. 607.

14 Arrete of July 27, 1923, ibid., 1923, p. 568. The “Ordre de Service” defining
the work of these respective Directions and Services is published, ibid., p. 587.

932

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

forest regions, to make certain decisions in regard to public works, to fix
the dates for school holidays, and to authorize the opening of private
schools. Altogether a total of ten such duties were transferred. It is
evident from the nature of these subjects that in the past the Governor-
General closely controlled and acted upon matters of slight importance.

Likewise the system of reports of each colony to the government-
general was changed. Instead of sending certain economic reports to
Dakar, the Lieutenant-Governors now send them directly to the Agence
Economique at Paris. 26 The old quarterly political report now became
annual. Despite these changes the discretion of the Lieutenant-Governor
remains limited in many directions. The Governor-General declared to the
Council of Government in 1923: “I am not ignorant of the fact that the
reforms realized are still very limited, that they constitute measures of a
secondary importance which will certainly facilitate local administration
but which will not suffice to give it the administrative and financial auton¬
omy” which he desired. 27 Ministerial decrees are still executed by arretes
of the Governor-General rather than of the Lieutenant-Governor. The
Lieutenant-Governor may not even impose a local tax or erect an important
building on his own authority. It appears, therefore, that despite repeated
insistence upon the principle of decentralization, the Government of French
West Africa is still very largely in the hands of Dakar. Whether or not
the colonies under this system have less autonomy than they would have
if directly under the Minister of Colonies, as are the British Colonies
under the British Colonial Office, is difficult to say. Presumably it would
be easier for such a colony to gain its administrative freedom from Paris
than from Dakar, where vigilance is increased by proximity.

4. Senegal's Opposition

Some of the colonies have definitely resented the encroachment of the
federal authority upon their power. This resentment has been particularly
great in Senegal where the establishment of the government-general
lessened the importance of that self-governing body, the Colonial Council.
In 1918 a speaker at the General Council demanded a return to the system
which existed under the decree of 1895. 28 As late as 1921 a member de¬
clared that the Council should request the Minister of Colonies “to restore
to the Colony the real autonomy foreseen by the decree of 1903, and to

28 Each group of French colonies has an Agence Economique which answers
inquiries of business houses and distributes colonial propaganda. The Agence
tconomique of French West Africa publishes a monthly Bulletin tconomique.
There is an Agence Generate des Colonies which handles the business of the
colonies in Paris, much as do the Crown Agents in London.

37 Discours prononce par M. J. Carde, Session du Conseil de Gouvernement,
1923, p. 8. “ Conseil General, Colonie du Senegal, December, 1918, p. 81.

THE FEDERATION OF WEST AFRICA

933

insist that the violation of this autonomy by the superior authority—an
abusive interference which paralyzes the initiative and effective action of
the Colony—could no longer be tolerated.” 29

This feeling was originally caused by the fact that the establishment
of the Federation in 1904 deprived the colonies of much of their revenue.
Before 1904, Senegal and other colonies collected and applied customs
duties to the expenses of the local administration. When the government-
general was created in 1895, the cost of its administration was divided
between the different colonies. In 1905, the Senegal budget had receipts
amounting to five and a half million francs. But the establishment of the
federal budget in 1905 took away the customs duties of Senegal and the
other colonies, and at one stroke deprived Senegal of seventy-eight per cent
of its revenues. In return, the federal government, according to Senegal
spokesmen, assumed only thirty-nine per cent of the expenses which these
sums had met. 30 Consequently, since 1905 the General Council of Senegal
has protested against the establishment of the federal budget, and some of
its members have demanded the suppression of the whole federal system
on the ground that it establishes unnecessarily costly machinery. 3 *

So strongly did the General Council resent the curtailment of
the revenue, that it attacked the legality of these decrees before the French
Council of State in Paris. The advocates of the Council took the position
that the Finance Law of April 13, 1900, had granted the Council power
to deliberate in regard to the collection and imposition of taxes, which
included customs duties; and that the President by decree could not take
away power which Parliament had granted. The Council of State ruled,
however, in a judgment handed down in 1908, that the law of 1900 did
not grant to the Council the exclusive power of taxation over the territory,
but merely the power to control the imposition of those taxes which the
home government authorized. Consequently, the decrees and the Federa¬
tion were valid. 32

Periodically since this decision, members of the Senegal Council have
vented their opposition against the Federation. Similar opposition came
from French Guinea for the same reason, namely, that the more prosperous
colonies would be obliged to contribute to the development of the less pros¬
perous territories. 33 The importance of this grievance is shown by the fact

* Ibid., December, 1921, pp. 23, 367.

*°Cf. the argument of M. Tardieu before the Council of State, Recueil, 1908,
p. 216.

Cf. the remarks of M. Guillabert, Conseil Colonial, August, 1921, p. 12.

” Arrete of May 29, 1908, Recueil, 1908, p. 209.

81 A. Arcin, cited, p. 719. Leroy Beaulieu (in De la Colonisation chez les peuples
modernes, Paris, 1908, 6th edition, Vol. II, p. 76), also was dubious about the value
of the federal experiment.

934

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

that the population of Senegal—which is only one-tenth of the total popula¬
tion of West Africa—paid half 84 of the customs duties collected by the
federal government in 1926. The people of Dahomey and Senegal to¬
gether contribute three-fourths of the duties which go into the funds of
the general government and which are expended on the development of the
poorer parts of the territory. While this is financially advantageous from
the standpoint of the home government, it imposes an obligation on one
colony for the benefit of another which goes further than the loan which
Togo made to the Cameroons, inasmuch as the money is paid out without
any prospect of return. 35

5. Federal Finance

The heart of the Federation of West Africa is the federal budget.
The purpose of creating this budget was explained in 1905 by Governor-
General Roume who declared: “In creating the general budget, the
decree of October 18, 2904., intended, not to bring about a work of exces¬
sive centralization which would run the risk of impeding the individual
evolution of each Colony in the group, but of constituting a financial
instrument which would establish, on more solid and firm bases than
hitherto, the civil personality of French West Africa, thus offering new
guarantees to bondholders,” so that loans for the development of the terri¬
tory could have solid security. The revenues of the federal budget consist
almost wholly of indirect taxes.

They have increased as follows:

Estimated

Actual

Revenue

Expenditure

Surplus

fr .

fr.

fr .

*905.

25,043,780

24 , 797 ,> 7 *

246,602

J 9 J 3 .

34,332,225

31,583,201

2 , 749,024

26,578,067

22,673,016

1916.

25.404,552

22 , 530,374

3 , 074,'78

1918.

31 . 995.992

25 . 943.194

6 , 052,797

1920.

62,598,864

42 , 090,433

20 , 508,430

192 *.

< 4 . 749.>25

60,609,558

4 ,' 39 , 5 «

1922.

76,547,627

66 , 379,367

10,168,260

1924.

■ 26 , 736,772

83 , 7 * 6,773

42 , 949,999

1926 38 .

235,000,000

173,000,000

62,000,000

** 42,346,100 francs out of 87,860,000 francs.

36 Cf. Vol. II, p. 284.

** Expost des Motifs, Budget General, Gouvernement General de VAjrique Oc¬
cidentals Fran^aise (hereafter cited as Budget General), Goree, 1926, p. iii.

THE FEDERATION OF WEST AFRICA

935

The actual receipts of the federal treasury thus increased from about
25,000,000 in 1905 to about 34,000,000 francs in 1913—an increase of
about thirty-six per cent. In making further comparisons, the deprecia¬
tion of the franc must be taken into account. Although the figure of
145,000,000 francs—the estimated revenue in 1926—is four times as large
as the figure for 1913, its value in gold is a little less than the 1913 figure. 37

While the revenue measured in gold of the federal government has not
increased since 1913, the purchasing value of the present revenue is greater
than the 1913 revenue. Thus in 1924, the expenditures of the federal
government were 84,000,000 francs in comparison with 32,000,000 francs
in 1913. Measured in gold, the 1924 expenditures would be less than
17,000,000 francs. Upon a gold basis, the revenue of the Federation to¬
day is therefore about what it was before the War, but expenditures have
declined nearly one half. This decline is due not only to an actual decrease
in salaries, estimated upon a gold basis, but also to savings arising out of
reduced personnel and cheaper costs of construction, particularly in regard
to the item of native labor. 38

Each of the eight colonies also has its budget fed by direct taxes, the
total income of which amounted in 1926 to about 284,000,000 francs. 39

The financial situation of the federation was as follows:

Finances of French West Africa—1926
in millions of francs

Receipts

Expenditures

Excess

General Budget.

.. 235

173

Local Budgets .

. 284

261

“Annexed” Budgets 40 .

621

53 *

Of this total the general budget contributes thirty-eight per cent while
the local budgets—of the eight colonies—contribute nearly forty-six per
cent.

What has the government-general done with the funds which it has
thus collected? Between 1905 and 1924, it expended about 37% per cent
upon public works, a total of nearly 534,000,000 francs, about half of
which came from current revenue and half from loans. The largest single
item was 118,000,000 francs for the Thies-Niger Railway. Total railway

”In these calculations, the present value of the franc is taken as one-fifth of
the value before the War or one hundred francs to the pound.

“ Cf. Vol. I, p. 1092.

** Excluding subventions from the general budget.

40 These include the budget for the District of Dakar, railway budgets, etc.
These figures are taken from The Address of the Governor-General to the Council
of Government, Journal Officiel, 1926, p. 1039.

936

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

expenditure was about 282,000,000 francs. About 35,000,000 francs were
expended on rivers and harbors; 23,000,000 francs on water works; 5,000,-
000 francs on the construction of military roads and buildings; 7,500,000
francs on roads and bridges; 1,300,000 francs on irrigation, and 20,000,000
francs on public buildings. In 1926, the Dakar Government expended
about 66,000,000 francs upon special Public Works, such as 25,000,000
francs on various railway projects; 5,000,000 francs on irrigation of the
Niger; 1,000,000 francs on hydro-electric power in Senegal; and 500,000
francs on the Medical School at Dakar. These expenditures came not only
out of current revenue but also out of loans. Between 1903 and 1913 the
Dakar Government contracted four loans totalling 346,000,000 francs 41
or 13,800,000 pounds. This sum is more than twice as large as the loans
made by Nigeria between 1905 and 1919. 42 Apparently because of the
large revenue derived from the federal budget, and because of the pre¬
carious condition of the franc, the Federation of West Africa has not
made any new loans since 1913, 43 in contrast to the Nigeria Government
which between 1919 and 1927 floated loans amounting to 19,513,516
pounds. The debt of French West Africa about equals that of the
Belgian Congo. 44

In 1926 expenditures on the service of the French loans accounted for
33 per cent of the expenditure. 45

From the beginning, it has been the policy of the French Government
to put its annual surplus into a Caisse de Reserve. This reserve was origi¬
nally designed as a “regulator of the budget”; it was to serve as a fund
from which unforeseen expenditure could be met. 40 Part of the funds in

41 Loan of sixty-five millions, Law of July 5, 1903; Loan of one hundred millions,
Law of January 22, 1907; Loan of fourteen millidhs, Law of February 18, 1910;
Loan of one hundred and sixty-seven millions, Laws of December 23, 1913. The
loan of 65,000,000 francs was for the purpose of refunding loans previously made
by the Colonies of Senegal and Guinea, of building public works and ports in
Dakar, Saint Louis and Rufisque, and of opening up railways into the interior of
Senegal, Guinea, and the Ivory Coast.

The hundred million loan was to construct further ports and railways, and
hospitals, barracks, and telegraph lines.

The loan of 14 million was to construct the second section of the 200 kilometres
of railway from Thie9 to Kayes, the first section having been constructed from the
one hundred million loan.

Finally the loan of 167,000,000 was to execute a general system of public
works, such as railways and ports, to complete the work started by previous loans.
West Africa has therefore borrowed the sum of 346,000,000 francs. Cf. “Rapport
sur la situation des Travaux Effectues sur les Fonds d’Emprunt de l’Afrique
Occidental Fran^aise au 31 Decembre 1920.” Journal Officiel, de le Republique
Fran^aise, August 21, 1921, p. 9831.

42 Cf. Vol. II, p. 889.

"It has, however, utilized several installments or “tranches” of the 1913 loan.
Cf. Decree of November 25, 1923, Re cue'll, 1924, p. 29.

44 Cf. Vol. II, p. 889. 48 Budget General, cited, p. xxxix.

48 Cf. Article 258, Financial Decree on Colonial Finance, December 30, 1912.

THE FEDERATION OF WEST AFRICA

937

this reserve has been invested in bonds. 47 The maximum amount of these
reserves was originally fixed by an arrete of the Colonial and Finance
Ministers. By means of its reserve, the federal government was able to
balance its budget during the lean periods of the World War without
recourse to the home government except to the extent of 150,000 francs.
To meet these demands, the Governor-General drew upon the reserve to
the extent of 6,250,000 francs, while it also received contributions from
the local budgets of each colony amounting to more than 7,130,000 francs,
sums which it later reimbursed. 48

Thus the original purpose of the reserve was to serve as an insurance
fund. Each colony likewise aimed to build up such a reserve by means of
which one part of the Federation could aid another part in case of need
without troubling the home country. From this standpoint, the financial
system of the Federation has worked out admirably.

6. “Mise en Valeur”

During the World War, different official elements began to consider
the possibilities of developing the resources of the French Colonial Empire
so as to free France from dependence upon outside sources of supply. 48
This question was also studied by M. Simon, Minister of Colonies in
1919. The rapid decline of the value of the franc at the end of the World
War to a fifth of its par value made the purchase of raw materials and
other products upon which France was dependent upon outside sources
more difficult than ever before. While prices within French territory rose,
they invariably lagged far behind the increasing dearness of foreign money.
If France could develop such sources within the empire, she would obviate
the grave difficulties presented by the exchange.

With this in mind, and realizing that the rich resources of the Colonial
Empire had scarcely been touched, M. Albert Sarraut, Minister of Colonies
in 1921, visited French West Africa and thereafter mapped out a plan for
the economic development of the colonies. He definitely proposed in a
project of law laid before the Chamber April 12, 1921, the improvement
or construction of wharves in eight ports in West Africa and the widening
of the mouth of the Senegal river. He suggested that twenty different
railways and six different highways be constructed or extended and that

^Cf. “Situation de la Caisse de Reserve,” June 30, 1925, Budget General, cited,
Annex No. 1.

48 “Rapport par M. A. Lebrun, au nom de la Commission des Finances Charge
d’examiner le projet de loi, adopte par la Chambre des Deputes, portant fixation
du budget general de l’exercise 1926,” No. 155 Senat, 1926, Session Ordinaire,
p. 115. Hereafter cited as Rapport, Budget General, Ministere des Colonies.

* Conference Coloniale, report of a conference called by M. Maginot, Minister
of Colonies, Paris, 1917.

938

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

the water supply in six different centers be improved. He outlined an
irrigation project for the Niger valley, and proposed the construction of
public buildings, most of which were to be at Dakar. His plan also called
for the construction of a large number of dispensaries, hospitals, and schools.

The execution of this plan would take, in the opinion of its author, a
period of fifteen years. In order to give some stability and continuity to
the mise en valeur of the colonies, he proposed to give this program the
sanction of law voted by parliament, the broad lines of which could not,
therefore, be departed from by administrative action. Any modification
should be approved by law. In order to carry out this plan, M. Sarraut
believed that financial aid in the form of loans guaranteed by the home
country and also by the colonies would be necessary. 50

Meanwhile, the franc continued to fall in such an uncertain manner
that loans, whether guaranteed by parliament or by the federation, were
out of the question. No one would invest ten thousand francs in bonds
the value of which might be cut in half the next week. But the very
condition of the franc led to new efforts to find sources of materials which
would free France from dependence upon the pound. In order to develop
the colonies, transport and communications such as railways and harbors
were necessary. Ordinarily in the past such projects have been financed out
of loans guaranteed either by the French Parliament or the Federation.
Such is the practice of the British Empire to-day. But because of the
extremely difficult position in which France found herself following the
World War, she was obliged to construct these projects, not out of loans
but out of current colonial revenue.

As a result of these necessities, the financial relations of the local and
general budgets in French West Africa somewhat changed. In the first
place, the maximum limitation imposed upon the amounts in the Caisse
de Reserve was abolished, and efforts were made to accumulate reserves as
large as possible from which public works could be financed. Such a finan¬
cial policy, according to the Governor-General, “makes it possible to-day
to pursue the development of the country without recourse to loans, and
without appealing to the Metropole .” 51 The success of the government
in piling up a surplus over expenditure is demonstrated in the table above.
In 1924 the excess of receipts over expenditures was nearly half the total
expenditure of the federal government.

For the purpose of carrying out the measures proposed by M. Sarraut

80 Projet de Loi portant fixation d’un programme general de mise en valeur des
colonies fran^aises, Annexe. Cf. No. 2449, Documents Parlementaires-Chambre.
Journal Officiel, 1921, p. 1574. A. Sarraut, La Mise En Valeur Des Colonies
Francoises, Paris, 1921.

61 Budget General, cited, 1926, p. xxvi.

THE FEDERATION OF WEST AFRICA

939

and by the local administration, the public works program has been divided
into two general parts. The first consists of plans which interest more
than one colony in the federation, and which are financed out of the
general budget. The second includes plans of local interest which are
financed out of the different local colonial budgets which also have
Reserves, but which ordinarily no longer receive a subvention from the
federal budget. Under this financial system, the local budgets carry
burdens which under the original federal idea should have been carried
by the central budget. Both types of public works are financed out of cur¬
rent revenue.

Moreover, French West Africa contributes large sums to the Mother
Country. In 1926, the Minister zt Paris increased the military contri¬
bution of West Africa to the home country from 1,800,000 to 7,500,000
francs. The federation expends another 3,500,000 francs in behalf of
France upon such items as military pensions for native soldiers, and the
reimbursement of the Mother Country for advances in regard to the Thies-
Niger Railway. 82

In addition, the budget of each colony supports military bureaus and
other military services, at a total expense of 4,793,000 francs. The Dakar
Government estimates that in 1926 the colonies expended another 1,913,000
francs on expenditures which would ordinarily be borne by the home gov¬
ernment. In the expose des motifs of the budget, the government says that
to these figures should be added the loss in taxes arising out of the fact that
thirty-eight thousand natives are in the army, and out of other items.
According to the official estimate, French West Africa in 1927 gave to
the French budget in Paris a total sum of 19,409,200 francs.

In referring to the direct payments made by West Africa to the home
government, the Governor-General declared at the 1925 session of the
Council of Government that “these sums are in fact large in relation to
our resources but they are little in comparison with the charges weighing
upon the Mother Country. . . . Et bien, Messieurs, our duty is plain.
France calls; we respond.” 83

It is difficult to pass judgment upon this policy of contributions by the
colonies to France because part of this contribution represents the cost of
military administration in the colonies which the Paris Government bears
but which England has always imposed upon the local budgets. On the
other hand, the cost of military administration in West Africa is higher
than it otherwise would be because military policy is directed not only
towards defending the territory, but also towards assuming part of the

" Budget General, 1926, p. xii.

** Discours prononce far M. J. Carde, cited, 1923, pp. 46*47.

940

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

military burden at home. This sum of twenty million francs, or two
hundred thousand pounds, which is paid into the French Government by
West Africa, is only about seventy-five thousand pounds larger than the
sum which the Tanganyika Government expends upon the King’s African
Rifles—a territory with only one-third of West Africa’s population. Never¬
theless, there is an ethical difference between the two systems. The
expenditure in Tanganyika is for the defense of the local territory, while
the contributions in West Africa are frankly for the home government.
Moreover, French troops are underpaid. 54 Once the principle has been
accepted that the colonies may be called upon to give financial aid to the
home government for one purpose, it will be difficult to prevent extending
such aid for other purposes. The extent to which this principle has been
applied has recently alarmed the Chamber of Deputies Reporter on the
Budget of the Minister of Colonies who declared: “The problem of the
contributions which the home government may demand of the colonies for
the military expenses which they necessitate and for the civil expenses
which they occasion touches the very future of our colonial domain and
its development. ... It presents an aspect of very grave importance. One
cannot believe that we may annually increase with impunity the charges
which weigh on the shoulders of the Colonial taxpayer to relieve those
of the taxpayer at home.” 60

In 1926, the French Government made an appeal for a “voluntary
contribution” to the colonies similar to the appeal which it made in France
for the purpose of rescuing the franc. In the “appeal” to the population
of the colonies, the government said, “To justify in your eyes this new
duty it should suffice to recall to you that the strength of this patrie rests
above all in that national unity which has always joined the Frances from
across the seas to the France of Europe.” 68 As a result of this appeal,
contributions in West Africa to the extent of nearly seven million francs
were made. Nearly half of this sum came from Senegal, 67 including a
million francs voted by the Colonial Council.

M Cf. Voi. II, p. 13.

“M. L. Archimbaud, Rapport, Budget General, cited, 1925, No. 518, Chambre
des Deputes, 1924.

These contributions are also opposed for economic reasons by O. Homberg, “La
France des Cinq Parties du Monde,” Revue des Deux Mondes, December 15, 1926,
p. 887.

The budget of West Africa also makes fifty-two subventions to different colonial
enterprises in France, whether colonial schools, professorships in colonial history
at the University, the Institut Colonial Fran^ais, or the Institute of Ethnology. It
makes thirteen subventions to local committees in regard to athletics, health, etc.

88 Journal Officiel, cited, 1926, p. 429.

87 Ibid., p. 820.

THE FEDERATION OF WEST AFRICA

941

7. Results of the Campaign

This mise en valeur campaign has been highly successful from the
financial and the commercial standpoint. As a result of the transport
system and of scientific efforts to increase production which have been
the fruit of this campaign, the value of exports increased from 279,549,399
francs in 1922 to 888,000,000 francs in 1925.

The export of groundnuts increased from 242,085,835 kilograms in
1913 to about three hundred and twenty million kilograms in 1924. The
palm kernels export increased from forty million to seventy-two million
kilos. About three-fourths of the exports of West Africa consist of oil
products, chiefly groundnuts. 58

This campaign has led, as we have seen, to great increases in revenue.
The comparative situation is shown in the following table:

WEST AFRICA FINANCE

1926

Ratio of Native Welfare
Expendi- Expenditures
Revenue tures to Per Cent

Colony Revenue £ £ per 100 Exports £ per 100 of Total

French West Africa 1 . 3 , 442,593 28.1 39.1 3.468 12.45

Belgian Congo . 2,712,555 25.8 43.4 4.740 18.22

Nigeria . 5403,050 29.0 44.8 4472 11.22

Gold Coast . 2,713,520 118.2 32.2 24.088 17.93

Sierra Leone . 681,609 44.2 42.2 10.045 22 -73

British West Africa. 8,798,179 39.1 .... 6.857 15.51

Liberia . 146,716 9.8 40.8 .460 4.77

1 These figures include expenditures of each colony as well as of the general
budget. Detailed figures are printed in the Appendix, Vol. II, p. 209.

According to this table, the per capita revenue of French West Africa
is somewhat greater than that of the Belgian Congo—both territories being
on the franc basis. In view of the internal value of the franc, it is probable
that the real revenue of French West Africa equals that of Nigeria. It is,
however, only about a fourth of that of the Gold Coast government and
less than that of Sierra Leone.

It seems also that French West Africa per capita devotes a smaller
percentage of its total expenditure to native welfare than any of these
governments except Nigeria. This seems to show, tentatively at least,

“The remaining quarter consists of a large number of products, such as ma¬
hogany from the Ivory Coast, Arabic gum, cocoa, cotton and skins.

942

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

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THE FEDERATION OF WEST AFRICA

943

that the federal system of finance which prevails in French West Africa
has led to a larger percentage of revenue being devoted to public works
and administration and a smaller percentage to native welfare, than in
these other territories.

The commercial importance, calculated in sterling, of French West
Africa in comparison with the Belgian Congo and British West Africa is
shown in the table on page 942.

According to this table French West Africa is of greater commercial
importance than the Belgian Congo. It is considerably less important,
however, than British West Africa as a whole. Even the per capita trade
of Nigeria, the lowest of the three British colonies, exceeds that of French
West Africa.

Moreover, the development campaign in French West Africa has
apparently increased the burdens of the native population. Since the estab¬
lishment of the federal budget the local colonies have been compelled to pay
their way out of revenue almost all of which comes from the native head
tax. In order to provide funds to meet these obligations, each colony has
been obliged to increase native taxes. In Dahomey, the total receipts in¬
creased from five million francs in 1918 to fifteen million in 1*924—about
one hundred per cent considering the decline in value of the franc. Ac¬
cording to the Expose des Motifs of the Dahomey budget, “A new effort
will be asked in 1926 of the taxpayers to meet the expenses resulting from
increased salaries to Europeans and natives, and from the construction of
public works.” 69

In the Niger colony, the native tax produced 1,373,913 francs more
in 1926 than in 1925. Between 1916 and 1926, native taxes in the Sudan
increased 618 per cent. In 1926, they increased 65 per cent over 1925.
In the Ivory Coast, the yield of native taxes increased from 11,000,000 in
1925 to 14,700,000 in 1*926.

While the tax yield has greatly increased, it is difficult to determine-
the exact extent because of the steady depreciation of the franc over this
period. It is likewise difficult to determine the exact burden which these
taxes impose upon the native inhabitants. In 1926 the total estimated native
direct tax in French West Africa was 103,216,488 francs, or about 8.43
francs per capita. The comparative tax burden in various colonies, esti¬
mated in pounds, is shown in the table on page 944.

This table reveals the interesting fact that direct taxes in French West
Africa are higher than in any British colony on the West Coast and also
higher than in the Congo, Togo and the Cameroons. Since the purchasing
power of the pound in French territory is higher than in British territory,

® “Expose des Motifs,” Dahomey Budget, 1926, p. xxiv.

944

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

NATIVE TAXES IN VARIOUS COLONIES
1926

Colony

Direct Hut and
Poll Tax

Per Capita

Payment
of Custom
Duties

Per Capita

Total Tax

French West Africa

£.084 1

£.026

£.110

Gold Coast

.000

.915

•9i5

Nigeria

.044

.179

.223

Sierra Leone

.039

•333

.372

Togo

.048

.110

.is*

Cameroons

.044

.032

.075

Kenya

.194

.274

.468

Uganda

.128

.127

•255

Tanganyika

.168

.128

.296

Belgian Congo

.043 1

.110

•153

1 Converted from francs @ 100 francs per pound sterling.

these figures would seem to show that the burden of the direct native tax in
French West Africa is much higher, comparatively speaking, than the mere
figures reveal. On the other hand, the customs duties in British colonies
yield a much greater return than in the French colonies—so much greater,
in fact, that the total per capita tax in all three British West Coast Colonies
is much larger than the total per capita tax in French West Africa. The
British system of obtaining a larger share of revenue from indirect taxation
in contrast to the French system of a direct tax system has several ad¬
ministrative advantages. The native does not know that he is paying these
customs duties, which are especially heavy upon spirits and tobacco. The
more wealthy natives pay a heavier indirect tax than the poorer natives,
in contrast to the poll tax which is usually a flat rate. Moreover, the
European who consumes large quantities of liquor and other luxuries as¬
sumes a burden through the payment of customs duties which is much larger
than that imposed by direct taxation. It should be reiterated, that all
of these comparisons are at best approximate because of the impossibility in
the absence of reliable index numbers, of converting francs to pounds at
their real value.

The table on page 945 shows the relation of taxes to exports. This
table would appear to show that a larger portion of the sums derived
from exports are returned to the government in the form of taxes in the
three British territories than in French West Africa. It would seem to

THE FEDERATION OF WEST AFRICA

945

COMPARISON OF PER CAPITA TAXES AND EXPORTS

Colony

Per Capita
Exports

Per Capita
Total Tax

Per Cent Total
Taxes to Total
Exports

French West Africa

£ .72

£.110

15.3%

Gold Coast

3.82

■915

23.9

Nigeria

•77

.223

29.0

Sierra Leone

•98

.372

38.0

Kenya

1.05

.468

44.6

Uganda

1.62

.255

15-7

Tanyanyika

•73

.296

40.5

Belgian Congo

•599

•153

255

follow that, taking direct and indirect taxes together, the burden of taxa¬
tion in British colonies is higher than it is in French West Africa. 60

Whatever may be the actual effect of the system upon the native, the
federation of French West Africa has succeeded in developing the hump of
Africa with very little help from the home country and in opening up
sources of raw material which have materially aided France during the
reconstruction period. 61

60 In making this statement, we assume that apart from barter the internal
trade in these territories which is not reflected eventually in export and import
figures, is negligible. That is to say, the productivity of an African territory may
be measured by its exports and its imports.

61 The local p.ess has frequently demanded the establishment of a currency
independent of the French franc, while a number of Frenchmen have asked that
German payments in kind be used to construct public works in the colonies.

CHAPTER 57

THE BLACK CITIZENS OF SENEGAL

In the French colonies, a distinction exists between “citizens” and
“subjects,” which apparently has arisen out of the doctrine of assimilation
which so long dominated French colonial policy. In the French territories,
there are two distinct systems of administration,—law courts, taxes and
obligations to the government. There is the rough and ready system applied
to the mass of illiterate “subject” natives, and the system containing more
precise guarantees against abuse of power, which applies to Europeans and
the few “assimilated” natives entitled to the rights of citizenship.

i. Naturalization

In the report accompanying the 1912 naturalization decree, the Minister
of Colonies said that French citizenship might be given to those natives
of the colony “who approach us in education, adopt our civilization
and our customs, or distinguish themselves by their service.” This decree
provides that any French subject born in West Africa may acquire French
citizenship after (1) having proved his devotion to French interests or
after having occupied with merit for ten years at least a position in a
French office, public or private; (2) having learned to read and write
French; (3) having given evidence of possessing a means of existence and
a good character. Natives decorated with the Legion of Honor or the
Military Medal, and those who may have rendered service to France are
exempted from the obligation to know French. A subject desiring to be¬
come naturalized must present a birth certificate or a jugement suppletif.
When the native applies to become naturalized, his application is sent by
the administrator or mayor to the Lieutenant-Governor who sends it with
a recommendation to the Governor-General. The latter official forwards
it with his opinion 1 to the Minister of Colonies. Upon the recommenda¬
tion of the Ministers of Colonies and Justice, the President of the Republic
may grant the native citizenship. 2

These provisions have proved so strict that between 1914 and 1922

1 Taken “En Conseil du Gouvernement.”

J Decree of May 25, 1912, cf. Journal Officiel, 1912, p. 395; for the arrete putting
the decree into effect, cf. ibid., p. 696.

946

THE BLACK CITIZENS OF SENEGAL 947

only 94 natives in West Africa were naturalized. 3 In a decree of June 14,
1918, the government established a procedure by which natives in the
French military forces having obtained the Croix de Guerre or the
Military Cross could become citizens simply by renouncing their personal
status. 4 It appears that only fourteen soldiers took advantage of this con¬
cession to become French citizens. It thus seems that whether because
of native indifference or French opposition the vast majority of natives
remain in the subordinate “subject” class.

In 1921, the number of native citizens was as follows:

Native Citizens in French West Africa

Senegal . 22,771

Mauretania . 116

Guinea . 491

Ivory Coast. 308

Dahomey . 121

Sudan . 1,164

Upper Volta . 17

Niger. 9

Total . 24,997 *

Thus about nine-tenths of the native citizens in French West Africa
are found in Senegal. These citizens do not owe their status to naturaliza¬
tion under the law of I'9I2; nor have they been obliged to conform to
the standards imposed by that decree. They owe their citizenship to an
historic accident which will now be discussed.

2. Citizens of the Four Communes

Under the influence of the equalitarian doctrines of the French Revolu¬
tion, Louis Philippe and his Parliament enacted a law in 1833 which pro¬
vided that “Any person born free or having legally acquired his liberty
enjoys in the French colonies: (1) civil rights, (2) political rights under
conditions prescribed by law.” 6

*None were naturalized in French Equatorial Africa; one in the Cameroons;
70 in Indo-China, and 74 in Madagascar, a total of 239. Reply to question,
Journal Officiel, Chambre des deputes, February 1, 1923, p. 504. When in Dakar
the writer was given figures showing that between 1914 and 1925 only 88 natives
were naturalized in French West Africa, under the decrees of 1912 and 1918.

* Ibid., 1918, p. 54. 8 Annuaire, p. 65.

* Bulletin des Lois, 1833, Vol. V, p. z 16.

In a decree of 16 pluviose Year II, the revolutionary government proclaimed
“the abolition of negro slavery and decides that all men, without distinction of
color, domiciled in French colonies, are French citizens and enjoy all the rights
assured by the Constitution.” M. Lamine Gueye, the only African advocate in
French West Africa, asserts that the law of 1833 merely reaffirms the more pre¬
cise decree of the Revolution. Cf. M. Lamine Gueye, De La Situation Politique
Senegalais (Thesis), Paris, 1922, p. 12.

948

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

Despite the provision in the Act of 1833 no subsequent legislation
defining the political rights of the natives of Senegal was enacted. 7 Never¬
theless, after 1848 the natives originating in the four communes of Senegal
exercised the right to vote upon the same basis as Europeans despite the
fact that their civil condition continued to be regulated by native and not by
French law. A decree of May 20, 1*857, expressly recognized that the
natives could retain their Moslem status in regard to marriage, inheritance,
and wills. The Moslem tribunals had jurisdiction over such cases unless
the parties agreed to carry their disputes before a French tribunal. 8 In
other words, a polygamist has been allowed to vote for a deputy to the
French Parliament or in Municipal and General Council elections just as
has any well-behaved monogamous Frenchman. This has not been the
only anomaly of the situation. Only those natives could vote who origi¬
nated in the four communes,—the only annexed territory in Senegal in 1848.
That is to say, a native could not move into Dakar from the country and
obtain the right to vote. He had to have been born in one of the com¬
munes, and even if eligible to vote in Dakar he could not vote in any other
colony or in France.

Since no legislation expressly conferred the franchise upon the natives,
their right to vote was challenged in the courts a number of years ago.
In a decision in 1908, the Cour de Cassation upheld the right on the ground
that the natives of the four communes of Senegal had derived the franchise
from the application of the Municipal Law of 1884 to these communes. 9
But this explanation is obviously inadequate, inasmuch as the natives of
these communes voted for a deputy long before this law was applied.

In the early days, the question as to whether or not the inhabitants of
Senegal were French citizens was not raised, apparently because of the
predominant belief in assimilation. For a time it was not raised also be¬
cause colonial representation in Parliament was suppressed. When Sene¬
gal’s deputy was restored in 1871 natives again were allowed to vote along
with whites. In validating the election the French Parliament implicitly
recognized the legality of the native franchise.

This system soon led, however, to difficulties. The black voters out¬
numbered the whites in the elections. The system did not, moreover, con¬
form to the philosophy of assimilation inasmuch as it granted the privileges
of citizenship to natives without requiring them to know French or to
conform to French law. There was no attempt logically to justify the

7 Cf. P. Dareste, “Les Nouveaux Citoyens Fran^ais.” Recueil 1916, part II,

P- J-

Bulletin des Lois de VEmpire Francois, 1857, Vol. 9, p. 878.

* Arret of July 22, 1908, Affaire Mousse M‘Baye, Chambre civil, Recueil, 1908,
part 3, p. 278.

THE BLACK CITIZENS OF SENEGAL

949

arbitrary division of natives into two groups, those originating within and
those originating without the four communes. One brother born two
miles outside the city limits even though he had a Lycee education could
not vote, although the privilege could be exercised by an illiterate brother
born inside. In the elections for deputy and for members of the General
Council, ill-will and racial feeling sometimes arose. 10

For these and other reasons, the French authorities endeavored to de¬
prive these natives of their franchise. The first attempt came in 1908,
when the Lieutenant-Governor of Senegal asked that 1563 names be struck
off the electoral lists of Dakar on the ground that the natives were only
French subjects and hence could not vote. French citizenship, it was urged,
was indispensable to the franchise and could be obtained only by individual
naturalization. While the local court supported the action of the Governor,
the Cour de Cassation in Paris ruled otherwise. In upholding the fran¬
chise, however, the court did not admit that the residents of the four com¬
munes were citizens of France; it simply stated that the law of April 5,
1884, declaring that all persons of French nationality over twenty-one years
were elgiible to vote, applied to the communes. Since the Senegalese in
the four communes possessed this nationality, they could vote. The laws
regulating the election of deputies and establishing the communes and
General Council had been applied in Senegal without any reservation in
regard to the rights of the natives. The court said, “If the concession of the
right to vote to the natives did not have the effect of conferring on those
who are not naturalized the quality of citizens,” nevertheless these other
provisions gave them the franchise within the four communes. 11

As a result of this decision, therefore, the native residents could vote,
even though they were not French citizens. This failure to recognize
citizenship led to much criticism on the part of the originaires —i.e., the
natives originating in the four communes.

In a decree of January 5, 1910, it was provided that French citizens
living in the colony outside the four communes could take part in the elec¬
tion for deputy, a privilege hitherto restricted to voters living in the com¬
munes. While the decree itself did not define the meaning of “citizens”
the Minister of Colonies in his report declared that the decree applied to
French citizens “to the exclusion of non-naturalized natives who only enjoy
the franchise in the four communes de plein exercice on condition of being
born there.” 12

Ahother step in restricting these rights came in the decree of August 16,
I9I'2, which defined “natives” who were subject to the jurisdiction of the

10 Cf. Vol. I, p. 955. 11 Affaire Mousse M’Baye, cited, p. 281.

u Journal Officiel, 1910, p. 45.

950

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

native instead of the French tribunals 13 as all natives originating in West
Africa “who had not had in their country of origin the status of Euro¬
pean nationals.” 14 This provision was interpreted by many natives to
deprive the inhabitants of the four communes of the right of being tried
by French professional magistrates instead of by administrative officials. 15
Consequently, furious criticism arose from the natives of the four com¬
munes who realized that the French, in contrast to the “native” tribunals,
alone “offered serious guarantees” of a fair trial. One of them said: “Our
fears were more than justified by the spectacle of what happened in the
interior of the Colony, where administrators, reviving in certain respects
feudal practices, imposed upon persons of our compatriots of the pro¬
tectorate acts which are neither human nor French.” 16

As a result of the outcry of the originaires, the government enacted a
new decree of March 2, 1914, in the report upon which the Minister of
Colonies said that in view of the situation before 1912 and of the services
and devotion to the French cause which the originaires had in the past
shown, the provision in the decree of 1912 would be repealed. The new
decree expressly declared that the natives born in the four communes would
be subject to French tribunals throughout the colony and in certain other
places. 17

According to native spokesmen, the government also attempted to
oppose “with tenacity and persistence the entrance of all natives of what¬
ever status they may be, into the general administrative services, even into
the military units stationed in the colony. . . .” 18

Native subjects are, as we shall see, liable to service in a special body of
Colonial Troops, while French citizens do service in special units of the
Metropolitan Army located in West Africa. As a result of the demands
of the native voters of Senegal, the government originally decided to
conscript them in the Metropolitan Army upon the same basis as Europeans.
After they had served four months in the regiment, the government dis¬
charged the originaires without giving any reason. Meanwhile, they were
not subject to conscription in the Colonial Troops. But the natives con¬
tinued to demand the privilege of conscription in the French forces, appar-

13 Cf. Vol. I, p. 1002.

14 Decree of August 16, 1912, Art. 2. Ibid., 1912, p. 624.

“As a result, apparently, of the opposition to this provision, the Governor-
General issued instructions to the effect that “natives enrolled on the electoral
lists of Senegal are, throughout the whole colony, subject to the jurisdiction of
French Courts.” They are not subject to the regime of the indigenat. Justice
Indigene, Instructions aux Administrateurs sur l’application du Decret du 16 aout
1912, Dakar, p. 36.

10 L. Gueye, cited, p. 31. Cf. Vol. I, p. 1014.

“Decree of March 9, 1914, Journal Officiel, cited, 1914, p. 322.

18 L. Gueye, cited, p. 29.

THE BLACK CITIZENS OF SENEGAL

951

ently because they believed it would strengthen their claims as citizens, a
claim hitherto rejected, and because such service would give them greater
prestige. In 1911, a Commission of the General Council of Senegal asked
that voters should, without distinction of color, be called upon to perform
obligatory military service.

3. The Citizenship Law of 1916

Three years later, M. Blaise Diagne, the first black deputy from Sene¬
gal, ran for office on a platform pledged to vote for a law to this effect.
In a letter to the Minister of Colonies, he said that the natives of the
four communes did not wish privileges without the obligations of French
citizenship. 10 Diagne at once raised the matter in the Chamber; and par¬
liament, anxious to swell the forces against Germany, enacted the law of
October 19, 1915, which provided that the originaires were liable to con¬
scription under the law of 1905 imposing conscription upon Frenchmen,
and said they were to be incorporated in French troops. 20

But the administration now declared that, in accordance with the inter¬
pretation of the Cour de Cassation, an originaire meant a person born in
the communes but did not include his descendants if born outside. This
gap gave M. Diagne another opportunity; and he now induced parlia¬
ment to pass a new law—on September 29, 1916, without discussion and
by a show of hands, as follows:

Sole Article. The natives of the communes of Full Exercise of Senegal
and their descendants are and remain French citizens submitted to the military
obligations imposed by the law of October 19, 1915.*°*

While the ostensible purpose of this law was to extend conscription to
the descendants of originaires outside the communes, the important and
fundamental provision, however, was the clause recognizing for the first
time that these originaires were French citizens. By this means, they
secured a status for which they had long struggled—despite the former
attempts of the government to cut down their privileges.

From the practical standpoint, this law meant that the originaires of
the four communes now carried the privileges of French citizens through¬
out the world. At the same time, they were not required to conform to
any of the standards of French citizenship; they were not obliged to know

19 L. Gueye, cited, p. 40. The government heeded this request to the extent
of enacting a decree, April 26, 1915, authorizing the originaires to enlist in the
Senegalese corps. Journal Officiel, 1915, p. 389.

30 Chambres Des Deputes, July 8, 1915, pp. 1072, 1976; Bulletin Des Lois, 1915,
Vol. 3, p. 1932. One member unsuccessfully moved an amendment to the effect that
natives recruited in the Metropolitan troops must know French,

Bulletin des Lois, 1916, Vol. 8, p. 1 1650,

952

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

the French language, nor to renounce their status under Moslem law. 21
At the present time an illiterate native with a dozen wives, born inside of
Dakar, enjoys all the rights of French citizenship; while the most highly
intelligent native, with a degree from the University at Paris, who is not
an originaire, has none of these privileges unless he undergoes the tedious
process of naturalization.

The inconsistency of the present situation is irritating to many French¬
men—a situation which, in their opinion, works “to destroy the prestige of
France in this country.” 22 These privileges, according to others, make the
inhabitants of the four communes feel even superior to their French com¬
patriots! In his election manifesto of 1919, M. Blaise Diagne, the black
deputy, declared, “French citizens you are! French citizens you remain,
without, however, having your personal status disturbed. . . .You may
be a Frenchman and a Moslem!” 23

4. The "Jugement Suppletif"

The fact that the privilege of citizenship is granted to originaires but
not to others has led to a number of difficulties in establishing the true
origin of the natives demanding the right to vote and the other privileges
which go with the status of citizenship. The system of etat civil or com¬
pulsory registration of births and deaths exists in the four communes as it
does in France. A native is supposed to establish his eligibility to citizen¬
ship by presenting his birth certificate. In practice, however, many native
parents have neglected to register their children at the time of birth. To
overcome this negligence, and to obtain birth certificates, which are neces¬
sary for entrance into government schools and for qualification for military
pensions, as well as for proof of the existence of citizenship, the native
concerned may go to the tribunal and receive a jugement suppletif to the
effect that the native has been born in one of the four communes. For a
time, the tribunal granted these jugements on the testimony of two wit-

21 As a matter of fact, the civil status of the originaires as a result of the
1916 law is a matter of doubt. A local court implied that the laws of 1915 and
1916 implicitly abrogated the decree of May 20, 1857, and other decrees which
allowed the originaires to remain under Moslem law.

Dareste also declared, “La consequence la plus directe et la plus certaine, c’est
que les senegalais des quatres communes vont etre regis par le statut personnel
des citoyens fran^ais, c’est-a-dire par le Code civil et les lois fran^ais.” Dareste,
“Les Nouveaux Citoyens Frangais,” Recueil, 1916, p. 10. If such had been the
result, all of the marriages of these black citizens would have been illegal. So
drastic were the consequences of this interpretation that so far it has not been
adopted. The Senegal administration has recognized as valid the marriage cer¬
tificates of Moslem priests, in granting pensions to families of native soldiers.
But the natives are somewhat uneasy lest the administration attempt to force the
French codes upon them, under penalty of depriving them of the right to vote.

21 Cf. The editorial, “Etat d’Esprit,” La Tribune, Dakar, November 28, 1919.

23 Cf. L’Ouest African Francois, November 20, 1919.

THE BLACK CITIZENS OF SENEGAL 953

nesses—a procedure which led in many cases to false swearing in order to
obtain citizenship papers for natives not born in Dakar. By this means,
wholesale “naturalizations” took place, including those of natives from
Liberia and Sierra Leone. As a result of these practices, some residents
of Senegal believe that three-fourths of the native “citizens” have acquired
their status illegally.

Alarmed at the increase of “citizens” through this procedure, the
Governor-General in 1922 asked the Proctireur-General to instruct the
tribunals to issue these judgments only after the native applicant had gone
before the Mohammedan Cadi and taken an oath on the Koran. This put
an end to much falsehood inasmuch as according to tradition a native who
violated an oath taken on the Koran would die. Angered at the govern¬
ment’s ruling, different natives have repeatedly sent petitions to the Colonial
Council, protesting against the delay of the courts in granting jugements
suppletifs; and in 1924 the Council passed a resolution saying that the
oath before the Cadi for this purpose was contrary to religion. 24

The intense desire of the natives to obtain these judgments arises
out of the fact, as we shall see, that such a judgment entitles them to
citizenship which automatically reduces military service from three years
to eighteen months and grants them other privileges of great practical
importance.

In order to obtain these privileges for their children, it is the practice
of a number of native women to come to Dakar for their confinements.
The Dakar Government once proposed that to put an end to these various
devices of increasing citizens, the right of citizenship should be limited to
the descendants of those now on the electoral rolls. 25 Whatever its merits
may be, the colonial deputies at Paris are probably strong enough to block
the adoption of this proposal.

5. The Senegal Deputy

While the civil results of black citizenship in the four communes have
been of great importance, the political results have been probably more
interesting. Senegal is entitled, as one of the “old” colonies in the French
Colonial Empire, to send a deputy to the Chamber of Deputies in Paris. 20

24 Conseil Colonial, 1924, p. 228; Cf. also the debate, Ibid., December, 1918, p.
126.

“In 1912 the Reporter on the Colonial Budget and the Senegal deputy also
agreed that those natives who had been on the voting list for a certain number
of years should be recognized as French citizens; but that in the future only
those descendants who renounced their personal status should be recognized as
citizens. Chambre des Deputes, December 19, 1912, pp. 3285, 3294.

26 In 1918 the General Council of Senegal adopted a resolution asking that
Senegal be given two deputies and one Senator in the French Parliament. In

954

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

It also has a General Council and a number of Municipal Councils pat¬
terned after similar institutions in France, the members of which are for
the most part elected by citizens. Elsewhere, the French restrict the fran¬
chise to Europeans and natives who have assimilated European culture
and who have become naturalized. In Senegal, as we have seen, the
franchise is exercised by originaires, irrespective of education and culture.
Because of their number, they now control all elections whether of the
deputy or of the councillors. In 1914, there were about ten thousand
voters in Senegal, of which only one thousand eight hundred were Euro¬
peans. In 1920 the total had increased to 16,013. In 1920, about half of
the registered voters took part in the election for the Colonial Council.
A little more than half (8,872 out of 16,003) voted for the deputy.
Under the French system, voters are automatically registered by an Elec¬
toral Commission. 27 Consequently, this proportion of actual voters is
much larger than if the system of personal registration followed in the
United States prevailed.

Probably the most important election held in the four communes comes
every four years for the deputy to represent the colony in the Chamber of
Deputies. Until the election of 1914, the black voters of the four com¬
munes were content to elect a European as deputy. But the racial issue
was raised in the campaign of 1914, when a Senegalese, M. Blaise Diagne,
who had been in the employment of the government outside of Africa for
the last ten years, returned and announced his candidacy upon a platform
of complete equality between Europeans and blacks. The European can¬
didates were about six in number, and while they together polled a
majority of the votes, Diagne led the field. In the second election, held
ten weeks later in accordance with the French electoral laws, Diagne
again obtained a plurality and was declared elected.

Despite the fact that Diagne was a Serere, he posed during his cam¬
paign as the friend of the Lebou people who were bitter against the govern¬
ment for having taken their land. 28 The Lebous are understood to have
delivered to Diagne a block of 1800 votes; the Ouolofs, despite a traditional
feud, joined the Lebous at Saint Louis in support of this candidate. It
appears that the Moslem leaders or the marabouts, the natives irritated at
the sanitary restrictions which the government had imposed, and the native
“intellectuals” who called themselves the “Young Senegalese,” most of

speaking in favor of this motion, a member said that “the present deputy never
comes to our defence.” Conseil General, December, 1918, p. 147.

27 Cf. Decret Organique of February 2, 1852, in a brochure, Elections Legisla-

THE BLACK CITIZENS OF SENEGAL

955

whom were government clerks who demanded the same pay as Europeans,
aided Diagne’s campaign.

The victory of this black candidate still further widened the growing
gap between the native “subjects” who lived outside of the four com¬
munes and the native “citizens” within. The poor “subjects,” who num¬
bered a million souls and who paid the taxes, looked with envious eyes
upon the eighty thousand inhabitants of an island of privilege. Laboring
under obligations which did not weigh upon the “citizens,” the subjects
came to look with contempt upon native institutions. They wished to
escape from the obligations connected with these institutions by becoming
French citizens, a process which hastened the disintegration of tribal society,
and hindered the economic development of the country.

Alarmed at this situation, the administration considered asking Diagne
to resign by tempting him with a high office in the administration in
France. But he was set on going to parliament where he outwitted their
plans and even extended and solidified the privileges of the four com¬
munes by securing the passage of the 1915 and 1916 laws. In 1917, the
French Government appointed him as Commissioner of the Republic in
charge of conscription in West Africa—a position which gave him an equal
status with the Governor-General. 20 This appointment led to the resigna¬
tion of Governor-General Van Vollenhoven. On a propaganda tour,
the wife of a European administrator was said to have wiped the dust
from his shoes. 30

Having acquired this prestige, it was a comparatively simple matter for
Diagne to win the elections of 1919. In an election manifesto he appealed
to “all the Senegalese democracy, to the different ethnic elements, whether
Europeans or natives, who have equal rights since they perform equal duties.”

In an appeal to his “Compatriots” of Europe he declared that “in
inscribing the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of Citizens on the
first page of the golden book of the Revolution of 1789, your fathers
of the great Revolution swore that France would carry Justice, Law and
Fraternity everywhere.

“Those of you who by essence and by origin, belong to Democracy,
and you are numerous here, should not forsake the beautiful inheritance of
which you are the heir, on the ground that you see in a native candidate,
allied however to you by family bonds, a simple struggle between races.”

As a result of these appeals, Diagne scored another victory by a vote of
7444 against 1252. It appears that native functionaries took a leading
part in the campaign. At any rate, the Governor-General issued a cir-
"Cf. Vol. II, p. 9. * Cornell Geniral, December, 1918, p. 148.

956

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

cular 31 stating that while functionaries could vote as any other citizens,
they could not take part in a political campaign, since this would shake
the confidence of the public in the impartiality of the administration.

In the 1924 election, Diagne’s opponent was a European lawyer, a
resident of Dakar. He fervently addressed political meetings of black
voters, many of whom did not understand the language or the issues upon
which he dwelt. In one of these meetings, the European candidate was
reported to have said, “In the Cevennes where I was born, there were few
men more educated than you, Senegalese, but they enjoy more rights than
you. I who speak to you, I am not of a family really white; moreover,
you can see the color in my face.” Even this statement did not save him
from defeat.

Originally, the European merchants of Dakar bitterly opposed Diagne’s
candidacy out of the fear that he would injure business interests. 32 But
the merchants soon found that they could conciliate the deputy; and in a
famous Agreement of Bordeaux, the Syndicate of Bordeaux merchants,
who control most of the trade of Dakar, agreed to support Diagne in
return for his defence of their interests in the Chamber of Deputies and his
influence to secure several seats for Europeans friendly to the Syndicate
on the Colonial and Municipal Councils of Senegal. It is reported that
the Syndicate pays Diagne a very large retainer. In addition, he is a
member of the Colonial Council, from which he receives a grant which was
increased from thirty thousand francs in 1925 to sixty thousand francs a
year in 1926. He receives a representation allowance of thirty thousand
francs from the Municipal Council of Dakar where he is mayor. 38 It
appears, therefore, that the deputy is well compensated for his efforts and
that he serves European interests as loyally as black. 34 Consequently, he
had no difficulty in being reelected to the Chamber in 1924, securing
6133 votes against 1891. Nevertheless, a number of the black intellectuals
turned against him on the ground that he had sold out to the Europeans.

Election methods in these campaigns are modelled after those in France
—black as well as white candidates adopt a French party label. In the
first election, Diagne ran on a Unified Socialist ticket, but later changed
to the Republican Socialist party to which group he adheres in the Cham¬
ber of Deputies. In Senegal, these party labels mean little. At present,
the only division between the native voters is a personal one between the
81 Circular 67, August 29, 1919.

In 1914, they were charged with attempting to intimidate native voters by
calling in the credit of Diagne’s supporters. Cf. Democratic du Senegal, April 28,
I 9 I 4 -

“Cf. Vol. I, p. 958.

Diagne has, however, aroused the opposition of a number of Senegal chiefs,
cf. Vol. I, p. 977.

THE BLACK CITIZENS OF SENEGAL

957

followers of M. Diagne and of M. Lamine Gueye, the only native lawyer
in French West Africa. During the last few years, the elections in
Senegal appear to have been conducted with honesty and to have been free
from the abuses which a similar system has brought about in other French
colonies, notably in Martinique. 35 French election laws are enforced by
the administration. At the same time, ninety per cent of the voters are
illiterate and it appears that they are instructed by native bosses how to
vote. Election meetings are often so noisy that the speaker cannot make
himself heard. It is the policy for one side occasionally to break up the
meetings of the opposition; while the “subjects” who cannot vote frequently
vent their spleen against their privileged brethren by throwing stones at
orators addressing political rallies^

Obviously the natives of the four communes prize their citizenship
because of the advantages which it confers. The presence of a deputy in
the Chamber has also won for them privileges that they otherwise would
probably not have attained. Whether or not the system is sound from
the interests of the native population as a whole can be decided only after
looking further into the political activities of the privileged caste.

**In 1900 a Frenchman wrote, in opposing the establishment of political repre¬
sentation in French Guinea, as follows: ‘'ll ne semble done pas desirable de
voir se constituer, des .corps electifs et une representation politique qui sont, au
Senegal et ailleurs, la source et l’occasion d'abus tres grands et de dangereux
scandales. Les rapports parlementaires fourmillent de details trop peu edifiants
sur la jnaniere dont se font les elections, pour qu’on ait le desir de ne pas voir
le mal s’etendre plus loin. Donner le droit de suffrage aux noirs a ete une faute
dont les consequences facheuses n’ont apparu que par la suite. Places ainsi sur
un pied d’egalite avec les blancs, les Ouolofs du Senegal sont devenues d’une
arrogance excessive et ridicule; de plus, le parti mulatre, plus intelligent, mais
peu circonspect, s’est trop souvent appuye sur l’element indigene pour creer des
difficultes aux pouvoirs publics. N’est-ce pas d’ailleurs au cours de la periode
electorale de 1898 que les rues de Saint-Louis ont retenti du cri seditieux et
stupefiant de “A 1 ’eaux les Fran^aisl" Aspe-Fleurimont, La Guinee Franfaise,
Paris, 1900, p. 11.

CHAPTER 58
THE " COMMUNES "

I. The “Communes de Plein Exercice”

Desiring to give the citizens of the colony of Senegal the benefits of
the institutions of France, the government endowed the two communes of
Saint Louis and Goree with local self-government in 1872, 1 a privilege
which was later extended to Dakar and Rufisque. These “Communes
de plein exercice,” having an organization similar to that of the com¬
munes in France, possess local self-government to a certain degree. Each
commune has an elected council. The Saint Louis and Dakar councils
each have eighteen members, while the Rufisque council has sixteen. Elec¬
tions, in which the list system of France is followed, are held every four
years. Candidates of three or four different lists presented themselves
in the last election in Dakar, which was won by a group called the
Republican Union Diagne’s party. The qualifications for a voter are
the same as for a deputy. Each elector must show his electoral card at
the polls. Since the list system is used, and since most of the voters are
illiterate, the inevitable tendency is to vote a straight ticket.

Before 1*910, the voters, who are predominantly black, elected a ma¬
jority of Europeans on these councils, but since that date the four councils
have contained black majorities. On the Dakar Council, there are six
Europeans. The week after the election, the council meets and elects a
mayor from among its own members. All of the four communes now
have black mayors. It appears that the mayors of the two most im¬
portant communes have regarded their posts as sinecures. Following his
election as deputy in 1924, M. Diagne ran for the Municipal Council of
Dakar; and upon being elected he induced the members of the council to
choose him as mayor. At present he spends practically all of his time in
Paris, except for an occasional triumphal entry into Dakar. In the mean¬
time, his duties in the municipality are performed by an assistant mayor,
who is a European merchant.

Likewise the mayor of Saint Louis, M. Lamine Gueye, lives at Dakar—

1 Decree of August 10, 1872. Bulletin des Lois de la Republique Franqaise,
Vol. 5, 1872, p. 397.

958

THE "COMMUNES J

959

a day’s journey away—where he practices law. The opinion of his com¬
patriots in regard to his absence was illustrated in a resolution unani¬
mously carried by the Saint Louis Council in October, 1925, inviting the
mayor to take up his residence in Saint Louis so as to effectively exercise the
duties of mayor. The author of the motion said: “We have become
convinced that ever since the elections it is altogether impossible and even
dangerous for the interests of the commune to have the mayor live in Dakar
and only make a few and short appearances in Saint Louis.” 2 In 1922
the government enacted a decree removing the mayor of Rufisque from
office. 3

The mayors are charged with the execution of laws and measures for the
general security; the conservation of property; and other duties; and they
are given the right to enact regulations or arretes in regard to local objects
authorized by the law and subject to the approval of the Governor. 4

A Municipal Council may deliberate on local property matters, the
budget, taxation, etc.; its deliberations enter into force upon the approval
of the Governor; it must be consulted upon a number of matters. 5

For example, the mayor of Dakar approved ( arrete) a dog tax of
twenty-five francs a year in 1924 in the following form, “In view of the
deliberation of the Municipal Council at Dakar, in its session of November
20, 1924, approved by the Lieutenant-Governor of Senegal, December 4,
1924, the tax enters into force.” 8 Sometimes the Lieutenant-Governor
does this directly. Thus in 1925, the Lieutenant-Governor of Senegal
issued an arrete approving a deliberation of the Municipal Council of
Saint Louis naming certain streets. 7

2. Local Finance

Perhaps the greatest power of the Municipal Council is in regard to
local finance. Each of these communes has a budget composed of a certain
portion of the licenses and other taxes collected by the colonial government,
and fees from certain courts. 8 Until 1924, the communes also collected an
octroi tax as in France, but since this really amounted to an additional tax
on imports, the Colonial Council abolished it in favor of an increased tax
on patents or on business licenses. Within certain limits, the communes

*“Sur le Conflit de St. Louis,'* L’Ouest Africairt Francois, August 23, 1926.

* Journal Officiel, 1922, p. 664. He was later re-elected.

* Arts. 32-33, Decree of August xo, 1872. ‘Arts. 38-45.

8 Journal Officiel du Senegal, 1924, p. 46. 'Ibid., 1925, p. 219.

8 The communes receive one-seventh of the “patent” or business licenses; the
Full Communes receive the whole of the liquor licenses and market dues. Cf.
Budget Local du Senegal, 1926, p. 196, and Article r of the Arrete portant Regie-
mentation de la Compatibility des Communes de Plein Exercise d;> Senegal
Journal Officiel du Senegal, cited, September ii, 1924.

960

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

may impose certain rates. The total receipts of Saint Louis in 1926
amounted to about two million francs. The Rufisque budget, which is
even larger, is composed as follows:

Municipal Revenue of Rufisique

1. Market dues, etc. 55,120 fr.

2. “Direct Contributions,” 1/7 of the patent tax. 210,000

3. Additional centimes to replace municipal octroi.. 832,812.75

4. Other licenses . 17,000

5. Municipal Railway . 706,000

6. Dog tax . 300

7. Fines . 100

8. Fees from registration. 100

Total ordinary receipts. 1,821,432.75

Extraordinary receipts (electric light, etc.). 368,100

2,i89,532-75

Following the example of the Colonial Council, the expenditures of the
Municipal Council in the four communes are divided into two classes;
obligatory, and optional. The Lieutenant-Governor of Senegal determines
what expenses fall into each class. 0 The council’s consent is necessary be¬
fore optional expenditures may be made. Under the heading of obligatory
expenditures, the commune of Rufisque expends about one hundred and
thirty-two thousand francs on police, one hundred and eighty-one thousand
francs primarily upon primary education, and about two hundred and forty-
eight thousand francs upon general costs of administration. Other sums go
to the maintenance of buildings. Into the category of optional expenditures
fall such items as ninety-six thousand francs for street cleaning, two thou¬
sand five hundred francs for the maintenance of plantations, and two
hundred and seven thousand francs for an electric light system. The
obligatory expenditures total about seven hundred and fifty-nine thousand
francs, while the optional expenditures amount to about 1,431,000 francs.
This budget is drawn up annually by the mayor and then discussed and
approved by the Municipal Council, which may increase the items. Be¬
fore going into effect, the budget must be approved by the Lieutenant-
Governor. If the mayor neglects to draw up the budget, the Lieutenant-
Governor may do so. 10

Until recently, it has been the practice of the government of Senegal
to place the entire burden of education and of police upon the communes.

9 In an arrete of August 29, 1924, he listed eighteen different items as obli¬
gatory.

10 After asking the mayor to perform his duty; Articles 10 and 11, Arrete of
August, 1924, Senegal.

THE " COMMUNES‘

961

But following protests against the weight of these burdens, 11 the govern¬
ment agreed that it was poor policy to allow the progress of education in
the cities to depend upon the good-will and the resources of the Municipal
Councils. Consequently, in 1924 it transferred from the communes to the
colonial budget the expense of the transportation and salaries of European
teachers while on leave, and it also assumed about half of the expense of
the police. As a result of these changes, the communes, both Full and
Mixed, were relieved of charges annually amounting to nine hundred thou¬
sand francs. 12

The mayor is theoretically responsible for the administration of the
municipality. He names municipal officials—a power which has, it appears,
been exercised for “pork barrel” purposes. 13 The mayor frequently ap¬
points European officials who work beside black compatriots, while he
also employs European stenographers. In Dakar, about half of the muni¬
cipal functionaries are Europeans—which is apparently due to Diagne’s
understanding with the European merchants.

In France the powers of a commune are considerably less than those
of towns either in England or the United States. Consequently, tbe duties
of local self-government in Senegal are less exacting than, for example, in
Freetown. While the commune bears part of the expense of education
and police, these activities are rigidly controlled by the central government.
There are no municipal courts. All offenses are tried by French tribunals
responsible to the Procureur-General. Violations of the law are handled
by a European commissioner of police responsible to the colonial authority.
Taxes are assessed by a Service of Direct Contributions and collected by
the government treasury which keeps the funds and writes checks only in
accordance with the detailed vote of the municipal budget. Sanitation
and public works are controlled by European doctors and engineers in
theory responsible to the African mayor with whom they have had fre¬
quent conflicts. Actually, these officials take their orders from the central
government. The leading activities of the communes as such relate to
maintaining the registration system of births, deaths, and marriages—
"Etat civil ”—and the military bureau, which handles the conscription of
French citizens. Despite the system of an African mayor and council,
municipal government in French West Africa is, therefore, subject to
strict European control.

P Cottseil General, 1918, p. 116.

u Cf. Conseil Colonial, October, 1924, p. 258.

13 Cf. the charges against the native mayor of Saint Louis, “Sur le conflit de
St. Louis,” L’Ouest Africain Francois, cited.

962

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

3. The Imperial City of Dakar

Recently, the powers of the municipality of Dakar have been even
further curtailed. Dakar is probably the most important and certainly
the most imposing city throughout the whole of central Africa. Its
public buildings, its parks, and its cafes make it a replica of a European
city. It is, in fact, the Paris of the tropics. The administration of any
such city presents problems which would be difficult even for Europeans.
They are doubly difficult for an African mayor and council, especially
when the mayor spends most of his time in Europe. That the “Full
Commune” system was tolerated as long as it was is due to the control
which the central administration exercised over local government generally.

But because of the great importance of Dakar, the government enacted
a decree on November 27, 1924, which created Dakar and its dependencies
(which include Goree and bainlieues) an Imperial city having a budget
of its own which is annexed to the budget of the government of West
Africa. This budget is composed of subventions from the colonial budget
of Senegal, the communal budgets of Dakar and of Goree, and the general
budget of West Africa. 14 The city levies no taxes of its own, but simply
receives a portion of the taxes levied by these other governments. Thus
in 1926, the receipts of the Imperial city amounted to 22,500,000 francs,
composed in part of a subsidy from the government-general of 4,374,000
francs, 5,317,000 francs from the colony of Senegal, and 1,043,000 francs
from the communal budget of Dakar.

All government services in the District of Dakar which were normally
under the Lieutenant-Governor of Senegal have been transferred to an
administrator of Dakar who is responsible to the Governor-General for
the administration of the area. He has charge of virtually all public
works, sanitation, and education in the city.

In addition, a Commissioner of the port of Dakar controls this part
of the city, which has also a budget of its own. Thus the Municipal
Council of Dakar is now overshadowed by the Administrator of the District
of Dakar and by the Port Commissioner who exercise the really vital duties
of administration in what is really a European city. The history of the
Four Full Communes of Senegal is the history of the Freetown Munici¬
pality. 15 In 1918, the Governor-General asked the Lieutenant-Governor
of Senegal for an opinion as to the advisability of establishing eleven new
Full Communes. 16 The General Council sent a commission to France
to advocate this and other proposals. But later the government decided

14 Journal Officiel, 1924, p. 773.

14 Cf. Vol. I, p. 882.

Conseil General, 1911, p. m.

THE "COMMUNES”

963

not to proceed with this reform, at least for the time being, on the ground
that the mayor in a Full Commune “does not always have the freedom
of action toward his electors which the importance of his duties some¬
times requires.” 17

While the government has thus attempted to restrict the powers of
this type of organization—the Full Communes—it has nevertheless ex¬
tended the principle of consultative machinery in a modified form, through
the Mixed Communes, which will now be discussed.

4. The Mixed Communes

This is a form of government which was authorized in a decree of
1891 18 and is headed by a mayor appointed by the Governor from among
the administrators instead of being elected as in the Four Communes. He
is assisted by a Municipal Commission. Upon the recommendation of the
Lieutenant-Governor the Governor-General may establish this form of or¬
ganization anywhere in West Africa. To receive such an organization, a
locality must possess resources which will enable it to balance its
budget.

These Mixed Communes are divided into three classes according to the
nature of the Municipal Commission the government sees fit to create, as
follows:

1. The First Degree Communes have Municipal Commissions the
members of which are appointed by the Lieutenant-Governor in Council.

2. The Second Degree Communes have Municipal Commissions the
members of which are elected by a restricted suffrage.

3. The Third Degree Communes have Municipal Commissions the
members of which are elected by universal suffrage.

The members of these commissions, who serve for four years, must
have a fluent knowledge of French. The commissions in the First Degree,
communes are composed of French citizens and French subjects in equal
numbers. They are chosen by the Lieutenant-Governor from a list made
up by the local administrator composed of all French citizens and those
leading native subjects who are (a) traders paying a license of at least
two hundred francs a year, (b) real estate owners, or (c) other proprietors
nominated by the administrator. If a native complains that he has been
left off the list, the Lieutenant-Governor in Council decides the matter,
subject to appeal to the Conseil du Contentieux —the administrative court,
composed of a majority of government officials.

,T Address of the Governor-General to the Council of Government, Journal
Officiel, 1921, p. 74.

“Decree of December i, 1891.

964

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

The members of the Second Degree Commissions are elected by the
citizens and the subjects on the list selected in accordance with the pre¬
ceding paragraph— i.e. by a restricted suffrage.

The members of the Third Degree Commissions are elected by an
electoral college of all the French citizens and subjects of twenty-one
years of age living in the commune— i.e. by a universal suffrage.

The three types of commune differ therefore in respect of their
composition. 19

The commercial centers of West Africa have been given one or the
other of these forms of government, “according to the degree of their
social development and also of the importance of their social interest.”
The Governor-General has declared: “Certain communes may successively
pass through all of the degrees of administrative initiative, learning in each
step the management of public affairs, acquiring a sense of their personality,
becoming conscious of their role, of their responsibility and of their rights
in colonial society. This progressive education, of which the last stage
will be the large autonomy of the Commune de Plein Exercice (the status
of Dakar and Saint Louis), will make it possible to extend the benefit
of municipal institutions to units at different stages of evolution which,
under previous legislation, would have been deprived of these benefits
by reason of the extensive administrative capacity which the exercise of
these functions required. This apprenticeship in public life and in the
duties which it imposes seems to me to constitute the most rational and
sensible political machinery for our African populations, which it is our
duty to associate in an ever increasing measure in the management of their
own affairs.” 20

This is a good statement of the aim of French policy: the gradual
association of natives with the French Administration in accordance with
the progress of native education and experience. The goal set by the
Governor-General for these urban centers in West Africa is the Full Com¬
mune such as already exists in the four leading communes of Senegal.
But it is doubtful whether the government, in view of past experience,
will establish any such communes in the immediate future. 21

So far there have been no Mixed Communes in West Africa of the
third degree—that is, having commissions elected by universal suffrage.
There are twenty-three communes of the second and first degrees— i.e.
having commissions the members of which were either appointed by the
Governor or elected by the restricted suffrage of citizens and subjects.

19 Decree of December 4, 1920; Arrete of January 16, 1924, Journal Officiel,
192^, p. 91.

Circular of February 12, 1921; Journal Officiel, 1921, p. 176.

81 Cf. Vol. I, p. 962.

THE "COMMUNES'

965

Occasionally the government elevates a commune of the first degree to
the position of second degree.

In establishing the communes of first degree, it is customary for the
Governor to appoint eight or twelve members to the commissions, half of
whom are citizens and half subjects. 22

Strangely enough, in view of the purpose of these distinctions, the
powers of the three grades of commissions in the Mixed Communes are
exactly the same. In fact, they are identical to the powers of the Full
Communes (art. 28). In addition to their power of deliberation over
matters submitted to them by the mayor, they may give their opinion on all
the questions similarly submitted by the administration. “Any delibera¬
tion on a subject foreign to their powers is nulle de plein droit" The
Lieutenant-Governor in Council may veto deliberations. 23

All of these communes have control over the local Estimates. Muni¬
cipal receipts are composed of the returns from local property, additional
centime taxes, and a proportion of taxes collected in the municipality by
the colonial government. Some communes are also authorized by the
Governor-General to impose dog, carriage, and property taxes. In some
cases they have relied upon subventions from the Colony to balance the
budget. The Lieutenant-Governor fixes the category of obligatory ex¬
penses which, in the case of Bamako, include the expense of maintaining
the local administration, the sanitary services, cemeteries, markets, and
buildings. 24

The remaining expenditures are optional with the council. The chief
duties of the commune are the collection of local revenue, and the ad¬
ministration of sewerage and lighting systems.

The real responsibility for the administration of the commune rests
not so much upon the commission as upon the mayor. Unlike the mayor
of a Full Commune, the mayor of a Mixed Commune is an administrative
official appointed by the government. He is “under the control of the'
superior administration.” It is his duty to execute the laws and regula¬
tions relating to police, hygiene, public works, conservation, and adminis¬
tration of property. He controls revenue and executes the budget, being
assisted by a European receveur. He also has power to make ordi¬
nances ( arretes ) in regard to measures entrusted to him. For example,
in 1924 the Administrator-Mayor issued an arrete which, when approved
by the Lieutenant-Governor, carried into effect a deliberation of the
Municipal Commission of Kaolock in regard to burial lots in the municipal

23 Cf. the arretes establishing such communes for Porto Novo and Bamako,
Journal Officiel, cited, 1922, pp. 22, 24.

23 Ch. V, Arrete of January 16, 1921, Journal Officiel, 1921, p. 93.

24 Article 6, Arrete of December 30, 1921, Journal Officiel, 1922, p. 25.

966

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

cemetery. In the same year, the Administrator-Mayor of Kaolock issued
an arrete regulating bakeries, which had not apparently been approved by
the Municipal Commission; the Administrator-Mayor of the Mixed Com¬
mune of Ziguinchor likewise issued arretes in regard to sanitation, appar¬
ently independently of the Commission. 25 The Lieutenant-Governor names
all communal employees upon the nomination of the administrator, which
prevents the Spoils System found in the Four Communes.

As institutions where natives and Europeans may air their grievances,
these councils serve a useful purpose. The Municipal Commissions in
Senegal frequently send to the Colonial Council petitions on various sub¬
jects. But under the existing system, a commission chosen by universal
suffrage has no more power than an appointed commission. Neither has
any real responsibility, nor any real control over the administration.

* Journal Officiel du Senegal, 1925, pp. 139, 220, 236, 237.

CHAPTER 59

THE COLONIAL COUNCIL

Between 1890 and 1920 the territory of Senegal was divided be¬
tween the Territory Under Direct Administration, and the Protectorate. 1
In 1920 the former territory, which included the European centers, con¬
tained a population of about one hundred and seventy-five thousand, in¬
cluding the population of Dakar which itself contains about thirty thou¬
sand natives and twenty-five hundred Europeans. The remainder of
the territory—the protectorate—had a population of about a million and a
half.

Over both the direct territory and the protectorate, a Lieutenant-
Governor held sway. In the administration of the protectorate, he was
assisted by a Council of Administration, such as is found in the ordinary
French colony, which was composed of the members of his Privy Council
(officials) and two appointed natives. In the administration of the direct
territory he was assisted by a Privy Council and a body, called the General
Council, copied after the departmental institutions of France. 2

1. The General Council, 187Q-IQ20
Established in 1879, the General Council 3 came to be composed of
twenty members, all of whom were elected by French citizens living in
the Territory under Direct Administration. Inasmuch as the originaires
could vote, the majority of these twenty members soon came to be black.
This Council met at least once a year, and it had important powers of a
deliberative and of an advisory nature which will be discussed in connec¬
tion with its successor, the Colonial Council.

When the Council was first established, there was a single budget
amounting to about ten million francs for Senegal as a whole. Since the
council was required to vote this budget, and since it could hold up
optional expenses, it exercised control over all of the administrative activ-
1 Cf. Vol. I, p. 913.

a For two general studies Cf. J. P. Boulard, Itude Juridique et Critique des
Conseils Generaux des Colonies franqaises, Paris, 1902; A. Rene-Boisneuf, Manuel
du Conseiller General des Colonies, Paris, 1922. Both of these books devote
most of their space to the Councils in the "old” colonies in contrast to Senegal.

a Decree of February 4, 1879, Bulletin des Lois de la Republique Fran^aise, 1879,
Vol. 18, p. 549.

967

968

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

ities of the Senegal Government. The division of Senegal into the direct
territory and the protectorate in 1890 led to the establishment of two
budgets in 1892, which reduced the powers of the General Council to the
control of the budget for the direct territory, fed largely by customs duties.
This source of revenue was still further reduced by the establishment of
the budget of the General Government of the Federation. 4

So strongly did the General Council feel that its control over the
government had been shaken by the establishment of two separate budgets,
that it attacked the legality of the arrete disannexing the Protectorate be¬
fore the Council of State. In 1898, this body ruled, however, that the
council could not prevent the government from exercising.its discretion in
this manner. 5 The General Council had argued that the “disannexation” of
territory was the same as a cession of territory which could not take place
without the consent of Parliament. The Council also unsuccessfully at¬
tacked the validity of the decree establishing the Federation. 6 The finan¬
cial resources of the General Council came to be so limited that it
was periodically unable to balance its budget. The Lieutenant-Governor
finally proposed to transfer the cost of government services which served
both sections to the protectorate budget, which was supported by native
taxes. The General Council resented such a transfer simply because it
thereby lost its financial control over the administration. In order to retain
this control, the General Council voted credits for these services in 1917,
which increased the expenditures of its budget from 2,600,000 to 5,450,000
francs, 7 thus incurring a deficit of 870,000 francs which it proposed should
be met by a subsidy from the general budget.

The representative of the administration protested that the council had
no power to vote expenditures which were not initiated by the Governor.
In reply, the President of the Council said that the administration had
‘'preferred to escape from our control by taking away from the vote of an
elective assembly . . . the expenses which are legally included in the
budget of the country under Direct Administration. ...” 8

Declaring that the action of the council was unconstitutional, the
Governor-General promulgated the original draft budget submitted to the
Council by the Lieutenant-Governor in so far as its obligatory expenses were
concerned. 9 He also transferred part of the administrative expenses of

4 Cf. Vol. I, p. 934.

6 “Conseil General du Senegal,” Recueil des Arrets du Conseil d’itat. 1898,
P- 233.

°Cf. Vol. I, p. 933.

1 Conseil General, Session Ordinaire du Novembre, 1917, p. 256.

8 Ibid., p. 260.

°The budget was promulgated at a figure of 2,381,700 francs. Journal Officiel,
I 9 I 7 » P- * 5 * The legal questions arising out of this action discussed on p.

THE COLONIAL COUNCIL

969

the direct territory to the budget of the protectorate. The General Coun¬
cil attacked the validity of this action before the Council of State who,
in a judgment handed down in 1922, declared that the action of the
Governor violated the provisions of the finance law of April 13, I'goo,
which provided that administrative expenditures had to be submitted
to the approval of the General Council. 10

In 1918 the General Council felt so keenly the efforts of the general
government at Dakar to reduce its importance that it rejected the budget
altogether. 11 During this period, the Governor-General and the Council
also came into conflict over the Governor-General’s veto of certain postal
rates increased by the Council, and over his transfer of the revenues de¬
rived from the water services of Dakar from the Council’s budget to the
federal government as well as other revenues. The Council attacked
both of these acts before the Council of State. 12

In view of the curtailment of its powers, especially over finance, the
members demanded that the jurisdiction of the council be extended to
include the whole of Senegal. On the other hand, the government was
becoming disturbed at the domination of the Council by the black in¬
habitants of the four communes. It did not wish to extend the authority
of the Council over the protectorate until the basis of representation was
extended to include the territory as a whole.

2. The Colonial Council

As early as 1906, the French officials of Senegal suggested changes in
the General Council. In 1909, a definite project was drawn up, but
nothing came of it, apparently because the Minister of Colonies wished to
give the Council greater power than the Governor-General believed it
should have. While the World War silenced all projects of reform, the
government brought about a fundamental reform in the decree of Decem¬
ber 4, 1920. This decree reunited the two sections of the territory into

10 Conseil d'tiat, March 10, 1922, Recueil, 1922, p. 72.

“ At this time the Council sent the following cablegram to the Minister of Colo¬
nies at Paris:

“Conseil General refusa voter projet budget illegalement etabli et privant
Colonie taxes votees par elle et pergues sur son territoire. Ne pouvons adopter
nouvelles taxes proposees qui seraient bien au-dessus des forces financieres du
contribuable et qui ameneraient la ruine de la Colonie. Vous prions intervenir
pour remedier et empecher desastre financier. Rapport suit.” Conseil General,
December, 1918, p. 270.

“In a decision of March 10, 1922, the Council declared that the Lieutenant-
Governor, although his action had been approved by the Governor-General, had
exceeded his powers in modifying, without the authority of the General Council,
the postal rates. Recueil, 1922, p. 70. It upheld, however, the transfer of the
water revenue, on the ground that the Financial law of 1800 had not given to
the Council a monopoly of revenue within the territory under its jurisdiction.

970

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

the single colony of Senegal, under the direction of a Lieutenant-Governor,
assisted by the successor to the General Council, called the Colonial Council.
In order to give representation to the former protectorate and to recognize
native authority, the government provided that in addition to twenty mem¬
bers elected by French citizens, the Council should include twenty native
chiefs elected by the provincial and cantonal chiefs of the colony. Thus
the Council would be composed of a total of forty members, half of whom
would represent the French citizens and the other half the chiefs. In 1925,
the number of citizen members was later increased to twenty-four and the
number of chiefs reduced to sixteen, for reasons discussed below.

For the purpose of electing the members, the colony is divided into
four districts. The first district, lying along the Senegal River, is
entitled to ten members; the second district, lying along the Dakar-Saint
Louis Railway, is entitled to sixteen members; the third district, in the
region of Sine-Saloum, is entitled to twelve members; and the fourth dis¬
trict of Casamance is entitled to two members. 13 A proportionate number
in each district is elected by the French citizens at the polls; the other
members are elected by the chiefs in a meeting called by the administrator.
Members of the Council must have a fluent knowledge of the French
language. 14

This Council meets at least once a year. The Governor-General of
West Africa may suspend its session for the period of one month, but he
must at once report such action to the Minister of Colonies. Upon the
proposal of the Lieutenant-Governor of Senegal and of the Governor-
General, the Council may be dissolved by decree, but a new election must
be held within three months. Meanwhile, the powers of the Colonial
Council are exercised by the Lieutenant-Governor and his Privy Council.

3. Powers

The powers of the Colonial Council are similar to those of the old
General Council. 15 They are classified as follows: (1) the power to give
advice, (2) the power to legislate ( statuer ) on certain subjects, (3) the
power to “deliberate” on other subjects, (4) the power to approve the
budget.

1. The Council may express its advice {avis) on questions submitted
to it by the Lieutenant-Governor. It must be consulted on the creation

“Decree of December 4, 1920, Journal Offlctel, 1921, p. 83.

“ In case a member’s knowledge of French is challenged, he is examined by
a committee of examiners appointed by the Council of State in Paris.

15 The resolutions of the old council were, however, annulled by decree, while
now the resolutions may be annulled by arretes of the Governor-General,

THE COLONIAL COUNCIL

971

of “communes.” 10 It may express its opinions ( vceux) on different sub¬
jects interesting the administration of Senegal.

2. It may legislate ( statuer ) on thirteen different subjects which are
confined largely to matters affecting the disposition and management of
public property, the acceptance or refusal of gifts to the colony, the
classification of roads, the contribution of the colony to work being exe¬
cuted by the State, and of interest to the colony. The decisions of the
Council in regard to these matters enter into effect at the end of two
months if the Lieutenant-Governor has not asked the Governor-General
to veto them for “excess of power, or because they violate existing laws
or regulations.” 17 In practice, these powers are not, apparently, of great
importance.

3. The power of deliberation extends to five different subjects, the
most important one of which is in regard to the assessment, rate, and
collection of taxes. 18 In contrast to the first type of decisions which enter
into effect unless expressly vetoed within two months, the deliberations of the
council on these subjects enter into force only upon the approval of the
Governor-General in Council of Government. 19 In case he declines to
approve the tax deliberations of the Council he is obliged to ask it to
deliberate again. Until a new tax is approved by the Governor-General,
the old taxes may be collected. 20 Finally the Colonial Council has power
to pass on the budget of the whole colony. A decree of July 5, 1921, com¬
bined into a single budget the former budgets of the- protectorate and the
direct territory. 21

4. The power over the budget. The local budget of Senegal is drawn
up by the Lieutenant-Governor who alone has the initiative in proposing
expenditures. 22 Expenditures are classified as obligatory and optional.

The obligatory expenses are of five types: (1) debts; (2) the expenses
of the Lieutenant-Governor and his secretariat; (3) the expenses of the

18 Cf. Vol. I, p. 963.

11 “Les deliberations sur ces matieres sont definitives et deviennent execu-
toires si, dans le delai de deux mois, a partir de la cloture de la session, le Lieu-
tenant-Gouverneur n’en a pas demande l’annulation pour exces de pourvoir, pour
violation des lois et des reglements ayant force de loi.” Article 42, Decree of
December 4, 1920. See Appendix.

“The other subjects are: the conditions of exploitation by the colony of works
destined to public use and the rates to be collected, the creation, maintenance and
exploitation of non-communal markets, the establishment of ferry boats and the
rates to be collected, the acquisition and alienation, etc., of public property.

“ Cf. Vol. I, p. 928.

10 The Council also deliberates upon loans to be contracted by the colony and
upon the acceptance of legacies subject to the approval “par decret en Conseil
d’fJtat.”

“ Journal Officiel, 1921, p. 600.

M Cf. Article 47, the Conseil d’fctat, (5) of the Decree of December 4, 1920,
and the Decision of April n, 1919. Recueil, 1919, p. 86.

972

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

departmental services in the colony organized by decree or by the Governor-
General; (4) secret funds as fixed by the Governor-General; (5) sub¬
ventions to the State fixed by law, etc.

The remaining expenditures are optional or facultative. After draft¬
ing the budget, the Lieutenant-Governor submits it to the Colonial Coun¬
cil. If the Council fails to include in the budget the obligatory
expenditures, the Lieutenant-Governor in Privy Council may include these
expenses by taking the money out of the optional expenditures voted by
the Council. The Council is free to accept or reject the optional expendi¬
tures proposed by the Governor. If the Council does not meet or if it
adjourns before voting the budget, the Lieutenant-Governor may ctoffice
submit the budget to the Governor-General for approval.

By this means, the Council has control over part of this budget but
it cannot obstruct the operation of the fundamental services of the colony.
The Lieutenant-Governor may submit supplementary credits to the Coun¬
cil in a special session or, if the Council cannot meet, the Lieutenant-
Governor may, after consulting the Permanent Commission of the Council,
submit them to the Governor-General for authorization subject to sub¬
mission to the Colonial Council at the next session.

In the Senegal budget for 1926, the obligatory expenses came to about
35,700,000 francs, while the optional expenses came to 45,000,000 francs.
A large part of the latter expense was in connection with public works,
agriculture, veterinary service, maintenance of public roads, and buildings,
and construction of new public buildings. While the expenses for maintain¬
ing the central administration are obligatory, certain items, such as appro¬
priations for magazines and books for the library, are optional. Likewise
expenditures on telephones and fans in a government office are optional, and
may therefore be controlled by the Council.

The determination as to whether a given expenditure falls within the
range of obligatory expenses depends in the first instance upon the Lieu¬
tenant-Governor who prepares the Estimates. It does not appear that his
judgment has been challenged by the Colonial Council. As the above
figures would indicate, the Governor has already recognized that more than
half of the expenditures of the colony are optional and may therefore be
withheld by the Council.

It appears that while the establishment of a school or the erection
ol a building is optional, its maintenance, once authorized, is obligatory.
The Council frequently rejects proposed optional expenditures. In 1923, it
voted down a proposal of one hundred and thirty thousand francs for two
houses for officials in Dakar and asked that the money be used to con¬
struct two new dispensaries. It also reduced the appropriation for a new

THE COLONIAL COUNCIL

973

post office at Podor 23 from 175,000 to 75,000 francs and it has rejected
taxes submitted by the government.

On the other hand, the Council insists that it may reduce obligatory
expenditures. This question arose in 1922. In debating the vote for the
Posts and Telegraph Department of the government, the Council rejected
a credit of thirty-two thousand francs for the Director of Posts on the
ground that the service was inefficient and that it had opened letters sus¬
pected of having political importance. 24 Instead it voted a credit of
25,000 francs for an Inspector. The representative of the adminis¬
tration at the Council protested that the salary of a government official
was an obligatory expense. In reply, the President (a native) of the
Council declared that the Council could reduce both obligatory and optional
expenses, and if the administration did not like the reduction of the obliga¬
tory expense, it could restore the sums by cutting down on some other
part of the budget, in accordance with the provisions of the 1920 decree.
In one session, the Council suppressed several credits for several government
pilots; while it asked that instead of two agricultural engineers, six agents
de culture should be employed. It also suppressed the position of chief
printer. 26

While the government may legally restore these items, it can do so
only by deducting the money from the optional expenses voted by the
Council and which the government may wish to retain. Consequently, in
many cases it simply accepts the action of the Council in regard to obligatory
expenses. This procedure has thus greatly strengthened the financial
powers of the Colonial Council. The government may not impose new
taxes and it virtually cannot incur new expenses without its consent.

In November, 1921', the government consolidated all the various exist¬
ing taxes in a single project which was laid before the Council for approval.
The Council took advantage of the opportunity to reduce the personal tax
and certain kinds of licenses on the ground that they weighed too heavily
upon the population. The result was that the government was obliged to
decrease its proposed expenditures some 3,158,000 francs. 26

Another provision of the constitution of the Colonial Council which
has been even more difficult to interpret and to enforce is Article 40 which
declares, “any deliberation or resolution in regard to political matters is
forbidden.” While any criticism of the administration is in one sense
political, the administration has not been able to enforce this interpretation
upon the Council. Thus in 1921, one member charged that the administra-

23 Conseil Colonial, October, 1923, pp. 250, 254.

M Cf. the criticisms of this service. Ibid., November, 1921, p. 91; December,
1921, p. 321.

“ Ibid., December, 1921, pp. 332, 337, 341.

Ibid., November, 1921, p. 21.

974 THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

tion favored the big business man rather than the small trader—which led
to a protest from the representative of the administration. In reply, the
member said: . The Administration has no right to prevent us from

saying what we wish in the midst of this Assembly. . . . Senegalese and
French for centuries, we have the right to hold the Administration ac¬
countable for what it does in this Colony and of distinctions which it has
not ceased to introduce between different elements in the population.”
This led the representative of the government to say that the powers of
the Assembly were strictly limited to the decree of 1920—the Council
should not forget that it was not a political but an administrative assembly.
The President of the Council declared, however, that even if the assembly
was not a political body, “each time the occasion arose to criticise the
Administration, we have the power to do so. . . 27 The prohibition of

“political acts” was worthless.

The administration w T as no more successful in prohibiting criticism on
this ground in the controversey over the chiefs. 28 While the financial powers
of the Colonial Council are of the greatest importance in themselves, 29
they may be used by members of the Council, dominated by blacks, to
criticize the work of government departments. In one instance the Presi¬
dent of the Council referred to the “very elegant report” of the head of the
Postal Service “from which we have learned nothing.” 30

Most of the “deliberations” of the Council relate to finance. To
become effective, they must receive the approval of the Governor-General. 31

It is very seldom that the Council exercises its power to legislate
( statuer ). In other words, most of its acts fall into the category which
require the definite approval of the Governor-General before they become
effective.

The Council also emits many voeux or resolutions expressing opinion
in regard to government policies, some of which the government adopts.
In many cases, natives send petitions to the Council with their grievances
which are sent to committees and some of which form the object of a vceu.
The Council sometimes agrees to increase taxes only on the understanding
that the money shall go to definite purposes. Thus in 1924, the Council
agreed to increase the poll tax one franc on the understanding that the
funds should go to increasing the salaries of chiefs, to the establishment

* Conseil Colonial, August 21, pp. 55, ff. ®Cf. Vol. I, p. 976.

® The procedure of the Council is to discuss new tax proposals before discussing
the budget. By this means the Council prevents the government from placing
before it an accomplished fact since if the Council does not vote the new taxes
it may thereafter reduce the Estimates to make up the difference.

80 Ibid.., p. 167.

M Cf. the Arretes of December 31, 1922, approving twenty-three deliberations of
the Council. Journal Official, 1923, pp. 40 ff.

THE COLONIAL COUNCIL

975

of a regular mail service between Dakar and Ziguinchor, and to the con¬
struction of schools and dispensaries.

4. The Council at Work

The Colonial Council meets in a Council Chamber overlooking the
Senegal River at Saint Louis. At the beginning of the session, the Governor
appears and makes an address surveying the progress of Senegal and making
suggestions for the future. He then withdraws and leaves the interests of
the government to be served by an official called the “Representative of
the Administration.” Of the forty members of the Council there are eight
European and two Creole members. The rest are blacks. The Europeans
are distinctly in a minority. As we have seen, half of the Council is com¬
posed of chiefs while the other half are elected citizens.

The Council elects its president, a vice-president and a secretary from
among the citizen members, who are usually blacks. The other vice-
president and secretary are elected from among the chiefs. 32 The president
and secretaries sit upon a platform behind long tables, while below, two
European secretaries, administrative officials, take down the proceedings
in writing.

The Council has a number of standing committees, the most important
of which is the finance committee upon which chiefs and citizens are both
represented. The Council also elects a Permanent Commission of eight
members, four from the citizens and four from the chiefs, which meets
when the Council is not in session. 33

Any one wishing to put an item on the agenda sends it to the president,
and if the Council decides that it should be discussed, it is sent to a com¬
mission. Following the report of this commission, a debate on the
principle of the proposition takes place which is followed by a second debate
on the articles. When the Council expresses an opinion where it has no
power to act, it says, “Le Conseil est d’avis In matters over which it
has power to act it says, “Le Conseil accepte” or “Le Conseil n accepte pas.”

The citizen-members sit on one side of the house while the chiefs, most
of whom are dressed in the flowing robes which characterize the Moslem
peoples, sit on the opposite side behind the representative of the adminis¬
tration. The Council has the appearance of a parliament with the repre-

33 Reglement Interieur du Conseil Colonial, Chap. II, 1921.

33 Arts, 55-65, Decree of December 4, 1920. At the end of each session, the
Council delegates a number of duties to the Permanent Commission, one of which
is as follojvs: “Accomplissement de tous actes de protestations et pourvoir au
Conseil d’Etat qu’elle jugera necessaire, a raison des actes de l’Administration
qui lui paraitrait exceder ses pouvoirs ou compromettre 1’interet de la colonie,
notamment contre tous arretes ou decrets d’annulation de deliberations du Con¬
seil. . . .” Conseil Colonial, October, 1924, p. 512.

976

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

sentative of the administration as prime minister and the chiefs as the
government party. While the chiefs are in theory elected, the general
feeling is that they are pretty well hand-picked by administrators. The
chiefs say little during the sessions. It is doubtful whether many of them
really follow the debate, partly because of their lack of knowledge of
French. Despite the fact that to be eligible for membership in the
Council one must “know” French, few of them, who associate with
Europeans only occasionally, have acquired a fluent use of the language.
As long as the Ouolof language is barred from the assembly, the chiefs
will probably play a subordinate part in debates.

5. Chiefs v. Citizens

Since the establishment of the Council in 1920, the, chiefs have con¬
sistently voted with the government. Although the citizen-members have
opposed the increase of native taxes and prestations, the chiefs have sup¬
ported such increases 34 partly because their tax rebates are thereby in¬
creased. The chiefs supported the government in its attempt to secure
the adoption of the Droit Civique 35 —a measure which the citizen-members
defeated. A number of members assert that the government instructs the
chiefs how to vote on propositions.

In view of the control which the government came to exercise over
the chiefs, the reform of 1920 was not received with enthusiasm by the
originaires of the four communes. This decree virtually converted the old
Council which had an overwhelming unofficial predominance into a Council
having an official majority. While citizens equalled the chiefs in number,
the chiefs were more regular in attendance and voted more solidly than
the citizens. Consequently, the government could usually be sure not only
of a quorum but of a majority. Moreover, the exercise of its powers was
subject to closer control than in the past because the Governor-General
could now veto its deliberations, whereas formerly this power had been
reserved to the more remote Minister of Colonies.

The division of the chiefs and citizens was illustrated in 1921 when a
division arose over a debate in which the citizen-members severely criticized
the native policy of the government. 38 When the Representative of the
Administration withdrew from the assembly as a result of this criticism
a representative of the chiefs arose and read a declaration in the Ouolof
language in which he declared: “The presence of the chiefs is super¬
fluous when the Representative of the Administration has judged it neces¬
sary to withdraw. We quit the session.” At this statement there was,
34 Conseil Colonial, November, 1922.

,s Cf. Vol. I, p. 979. 80 Ibid., August, 1921, p. 84. Cf. Vol. I, p. 1040.

THE COLONIAL COUNCIL

977

according to the Minutes, a “great tumult.” All those chiefs who declined
to withdraw were reproached as being “unworthy men.” 37

At the next session in 1922 during the debate on the thirty thou¬
sand franc allowance to M. Diagne—the Senegal Deputy—the chiefs
demanded that the sum be reduced and that a delegate be appointed
to represent their interests. It appears that some chiefs were particu¬
larly angry because Diagne had declined to receive them on the occasion
of their recent visit to Paris. The friends of Diagne, on the other hand,
blamed the government which, they said, had not informed Diagne of the
proposed visit. At this criticism, the Representative of the Administration
arose and read a declaration making “all reserves” and asking the Council
to turn from the debate to the work on the agenda. 38

An open break between the two elements also occurred over the govern¬
ment proposal to increase the registration taxes which applied only to the
communes. Despite the adverse report by a special commission, it was
carried in the Council by a vote of seventeen to fifteen. As a result of the
death of a citizen-member, the citizens were in a permanent minority and
the measure was carried by the chiefs. In view of the great independence
with which the General Council had exercised its power over finance, the
citizens resented particularly the increase of taxes by what really was a
government party. Consequently, after an attempt at conciliation had been
made, the elected members left the Council Hall in a body. 39 The next
day, the citizen-members returned and read a declaration stating that the
registration taxes were of concern only to the inhabitants of the cities, the
great majority of whom were citizens and not subjects, and that the effect
of the government proposal, carried by “subject” members from the country,
would be to reduce Senegal to the level of the colonies which the Senegalese
had conquered for the French. In view of the fact that the chiefs had
acted as if they had scored a victory over the citizens, the citizens declared
that they would decline to vote any of these taxes and they stated that the
chiefs, in their absence, had no moral right to vote the budget. Following
this declaration, the elected members withdrew from the hall. The second
vice-president, a chief, then took the chair and declared that a quorum no
longer existed. But according to Article 35 of the 1920 decree, the
members present at a second consecutive meeting at which there was no
quorum, constitute a quorum regardless of the number present. Con¬
sequently, the chiefs adjourned until the next day when they adopted a
number of government proposals. On December 3, 1922, they adopted
the budget of 1923. The Council closed its session with a declaration of

87 Cons ell Colonial, p. 85.

38 Ibid., November, 1922, p. 59.

Ibid., November, 1922, p. 143.

978

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

the chiefs protesting against the statement that they had been conquered
by the Four Communes and stating that they represented eight-tenths of
the population of the colony. 40 Thus the stormiest session of the Colonial
Council came to an end.

But during the next year, the citizen-members on the Permanent Com¬
mission of the Colonial Council declined to sit—thus making a quorum
impossible—and consequently, since the law obliged the government to
consult the commission on a number of matters before it could act, a dead¬
lock occurred. To remove this deadlock, the government agreed to with¬
draw the objectionable registration tax in the session of the Council in
October, 1923.

Back of this controversy was a feeling of personal hostility on the part
of the citizen-members towards Governor-General Merlin because of his
attempts to cut down the powers of Senegal vis-a-vis the Federation of
West Africa. 41

It was he who had drafted the decree of 1920 which gave the
government a virtual majority in the Council. All of these considerations
led the citizen-members to oppose the propositions of the Lieutenant-Gov¬
ernor when made, as the Council believed, at the request of the Governor-
General. 42

The situation was relieved by the appointment of a new Governor-
General in 1924 and by the enactment of a decree in 1*925 reducing the
number of chiefs on the Colonial Council from twenty to sixteen and
increasing the number of citizen-members to twenty-four. 43 It is now
impossible for the government to dominate the vote.

For a period a truce between the government and the citizens prevailed.
But it was again broken in June, 1925, by the refusal of the citizens to vote
the Droit Civique.

For several years, the Colonial Council increased local taxation—
the budget was increased from forty million to eighty million francs in
two years—increases requested in order to carry out the Senegal plan de
campagne. But the demands of the Governor grew with the deprecia¬
tion of the franc at home. In June, 1926, he asked the Senegal Council
to impose upon the people of the colony, natives as well as Europeans, a
Droit Civique, ranging from two to five francs, modelled after the tax
just voted at home by the French Parliament. The Governor urged the

40 Conseil Colonial, November, 1922, p. 223. 41 Cf. Vol. I, p. 932.

0 When M. Merlin went home in 1922, a member of the Colonial Council intro¬
duced a motion expressing the hope that the Governor-General upon his return
would follow the policy of the ad interim official. But the Representative of the
Administration asked the Council to reject the motion because it implied a criticism
of the Governor-General. Conseil Colonial, 1922, p. 129.

43 Article 6, Decree of March 30, 1925. Appendix, Vol. II, p. 168.

THE COLONIAL COUNCIL

979

adoption of this tax as an “aid to the metropole” and to demonstrate the
patriotism of the "enfants de France d’outre mer ”—the argument which
is used in support of conscription. 44 The money was, however, to be spent
on public works in the colony. The Finance Commission to which this
project was first referred pronounced unanimously, except for the chiefs,
against the measure. In the open debate, members declared that the limit
had been reached in the burden which the natives could carry. There was,
moreover, a difference between France and Senegal. France had a deficit
while Senegal had some forty-five million francs in its Caisse de Reserve.
Instead of expending the money raised by taxes, the government had ac¬
cumulated it in this reserve where it gradually depreciated in value with
the fall of the franc, so that there was little to show for the efforts of
the natives. Natives severely criticized the public works department of the
government for its failure to show greater results. Other members pointed
out that it was illogical to impose a Droit Civique upon natives who were
not citizens but subjects of France. The Council closed the debate by a
vote which defeated the tax twenty to fifteen—the tax being supported only
by the chiefs. 48

Nevertheless, the Council agreed to vote, as did other colonies, a “Vol¬
untary Contribution” of a million francs to help France in her struggle
against the decline of the franc. These sums were paid directly to the home
government. 40

6 . Conclusions as to the Council

The members of the Colonial Council of Senegal have more power than
the unofficial members of any other consultative assembly in Africa, in¬
cluding the Legislative Councils found in British territory. They can
block the imposition of new taxes and withhold about half the expenditures
of the government.

The Colonial Council may thus deadlock the efforts of the administra¬
tion to carry out a development program. On the other hand, the Council
has no direct means of getting rid of the administration, since it cannot
hold up obligatory expenditures. Its antagonism towards M. Merlin may
have had something to do with his promotion to Indo-China. But this
means of redress is uncertain and at the best slow. In other words, the
Colonial Council presents all the disadvantages, from the standpoint of
political science, of a legislature controlled by the local population and an
executive controlled from the outside. As the American experience in the
Philippines shows, deadlocks and bickerings under such a system become
inevitable.

44 Cf. Vol. II, p. 19. 44 Cf. Vol. I, p. 976. 44 Vol. I, p. 938.

980

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

So far, the mixing of chiefs and native intellectuals in the same Council
is an experiment which has not received enthusiastic praise. Much of the
time of the Council is spent in the discussion of matters affecting the com¬
munes and the European industrial community—matters of great technical
importance, such as franchises for electric lighting, postage and telephone
rates, hospital fees,-—matters which the citizen-members may conceivably
understand, but which are far beyond the intellectual comprehension of most
of the chiefs whose acquaintance with French is extremely limited, and
whose knowledge of these matters is inevitably non-existent. The powers
of the Council remain virtually as they were defined in the decree of 1879,
couched in a terminology employed for the departmental councils in France.
From the standpoint of the government, the chief advantage of this repre¬
sentation of chiefs is that it has given the administration a hold on the
Council which it did not have before. But this very fact makes the Council
unpopular with the educated class, which still demands the return of the
General Council. At the same time, the new Council has not proved very
beneficial to native interests. Far from being defenders of the native
population, the chiefs have voted with the government to increase native
impositions. 47

That the eight Europeans who participate in the Council should have
exactly the same status as the thirty-two blacks is a situation which would
strike the Anglo-Saxon as anomalous to say the least. The visitor to
the Council will frequently witness a black president calling a European
member to order for rowdiness. It does not appear, however, that the
Council has been divided upon racial lines, i.e. of white versus black,
except on the issue of higher pay for European officials—a policy which
was, in fact, attacked as vigorously by the European as by the native
members. The real alignment so far has been the citizen-members—both
black and European—against the government supported by the chiefs.
Black members, as we have seen, have unmercifully criticized European
officials. No British colony would tolerate the attacks which these natives
make upon European officials in Senegal. While the French do not par¬
ticularly enjoy these attacks, their tolerance saves them from more violent
opposition. To the native mind, the right to air one’s grievances is more
important than to secure their redress.

Apparently realizing the disadvantages of conferring the privileges of
French citizenship and French institutions upon its native subjects, the
French government for a number of years attempted to curtail these privi¬
leges. It attempted to deprive the residents of the Four Communes of
their right to vote, an attempt which was defeated by parliament in pass-
"Cf. Vol. I, p. 978.

THE COLONIAL COUNCIL

981

ing the Citizenship Law of 1916. It attempted to cut down the powers
of the General Council—which was more successful since the decree of
1920 established a body, half the membership of which, the chiefs, were
apparently under government control. Likewise it has so far declined to
establish new Communes de Plein Exercice while it has reduced the power
of the Dakar Commune by the establishment of a new administrative
district.

7. The Native Electoral College

But while this process of curtailing the power of such bodies has been
taking place, the government has extended consultative machinery through¬
out the whole of French West Africa, in a number of different forms. In
the rural districts, this development has taken the form of the Councils
of Notables, 48 while in the cities it has taken the form of the Mixed Com¬
mune. In the colony as a whole the government has provided for native
representation on the Council of Administration. Before 1925 the native
representatives on such Councils were appointed. But the Governor-
General in a circular of April, 1925, said that “notwithstanding the care
which the administration took in exercising its choice . . . notwithstanding
the spirit of independence which animated them, it nevertheless remained
true that the fact that they had been appointed led to their being regarded
as officials.”

Consequently, the Government brought about an important change by
introducing the principle of election for both European and native members
in the Councils of Administration. The decree 40 provided that each coun¬
cil in the Sudan, the Ivory Coast, French Guinea, and Dahomey should
contain three native subjects elected for a period of two years. Three
districts should be established in the more advanced areas of each colony,
each of which should choose one member. Seven classes of natives would
be eligible to vote: certain native functionaries, excluding the police, native
chiefs, native traders who may vote in the French Chamber of Commerce,
native proprietors of real estate of the value of at least five thousand francs,
native farmers cultivating areas as fixed by the Lieutenant-Governor, na¬
tives belonging to the Legion of Honor, etc., and other natives having
rendered exceptional service to France as determined by the Lieutenant-
Governor. 60 A commission composed of the administrator or mayor, a
European magistrate, a member of the local Chamber of Commerce or
Agriculture, and a chief draws up the electoral list in each district or
commune. The voting list is prepared annually, and a native who is

48 Cf. Vol. I, p. 998. * Decree of March 30, 1925.

60 Voters must also be twenty-five years of age, domiciled in the colony # or one
year, and not have been convicted of crime.

982 THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

omitted from the list may protest to the Lieutenant-Governor. Natives
registered on this list may vote for the native subject-members of the Coun¬
cil of Administration, as well as for members in other bodies, the election of
which may be provided for by law.

The basis of representation is thus much wider than in the three
British colonies of West Africa where the principle of election is confined
to urban areas. 51 So far too little time has elapsed to determine how
successfully this plan will work out in French territory. It remains to be
seen whether natives living outside of the towns will walk a long distance
for the purpose of casting a ballot for these representatives.

The French have not experienced the difficulties of the British in
granting elective representation to the native population, on these different
advisory bodies, because real responsibility for administration lies in Paris
rather than on the spot. In a British colony, all legislation, including the
budget, is enacted by the local Legislative Council. As a rule, this legisla¬
tion goes into effect immediately although it can be disallowed by the
Colonial Office within a period of two years. Unofficial members on the
Legislative Council, as we have seen, exercise considerable influence upon
the course of legislation and expenditure. 52 Councils in British colonies
are, therefore, of real importance. It is quite otherwise in the French
colonies, where, except for the Colonial Council, the consultative ma¬
chinery has no legislative power, which, for that matter, neither the Lieu¬
tenant-Governor nor the Governor-General possesses since the source of
legislation lies in Paris. The President of the Republic decrees the budget
of the Federation, and all other legislation. For the past few years, the
French Government has incessantly talked of decentralizing control. But
it is difficult to see how this can be done as long as the system of legislation
by decree remains in vogue. Sooner or later, if the history of other parts
of the world is repeated and if human beings in West Africa, both Euro¬
peans and natives, act as they have acted elsewhere, the local communities
will turn against a ruler five thousand miles away. This danger has been
avoided under the British system by delegating legislative authority to
councils on the spot.

“ Except for election by chiefs in the Gold Coast, cf. Vol. I, p. 785.

"Cf. Vol. I, pp. 40a, 740, 837.

CHAPTER 60

:NATIVE POLICY
I. Administration

In order to administer the twelve million people who have become sub¬
ject to French authority in West Africa, the government divides up each
colony into a number of administrative divisions usually called cercles,
at the head of which is a Commandant, a name which appears to be a
heritage from the days of military conquest. Inasmuch as most of the
French Empire in Africa was acquired by military officers, it is natural
that part of the country should be temporarily administered by military
men. The whole territory of the Niger was under military rule until
1921. There are still ten military officers serving in the territorial service
in the Ivory Coast and thirty-seven in Mauretania. 1

As a rule each cercle is divided up into several sub-divisions in charge
of an administrator responsible to the Commandant. The eight
colonies of French West Africa have a total of one hundred and fourteen
cercles t while the total number of administrators is about five hundred.
The average area and number of people in charge of each administrator is
shown on the next page.

If one excepts the Upper Volta, it would appear that under the French
system there are three administrators to every one in the average British
colony. 2 This is due partly to the fact that French West Africa is more
sparsely settled than British West Africa, but largely to the fact that the
French, unlike the British, entrust few powers to native chiefs and courts.

Great as the present number is, the number of French administrators
was greater before the War. In French Guinea, the number has been
reduced from one hundred and sixty-eight in 1913 to one hundred in
1926; in the Ivory Coast from one hundred and thirty-two to eighty-one;
in Dahomey from one hundred and thirteen to eighty-two. 3 Thus as a
result of the War, the grip of French authority has been relaxed.

French administrative officials fall into two groups: (1) administrators

1 Cf. the Decree of December 4, 1920, converting it into a “civil” territory.
Decree of October 13, 1922, Journal Officiel, 1921, p. 82. For military rule in
Equatorial Africa, cf. Vol. II, p. 221.

* Cf. Vol. I, p. 648. * Cf. the budget of these colonies for 1926.

983

984

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

TERRITORIAL ADMINISTRATORS—FRENCH WEST AFRICA

Area per

Population

Adminis-

Agents

Per

trator

Adminis-

of Civil

Adminis-

—Square

trators

Service

Total

trator

Kilometers

Senegal .

. 30

19,292

3,048

Ivory Coast ....

. 36

18,134

3,765

Niger .

23,566

26,088

Guinea .

. 44

24,050

2,970

Sudan .

. . 54

26,048

9,722

Mauretania ....

. 8

12,464

1 9,048

Upper Volta ....

. 3 <>

48,745

6,678

Dahomey.

16,845

2,140

250

249

499'

'These figures do not include administrators on leave, which are about a third
of those on duty.

This table is based on the 1926 budgets. Somewhat different figures are given
in the Address by the Governor-General to the Council of Government, 1921,
Annuaire du Gouvernement-General de VAfrique Occidental Fran^aise (here¬
after cited as Annuaire), 1922, p. 84.

of colonies, (2) agents of the Civil Service. The first are appointed by
decree of the Minister of Colonies and are assigned to different colonies
as the Minister chooses. French administrators are recruited from among
the graduates of the Colonial School at Paris to which they are admitted
upon competitive examination at the end of their secondary school and
where they undergo a three years’ course of instruction; or they may be
recruited from the ranks of the agents of the Civil Service. These agents
are appointed by the Governor-General and, unlike the administrators,
serve only in the territory where they are appointed. They are sup¬
posed to have a Lycee education and are usually chosen after an exam¬
ination. Their qualifications and salaries are lower than those of the
administrators. Upon receiving an appointment, such an agent is usually
assigned as an assistant to an administrator or to a bureau in the secretariat
where his work is largely clerical. To a visitor, it appears that many of
these agents perform work which in British colonies is performed by
native clerks. When necessary, an agent may act as the administrator of
a sub-division. An agent may also be promoted to administrator after
passing an examination in the colony and following a year’s instruction in
the Colonial School in Paris. In Senegal to-day about sixty out of the
one hundred and fifty official posts are held by former agents of the Civil
Service.

NATIVE POLICY

985

The income of these various officials is made up of an agglomeration
of items. Administrators receive the salary which is given to functionaries
of a corresponding grade in the home government. In addition, they
receive a colonial supplement which in the case of French West Africa
amounts to 7/io, and in the case of French Equatorial Africa to 9/10,
of the base pay. Administrators may also receive an indemnite de zone
and certain other sums on account of their families. All of these items
bring the salary of an Administrateur en Chef —the highest official in the
territorial service—to nearly twice his base pay or between thirty-five
thousand and forty thousand francs a year—a sum which he does not
usually receive until after ten or fifteen years of service. 4

This sum, which at the rate of exchange since the War comes to about
four hundred pounds, is about a fifth of the salary received by British
Residents in northern Nigeria or about two-fifths of the salary of adminis¬
trative officials in British East Africa. 5

In comparison with British officials, it thus appears that French ad¬
ministrators are underpaid. But it must be remembered that the purchasing
power of a pound in French territory is much more than it is in British
territory. Moreover, the standard of living of French administrators is
lower and in some ways more wholesome than the standard one finds in
British territory. In comparison with the functionaries at home and with
private Frenchmen doing business in the colonies, French officials receive
satisfactory salaries which are in fact the object of envy. It is doubtful
whether an increase in salaries would improve the calibre of the personnel.
The administrator, recruited from among the graduates of the Colonial
School at Paris, is usually a high type man, having both character and
intelligence.

From the financial and educational standpoint, the situation is more
serious in regard to the Agents of the Civil Service. At the present time,
about two-thirds of the administrators in Senegal have been recruited out
of their ranks. These agents are unbelievably underpaid. They start with
a base pay of six thousand francs a year which is augmented to fourteen or
fifteen thousand francs by various supplements. The total income of the
highest rank in this service is about twenty-six thousand francs or two
hundred and sixty pounds a year. These salaries are so low that the
wives of these agents must find employment somewhere. In order to assist
them, the Senegal Government follows the policy of reserving to such

* The base pay of an assistant administrator starts at 9,500 francs. There are
two grades of assistant administrators, and two classes of administrators, besides
the dministrateurs en chef.

B In Uganda, Kenya, and Tanganyika, a provincial commissioner received in
1926 a maximum of a thousand pounds or five thousand dollars.

986

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

wives the positions of stenographers and telephone operators, which in
British colonies are usually held by natives. 8

Representatives of the various government departments will be found
in many cercles. It appears that the Commandment has more control over
such representatives than has a British provincial commissioner. 7 The
Governor of Senegal in a circular 8 issued in 1926, said that as the agent
of the Governor, the Commandant had authority over all the personnel
in the administrative area under him. But while he could watch over
the various services, he should not substitute himself for the heads of the
departments in deciding technical questions, nor limit their authority over
departmental personnel. He should merely report to the Governor what
was going on. Departmental officers should immediately answer all re¬
quests for information from the Commandant. The Commandant may
visit schools, dispensaries, experimental farms, and workshops in order to
obtain information. All correspondence between heads of departments at
the capital of the colony and their representatives in the cercles must be
sent in unsealed envelopes through the office of the Commandant. While
he may not hold up any correspondence nor modify it, he may make his
own “observations” to the Governor. 8

Thus while the Commandant cannot interfere with purely technical
activities, he may unify the work of these officials. The result is that
especially in medical work the French departmental service appears to have
a much wider social vision than that of the service in British West Africa.
Moreover, no conflicts arise between departmental and political officers.
The system does, however, multiply the bureaucratic formalities which
characterize the French system of administration generally. But these
arise in the relations of the departments of the Governor more than in their
relations to political officials in the districts. 10

2. The Use of Native Chiefs

In entering West and Equatorial Africa, the French, as we have seen,
encountered a number of native states 11 having the same type of institu¬
tions as the native states of British West Africa. In most of these cases,
the French acquired control of these states through treaties made with the

“ French officials are entitled to a leave of six months out of every two years’
service. While on leave, a functionary receives only his base pay. Pensions
ranging from cne-half to three-quarters of the base pay are granted after the
completion of twenty-five or thirty years of service.

7 Cf. Vol. I, p. 850.

“Based upon circulars of the Governor-General of June io, 1903, and No¬
vember i, 19x7.

8 Journal Officiel du Senegal, 1926, p. 210.

10 Cf. Vol. I, p. 927. n Ci. Vol. I, pp. 901 ff.

NATIVE POLICY

987

local chiefs, in which the government recognized native institutions. For
a time, an effort was made to carry out these obligations. This effort
was particularly noticeable in *he early judicial system. 12 Residents were
stationed in a number of native states, while the larger part of Senegal,
French Guinea, and Dahomey was declared Pays de Protectorate in con¬
trast to the towns on the coast which the French had annexed and placed
under direct administration. At first no taxation was imposed.

But this protectorate policy has given way during the last fifteen or
twenty years to a policy of direct rule. A number of motives explain this
change of policy. When the French undertook the occupation of West
Africa they were confronted with a number of native tyrants who cruelly
exploited their subjects. Life and property were insecure; slavery and
human sacrifice prevailed in many areas. In a few cases, local Almanys
had imposed a form of discipline, maintained by terrorism, upon
thousands of unwilling subjects. But in other cases, simple anarchy
prevailed because of the want of any social organization. The French
authorities negotiated treaties with chiefs whenever they found them,
originally out of regard for their “rights,” and later in order to
obtain a pacific hold upon territory until it could be more firmly occupied.
But in view of the habitual abuses committed by these chiefs which, in
the opinion of many Frenchmen, became greater when these chiefs could
shelter themselves behind European authority, the French administration
in Africa has gradually curtailed the powers of the chiefs, especially over
judicial matters, land, and tribute. It has, in fact, terminated, except in
the case of the Moors, practically all of the treaties originally made with
the native states.

A semi-official historian states that these treaties of alliance guaranteed
“the political organization, the religion, customs, institutions, and laws of
the native country concerned.” He continues: “These treaties were de¬
signed to insure the security of our commerce, the respect for the property of
our nationals and our subjects, and stipulated by way of compensation the
collection of certain taxes on cattle and upon exported products for the
benefit of chiefs. ... As a result of the evolution of the colony and its
economic and administrative necessities, the clauses and obligations of these
treaties have lapsed. The ends envisaged at the time of their conclusion
have been realized, our allies have become our subjects and the different
countries grouped under our authority by these acts have found their
unity under our beneficent tutelage.” 13 Confronted with the ques¬
tion whether it was simpler to control the native kingdoms or to abolish

"Cf. Vol. I, p. 1008.

U A. Sabatie, Le Senegal, sa Conquete et son Organisation (1364-1925), p. 329.

988

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

them outright, the French, in contrast to the British, who follow the policy
of control, chose the other alternative.

Administrative convenience and the desire to suppress abuse have thus
combined to bring an end to these treaties. But probably an equally
strong reason has been the conviction that the institutions of Africa are
not worth preserving and developing and that the boon of French civiliza¬
tion should be bestowed upon the native population. While many French
leaders soon came to realize that many generations must come and go
before this aim is realized, they nevertheless retained the goal. 14 Even the
names of most of the old kingdoms, whether the product of tyranny or of
tradition, in Senegal and the Sudan and Dahomey have now disappeared. 15

Although in parts of West Africa, notably in the Upper Volta, the
French have now modified the anti-tribal policy and are supporting native
institutions, in other parts, the policy of doing away with Paramount
Chiefs is still followed. Thus in 1924, the French declined to appoint a
Paramount Chief to succeed Chief Djihente in the Allada cercle in Da¬
homey. Instead, the tribe was divided up into cantons. But the people did
not “agree” to the suppression of their chief, and a condition of anarchy
appears to have resulted. The Dahomey Administration nevertheless
believes that all Paramount Chiefs will disappear.

When in 1924 the Ardo of the Peuls of Dagana was removed for
abuses, the government did not appoint a successor because, to quote the
annual report of Senegal, “Experience has demonstrated the inutility of
this appointment. Such an institution increased intrigue among the Peuls.”
The administration had no need of Paramount Chiefs, and the Peuls should
not be given the position of having chiefs of their own race “in opposition
to other populations in the Cercle. 9 '

At the recent death of a chief of the Ouolof group in the region of
Ziguinchor, the government declined to appoint a successor on the ground
that such a chief “no longer responded to any administrative necessity.”

The most striking example of this “rigorous” policy came at the death
of the Bour of Sine in December, 1923, the ruler of a native kingdom
which had been in existence for three hundred years and which is inhabited
by about one hundred and fifty thousand people. In 1859, the French
Government had made a treaty promising to recognize the Sine of Saloum.
In 1924, this kingdom was loyal. Yet the government declined to name a
successor of the Bour on the ground that in the interest of the economic
development of the country, the inhabitants should not be allowed to
14 This question is discussed in greater detail in Chap. 69.

13 Cf. Chap. 55. For further details, Cf. Charles Monteil, Les Bambaras du
Segou et du Kaarta, Paris, 1924, p. 101; M. Collieaux, “L’Histoire de l’Ancien Roy-
aume de Kenedougou,” Bulletin des Btudes Historiques et Scientifiques, 1924, p. 167.

NATIVE POLICY

989

“follow a separatist tradition, but should on the contrary deliberately adapt
themselves to the system of administration which makes for the prosperity
of the colony. 10

The people in this kingdom were thereupon divided up into five can¬
tons, 17 each having about fifteen thousand or twenty thousand inhabitants.
The native Minister of the Interior (Grand Diaraff) and the Minister
of War (Grand Farba) were retired. Since they had served the French
Government well they were given a temporary annuity of two hundred
and ten francs apiece.

According to the administrator, these two native ministers understood
that the position of Sine no longer conformed to the exercise of French
sovereignty, and merely obstructed the development of the country. In his
opinion, the people realized that Paramount Chiefs were no longer of use
to them when “every effort of the Administration tends to bring each
inhabitant in contact with it by reducing to the greatest possible extent
the number of intermediaries. . . In other words, the people would be
closer to the administrator.

It appears that originally the administration of the French Ivory
Coast divided the territory into administrative districts based upon ethnic
considerations. Between 1908 and 1912, the country was reorganized,
however, upon the basis of military needs; and after 1913, another reor¬
ganization of districts took place based upon economic considerations. 18
Elsewhere the government has followed a policy more sympathetic to
native institutions; and in fact a contest between the two policies of direct
and indirect rule is now going on in French Africa which helps explain
differences in policy which seem contradictory.

From the beginning the French administration has realized the neces¬
sity of relying upon some form of native agents called chiefs. In West
Africa, chiefs are divided into three classes: (1) the village chief, (2) the
canton chief (chef de canton)™ (3) the provincial chief who in the
past has often corresponded to a traditional Paramount Chief. For
example, in the Upper Volta, where the government is really attempting
to follow native lines, there are nine cercles , divided into twenty-one sub¬
divisions, each in charge of a European administrator. These sub-divisions
are divided into sixty-nine “provinces” or tribes under a chief, which in
turn are divided into four hundred and sixty-nine cantons, each with its

18 “Suivre une tradition separee, mais devait au contraire, s'adapter deliberement
k la reglementation qui concourt a la prosperity de la Colonie.” Rapport du
Senegal, 1924.

1T Cf. the Arrete of March 2, 1926, Journal Officiel du Senegal, 1926, p. 207.

18 G. Angoulvant, cited, p. 105.

18 A canton is usually a geographic group of villages.

990

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

chief. Eighty-four independent villages depend, however, directly upon
the administrators. The policy in Senegal and apparently in other colonies
in West Africa is to do away with all provincial chiefs in favor of the two
categories of village and canton chiefs. In Senegal, there are one hundred
and ten provincial and cantonal chiefs. 20

In appointing these chiefs, the Lieutenant-Governor of each colony in
West Africa usually follows the nomination of the Commandant du cercle.
This latter official apparently has much more discretion in bringing about
the dismissal of a chief than has an official in a British colony.

The test followed by the government in appointing a chief is whether
or not the candidate will loyally respond to the demands of the administra¬
tion. Thus the Governor of Senegal, in commenting upon the death of
a certain chief, declared in 1924, “He was a devoted collaborator of the
French Administration, whether in contributing with all his might to the
organization of the Black Army, by aiding in the recruiting of numerous
tirailleurs of the Serere race who fought in Morocco or on French soil
during the World War, in participating in the construction of the Thies-
Kayes railway, or by sending many thousands of laborers to the construc¬
tion camps.” 21 Chiefs are decorated with the medal of the Legion of
Honor just as British chiefs are covered with similar honors.

In many cases, the French administration has selected chiefs with a
view, not of utilizing traditional authority which in many parts of Africa
in the opinion of many French administrators does not exist, but with a
view of obtaining an agent who will fit into the French civil service.
The tendency has therefore been to stress literacy, a knowledge of French,
and familiarity with French administrative procedure, rather than heredi¬
tary right. When the administration finds a traditional chief, possessing
these qualities, it selects him. But when it comes to choosing between
an illiterate and incompetent chief and an intelligent commoner, many
administrators prefer the latter as their assistant. Interpreters and office
clerks are frequently promoted to the position of chief. 22 According to
the administrator, a majority of the canton chiefs in the Thie district
have been selected from among the native office clerks. The canton chief
of Fess, in the Casamance, is a former native postmaster. Other chiefs
have been taken from among the native lieutenants in the Colonial troops
during the World War. One governor has suggested that natives who had
made the best record as soldiers should be made chiefs upon their return
from service in France.

In Senegal, the idea of making the chiefs into regular French func-

30 Cf. the list, Journal Officiel du Senegal, cited, 1926, p. 162.

” Conseil Colonial, March, 1924, p. 5. ” Ibid., November, 1922, p. 43.

NATIVE POLICY

991

tionaries has gone further than elsewhere in French Africa. 23 While before
1920, the chiefs were classified into twenty various grades or classes, de¬
pending upon their merit and length of Service, they are now divided into
ten such classes. One finds the following notices in the Journal Officiel du
Senegal:

Chief X of the 14th class is designated by the Lieutenant-Governor to
administer the Canton of B. during the absence of the provincial chief, sick
in the hospital at Dakar.

The Elder N. is temporarily named a chief of the 18th class and placed
at the head of the Canton of P. in the temporary absence of the Canton
chief X.

The “principal interpreter third class” is temporarily made a canton chief
of the 7th class, and is placed at the head of the Canton of G. in the place
of its former chief who returns to the government as a clerk. 24

The consideration given to tribal units in drawing the boundaries of
cantons and in appointing chiefs is shown in a recent arrete of the Governor
of Senegal, modifying the administrative divisions in the districts of Casa-
mance. In this arrete, the canton of Elinkine was suppressed; two others
were united; the province of Dougouttes was divided into two cantons, and
a large number of similar changes made. At the same time, Chief X of
the 18th class who had ruled one of these cantons was dismissed as well as
two other chiefs of the 19th and 20th classes, who had presided over
cantons which were now united. A village chief was promoted to chief
of the tenth class and placed at the head of a new canton. Altogether
thirteen chiefs were summarily “dismissed from employment” as a result of
this rearrangement. 25

Practically all the chiefs in French colonies in Africa receive a rebate
on the taxes which they collect for the government, 26 the rate of which
varies with the colony. In Dahomey, chiefs receive a rebate of three and
one-half or four per cent, in Mauretania the rate in some cases is as high
as ten per cent. The total amount paid out in the form of rebates is
295,000 francs. In the Sudan, the chiefs receive two per cent for ordinary
hut taxes and ten per cent for the zekkat or animal tax. In French Guinea,
the rebate varies from five to eight per cent. In addition, the chiefs of many
colonies also receive an annual stipend or salary. In the Upper Volta,
the head of the Mossi kingdom is paid twenty thousand francs. Three
hundred and fifty-one out of four hundred and eighty-seven chiefs in the

* Excluding always Madagascar.

** Journal Officiel du Senegal, 1921, p. 684.

* Ibid., 1926, p. 208.

**Cf. Vol. I, p. 1035.

992

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

colony are paid salaries totalling about two hundred and thirty-five thou¬
sand francs—less than a thousand francs apiece. In Mauretania, a total
of Ioi’,060 francs is paid out in fhe form of salaries, many of the payments
being guaranteed by treaty. In the Niger, about one hundred and twenty-
five chiefs are paid a total of one hundred and three thousand francs; some
of the chiefs receive as low as one hundred and eighty francs. In Senegal,
the chiefs, largely because of their position on the Colonial Council, 27 have
been successful in getting salary increases. On November 17, 1925, the
Colonial Council adopted a resolution in favor of increased salaries, and
in February, 1926, the government fixed the scale at thirteen thousand
francs a year for chiefs in the first class. Several chiefs receive more, how¬
ever, such as the Bouna n’Diaye who receives twenty-four thousand francs.
Chiefs of the lowest of the ten classes receive six thousand francs. 28 Twenty-
four out of the one hundred and ten chiefs in Senegal receive more than
the minimum. While the salaries of Senegal chiefs are low in comparison
with the payments to the Emirs of Nigeria, they are high in comparison
with the stipends paid the chiefs in the Belgian Congo, Kenya, or Sierra
Leone.

3. The School for Sons of Chiefs

In an effort to improve the quality of these native “intermediaries”
Governor Faidherbe founded a school in 1856 which was first called the
School of Hostages. 29 Its name was soon changed to the School for the
Sons of Chiefs and of Interpreters. This school was, however, closed in
1871 at the instigation, according to Governor Faidherbe, of natives who
wished to see the French authorities remain ignorant of the country.
During this period, one hundred and three students had enrolled in the
school, of whom eleven later became native chiefs, nine became interpreters,
and two became officers in the army. A few years later, the school was
restored. In 1908, its nature was somewhat changed and it became a
medersa, or an advanced school for Moslems. From the beginning it has
been located at Saint Louis, the capital of Senegal. Instruction was given
both in French and in Arabic, and included some elements of science,
hygiene, history, geography, and something of the administrative organiza¬
tion of France and West Africa. Arabic grammar and literature were
studied as well as theological law and Koranic exegesis. In 1913, forty-two

27 Cf. Vol. I, p. 976.

“Arrete of February 10, 1926, Journal Officiel du Senegal, 1926, p. 161.

The purpose was to “former quelques indigenes d’elite pour nous aider dans
notre oeuvre de civilisation et d’assurer en meme temps le recrutement des inter-
pretes pour Ies diverses langues du pays.” M. Faidherbe, Le Senegal, Paris, 1889,
p. 366.

NATIVE POLICY

993

out of the one hundred and eleven students were sons of chiefs, eighteen
were sons of marabouts, and four were sons of interpreters. 30

In 1922, the Medersa school returned to its former status and became a
School for the Sons of Chiefs and Interpreters. Its purpose is now to train
future chiefs. At present it is well-housed across the river from Saint
Louis, in buildings similar to those one finds in France. Although some of
the students come from the Sudan, the school is supported entirely by the
Senegal budget. In 1926, the sons of interpreters were excluded—a recog¬
nition that they did not possess the traditional confidence of the people and
hence would not make good chiefs. There are about fifty students at the
school, most of whom live in the school dormitory which resembles an
American army barracks, having tiers of beds lining both sides of a long
hall. The students wear the picturesque robes and pointed shoes which
characterize the Moslems of West Africa. In order to enter the school, a
boy must possess a certificat cfetudes from the regional French school,
which indicates that the boy knows the French language. 31 While some
of the boys are as young as fourteen, most of them average about twenty.
The course of instruction lasts for four years. During the first two years,
the students learn Arabic, a subject which is taught because of the wide¬
spread knowledge of popular Arabic among the people of Senegal. During
the last two years, they study the Moslem law of personal status, includ¬
ing marriage and succession, based largely upon the Koran. Properly
speaking, no religious instruction is given. The boys also study the cus¬
tomary courses in French history, geography, and hygiene. 32

In addition to these Arab studies, the distinctive feature of the school
is the study of administration. During the first two years, the students
hear lectures on the government of France—everything from the organiza¬
tion of the Chamber of Deputies to that of the French commune. In the
last two years, they study colonial administration, in which they diligently
plow through the texts of decrees and arreies affecting natives, such as the
recent decree on Justice Indigene.™ They practice writing letters such
as a chief is expected to send to an administrator; they learn principles of
bookkeeping and accounts. In other words, the training is designed to
make them French civil servants. Until 1926, the students were given
no agricultural training. But realizing that the old program was too
literary, the administration introduced the rule that each boy must work
an hour and a half a week in a garden, which is located some distance
away at the government experimental station. In the fourth year, the

*° Cf. Paul Marty, “La Medersa de Saint Louis,” Revue du Monde Musulman,
Vol. XXVIII (1914), p. 1.

81 Cf. Vol. II, p. 57.

M Journal Officiel du Senegal, 1926, p. 200. ,s Cf. Vol. I, p. 1007.

994

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

student must spend a certain period at a government farm school while the
year following graduation, an entire year’s training must be taken at the
farm school at Louga where agriculture and cattle husbandry are studied.

When this training is finished—at the end of the fifth year—the pros¬
pective chief is sent to a regiment to perform the eighteen months’ military
service required of native “citizens.” 88 Upon completing this course, he
is assigned as a clerk or interpreter in the office of a Commandant du Cercle.
When a vacancy in a chieftainship occurs, he is eligible for appointment.

Instruction at this school is marked with the thoroughness which char¬
acterizes French education throughout Africa. The Principal is a Creole
from Martinique. As the above description would indicate, the purpose of
the school is not to develop a native authority, such as the British are
attempting to do at Tabora or at Bo, 85 but to train native functionaries
who will form an integral part of the French authority. This is illustrated
by the great stress which the school lays upon the study of French ad¬
ministration. The school devotes no time to the study of native institu¬
tions or history; there are no moot tribunals, no cooperative stores, no
school herd. After four years in this atmosphere, followed by a year at a
farm school, eighteen months in a French regiment, and several years in a
French administrative office, it would seem that a native who is finally
appointed a chief will regard himself and will be regarded by his people,
not as a chief but as an agent of the French authority. This tendency will
be increased by the policy of the government in placing chiefs over groups
of people, regardless of race. Thus it does not hesitate to appoint a Ouolof
chief over a Peul canton, and to change a chief from one canton to another.
Under this system, it would seem that a chief would soon lose the tradi¬
tional respect in which his family was once held, even though he were the
son or the grandson of the old Darnel of Cayor.

4. Results

As a result of the qualifications for native chieftainship which the
French have imposed, and of the training which future chiefs now receive
at Senegal, many of these "auxiliaries” have acquired a high degree of
literacy and familiarity with French administrative needs. The chiefs
are, moreover, thoroughly loyal to the French government. Instead of
regarding themselves as the traditional head of a native group, they regard
themselves as the agent of French authority. 86 The most striking illustra-

“Cf. Vol. II, p. 10. 88 Cf. Vol. I, pp. 463, 867.

**At the Colonial Council a chief recently declared, “We, the chiefs, de¬
scendants of the old Senegal kings, must once for all bury the last vestiges of a
disappeared and vanished royalty. The era of rivalries and intestine dissen¬
sions, born of the differences of birth, caste and race, is closed with the republican

NATIVE POLICY

995

tion of this attitude is the fact that the chiefs who are members of the
Colonial Council of Senegal vote solidly with the French administrator;
and that the defence of the interests of the natives in the country comes
not from the chiefs but from the elected members of the towns. 37

Despite the educational qualifications which in parts of West Africa
the government exacts, it finds it difficult to obtain honest men for the
chieftainship. In 1924 fourteen chiefs in Senegal were forced to resign
and some of them were imprisoned because of corruption or gross malad¬
ministration. In three cases, chiefs embezzled funds of the native Societes
de Prevoyance. One administrator writes, “The Chiefs are a class of pub¬
lic servants because they are obliged to perform public functions. Unfor¬
tunately . . . they envisage their position only from the standpoint of
privileged prerogatives. . . . The evil is general. . . . Our chiefs do not
understand that the honor of being a ruler is a,burden. . . While the
administration has attempted to instill ideas of probity, “it is feared it
has been on unfruited soil.” It does not seem that the French administra¬
tion has been any more successful than the British in doing away with
the petty exactions of native authorities; while the chiefs selected by the
French methods do not have, as the French themselves are going to realize,
the feeling of responsibility for and traditional control over the native
group, which the traditional leader possesses.

5. The Ponty and Van Vollenhoven Policies

Misgivings as to a policy which ignored the traditional element have
been expressed by three governors-general of West Africa, MM. W.
Ponty, Van Vollenhoven and Merlin.

In 1909, Governor-General W. Ponty issued a circular on native
policy in which he said that the necessities of French expansion had often
led to the constitution of native organizations on a purely territorial basis
under a native Commandant. But this system would no longer give good
results as it put the chiefs at the mercy of an individual who was often a
stranger to the country and to the races which he administered, and in
many cases was a traditional enemy of the chiefs under him. The result
of this system, which by installing Mohammedan chiefs over pagans was
increasing the Moslem religion to which the French Government for
political reasons was opposed, was a malaise social. Under these condi¬
tions, the Governor-General said that this policy of the territorial native

and democratic regime which at present governs us.” Conseil Colonial, August,
1921, p. 27.

In 1921 the Colonial Council voted a credit of fifty thousand francs to create
a Civil Service of Secretaries of Native Chiefs. Ibid., December, 1921, p. 290.

17 Cf. Vol. I, p. 976.

996 THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

Commandant should give way to the politique de races which consisted of
selecting chiefs from a family of the race over whom the chief would be
placed. “Each people should conserve its autonomy.” Further, “in allow¬
ing each race to evolve according to its particular mentality, in conserving,
as much as possible, the individuality of the tribe, we shall contribute to
favor the birth of individual effort in the midst of each group. ... To
suppress the tyranny of one ethnic group over another, is again to annihilate
the hostility of the old aristocracy and to bring us the sympathy of the
collective groups which, thanks to us, acquire an independent individuality.”
The Governor-General also pointed out the administrative advantages of
making use of the tribal organization. 38

In 1917, Governor-General Van Vollenhoven issued another circular
in which he declared that the assistance of native chiefs was indispensable.
“The native of French West Africa is a child; he loves to live under his
chiefs, as a child loves to live with his parents; . . .” Although a Euro¬
pean kept away from government officials as much as possible, it was other¬
wise with the native who “does not distinguish private from public af¬
fairs. ... He is continually in need of something and addresses himself,
to satisfy his desires, to whomsoever is invested with authority. . . . Ex¬
amples are innumerable where natives will go long distances for the most
futile causes, to see the chief. . . .” The native is not an individual but
part of a society.

Since the French administrator cannot hope to keep in contact with
his people because of their number, he must resort to native intermediaries.
In choosing these intermediaries, two ways are open. He may use native
interpreters and secretaries, native police, etc.,—agents who “embody in
the eyes of the population, French authority.” But the Governor-General
did not believe that this type of personnel was qualified for the task. The
native has no confidence in these agents who are “his equals, if they are
not his inferiors, generally without instruction and education, sometimes
without scruples, very often strangers to his race and to his locality,
speaking to him as a master, making exactions as a tyrant, and acting as
an agent of the Commandant du Cercle, as a guard ( Garde-chiourmes )
acts toward slaves. Under such a system his heart revolts; his pride is

88 Circular of September 22, 1909, Journal Officiel, 1909, p. 447.

At the death of Governor-General Ponty in 1915, the Revue du Monde Musul-
man declared that the doctrine laid down by the Governor in 1909 could no longer
be challenged in the practice of native affairs in West Africa. Governor-General
Ponty had restored life to native races. “Was not this policy of Races derived
from the principle of nationalities which the armies of civilisation are making
triumphant in Europe?”

“La politique indigene du Gouverneur-General Ponty en Afrique Occidentale
Frangaise,” Revue du Monde Musulman (1915), Vol. XXXI, p. 7.

NATIVE POLICY

997

wounded even more than his interests.” These facts were known to every
Commandant du Cercle. In order to secure success, the commandants,
therefore, should attempt to find intermediaries “enjoying the confidence
and respect of the populations.” In nine cases out of ten this intermediary
exists; “it is the traditionally regarded chief” who may be defined as a
“functionary who exists even when he has no power, and whose authority is
recognized, even when he has neither been appointed nor granted power.”

In regions where a traditional hierarchy exists, which include, according
to the Governor, the greater part of French West Africa, the task of
discovering these chiefs is easy. French authorities should seek out these
chiefs and should take care to invest them by observing traditional for¬
malities and procedure. In case of dispute, the candidate chosen should
not be the one who most pleases the administrator but the one who most
pleases the population. “It is seldom that an individual cannot be found
in the country who, by his origin, his value, and authority, is set out from
the common people and whom the common people respect: such a man
must be chosen.” 39

As far as the powers of the chiefs were concerned, the Governor-
General declared, “They have no power of their own of any kind. There
are not two authorities in the cercle, the French authority and the native
authority; there is only one.

“The native chief never speaks or acts in his own name, but always in
the name of the Commandant du Cercle and by express or tacit delegation
from him.” These chiefs were utilized not to show deference to thrones
of former sovereigns which either did not exist or which the French had
overthrown, but to be the interpreters between the French and the native
population. The chief was entitled to act as such an interpreter not in
his own right but because the French believed him to be the best man.

“Thus the chief acts only by delegation of the Commandant du Cercle
and under his responsibility. The extent of delegation should depend upon
each particular case. But it should never be a blank check; the chief
should always be required to indicate the means by which he intends to
reach a defined end.”

France has never followed the politique du protectorat such as certain
foreign powers defined it. Except in the case of old native states such as
Annam, Cambodgia, Tunis, and Morocco-French sovereignty cannot be
divided or coined. ... In Africa, the population know and feel the need
of being part of a social group; and this is the reason why they are so
profoundly attached to their chiefs, still more to the institution, perhaps

** In territories where there was no tribal organization visible, the Com¬
mandant should appoint outside chiefs.

998

THE NATIVE PROBLEM TN AFRICA

than to the men. Intermediaries between the blacks and ourselves are, on
the other hand, necessary; and the native chief alone can act as this inter¬
mediary because he alone has the confidence of the population.” 40

Thus in French West Africa, the chief rules the people as the agent
of the French sovereignty. For the moment, the practical consequences of
this principle may not be great. But if the native peoples in French Africa
come to know that the chief is no longer chief in his own right, but merely
a French agent, it is doubtful whether they will continue to give to him the
respect and confidence which they formerly gave to their traditional rulers.

This same principle of ruling through the chiefs was stressed by
Governor-General Merlin in his address to the Council of Government
in 1921', when he declared that especially in the absence of more European
administrators, “it must be admitted that we have never made sufficient
use of our native auxiliaries.” He continued: “In West Africa and else¬
where we have committed the fault of breaking up completely the native
social structure ( cadres ) in place of improving it for the purpose of
serving our administration.” He hoped that these fatal efforts to break
up native societies had not succeeded, and that where these societies still
existed they would be made use of.

In 1924, the Governor-General of Equatorial Africa announced that
one of his policies was the reconstruction of native society by the re¬
establishment of traditional groups and the strengthening of ancestral
hierarchies. 41

As experience elsewhere has demonstrated, the policy of ruling through
traditional authority can be carried out effectively only when the govern¬
ment (1) seeks out by careful study the real rulers of the people and (2)
invests such rulers with traditional powers, such as the administration of
justice, control over communal land, and the collection of tribute or taxes.
It does not seem that the policies laid down by the governors-general just
quoted have as yet been carried into effect in French Africa because of the
failure to make such studies, as are now being so carefully made in Tan¬
ganyika and the Belgian Congo, 42 and to invest native authority with real
administrative responsibility.

6. The Councils of Notables

Nevertheless, the government has made two efforts to utilize natives
more fully in the administration than hitherto. The first effort in this

40 Circular of August 15, 1917, Journal Officiel du Haut-Senegal-Niger, 1917,
p. 466.

41 Revue Indigene, 1924, p. 23. 43 Cf. Vol. I, p. 456; Vol. II, p. 483.

NATIVE POLICY

999

direction was taken in the decree of December 13, 1891, providing for the
establishment of “native communes,” none of which were, however, created.
The decree of 1920 43 in regard to municipal government again made
provision for such “native communes” by authorizing the Lieutenant-
Governor to nominate a commission of from five to ten members,
who should provide for the administrative needs of the native com¬
munity. Despite the French nomenclature in which this idea is
couched, apparently the author wished to give some real power to tradi¬
tional native groups. In the circular of the Governor-General explaining
this decree, it was stated that the creation of these communes was a “phase
in the reconstruction of the framework of native society which we had so
inconsiderably destroyed.” 44 It does not appear, however, that any such
communes, with one or two exceptions in the Upper Volta, have been
established.

A second step in this general direction was taken by the Minister of
Colonies in 1919 in establishing what were called Councils of Notables. 45
The experiment of Councils of Notables is aimed to give natives in the
country, as opposed to the city, 40 an opportunity to participate or at least
to be consulted in regard to administration. The aim, according to the
Minister of Colonies, is the progressive “formation of an elite which will
later be able to cooperate more closely and in a more personal manner in the
economic and financial life of the colony.”

The Governor-General also said that the aim was to put administrators
in touch with the people who had “remained until now almost total
strangers to the functioning of our administration.” He declared that
through these councils the natives would come to understand better the
motives and the value of French policy; and the administrators would
find support in the “chiefs who are the natural guardians of native custom
and tradition.” 47

This decree provides that in the administrative districts of West Africa
“where the degree of evolution of the native population will permit it,”
consultative councils called Conseils de notables indigenes may be created
by the Lieutenant-Governor of each colony. These councils are composed
of: (1) the administrator in charge of the district, as president, and (2)
from eight to sixteen members (French subjects) chosen by the chiefs and

* Arts. 45-52.

** Circular of February 12, 1921, Journal Officiel, 1921, p. 177.

** One writer credits M. Delafosse with having brought about this innovation
through his writing. J. B. Forgeron, Le Protectorat en Afrique Occidental Fran -
(aise et Les Chefs Indigenes, Bordeaux, 1920, p. 49.

40 Cf. Vol. I, p. 958.

"Circular of June 16, 1919, Journal Officiel, 1919, p. 410.

1000

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

principle notables and appointed for a period of three years by the Lieu¬
tenant-Governor.

The Council shall meet at least once a year at the convocation of the
president, the French administrator, who also fixes the agenda.

The Council must be consulted on all questions relating to: (i) the
native tax, (2) the allocation and execution of prestations, (3) the rate
of native trading licenses, and (4) the execution of public work of interest
to the district. It may be consulted on other matters submitted to it by
the president upon the order of the Governor. The Council can deliberate
only upon matters submitted to it by the president. 48

These councils serve the same purpose as do the councils of South
Africa and Kenya which in some respects they resemble. Through these
councils, the government can clear up native misunderstandings as to the
action of the administration, and can induce the chiefs who for the most
part compose the Council to accept policies and obligations which they
might otherwise oppose. But inasmuch as these councils have for a presi¬
dent a Frenchman who controls the agenda, and inasmuch as the members
are picked mostly from chiefs, they do not have the freedom of discussion
which exists, for example, in the Transkei. According to the minutes
of many of these councils, the administrator-president makes an intro¬
ductory speech suggesting that taxes be raised and that such and such work
be carried out for which the chiefs should supply labor, and then he asks,
“Are you in accord?” It would take a brave man to interpose an objection.
Nevertheless, some chiefs have voiced their protests against government
exactions; the Council of Sine recently protested against the prestation
system. 49 The French councils rest upon the same artificial basis as do
those of South Africa and Kenya. In addition, the French councils have
no money to dispose of in the form of a budget to promote native welfare.
They are thus deprived of the experience which the necessarily precise
discussion of financial affairs involves.

There is a feeling among many natives and some administrators that
the native composition of these councils has been limited largely to chiefs
who, as we have seen, represent the government rather than the native
point of view. It is understood that the government, realizing this objec¬
tion, is considering a project to broaden the basis of representation. If
this is really done, the councils will probably become centers of opposition
to the government policy. 50 Inasmuch as they are merely advisory organs
and are deprived of deliberative and especially financial power, their only
function can be that of criticism. When each of the one hundred and
fourteen cercles in West Africa establishes such a council, the mechanism
48 Ibid., 1919, p. 406. 49 Cf. Vol. I, p. 1040. 60 Cf. Vol. II, p. 82.

NATIVE POLICY

1001

of criticism may become formidable. While so far these councils have not
been established in Equatorial Africa, they already exist in the Mandates
of Togoland and the Cameroons. cl

While the French administration has thus undertaken to consult native
notables upon matters of policy, it has not believed it wise to entrust native
authority with judicial power as the next chapter will show.

81 Cf. Vol. II, p. 316.

CHAPTER 61

THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE
I. La Justice Franqaise

Unlike the British and the Belgians, the French as a rule allow admin¬
istrative officials to try only native cases. French citizens in the colonies are
subject to the jurisdiction of professional magistrates and to the French
codes. 1 The basis of this system, called La Justice Franqaise , is the Tribunal
of First Instance or the court of the Justice of Peace with Extended Compe¬
tence, ordinarily presided over by a professional magistrate. 2 There are
fourteen such courts in the whole of French West Africa, and there is
only one for the French Cameroons and one for Togo. These tribunals
have unlimited jurisdiction in civil disputes involving French citizens
whether European or black. Cases involving sums greater than three
thousand francs may be appealed to the Court of Appeal at Dakar. Its
judgments, with certain exceptions, may be appealed to the Cour de
Cassation. These tribunals may also try matters of “simple police” and
“delits”; but “crimes” are tried by Courts of Assizes (containing asses¬
sors) 3 of which there is one in each colony. It is composed of several
professional magistrates and a government official. The whole judicial
system is presided over by a Procureur-general, having a representative in
each colony called the Procureur de la Republique who, in addition to
exercising the powers of an attorney-general in a British colony, reviews all
cases and decides whether or not they should be appealed. This latter
work is performed in a British colony not by an executive official but by

x The same distinction between administrative and common law is made in
the colonies as at home. Consequently, each colony has an administrative tri¬
bunal, called the Conseil des Contentieux, to which cases involving the govern¬
ment and political questions are referred. Composed largely of functionaries,
it appears to be dominated by the administration to a much greater extent than
the Council of State in Paris. Chapter VI, Decree of December 4, 1920, in regard
to the Administrative Reorganization of Senegal. Appendix, Vol. II, p. 99.

a Under certain circumstances, the Commandant du Cercle may be a justice
of the peace.

a Arts. 15, 16, 17, 30. Decree of November 16, 1924. Offenses according to
the French Penal Code (articles 464, 44, 6, 1) are classified into (1) contraven¬
tions de police, which are small offenses punishable with imprisonment not to
exceed five days, or fine from one to fifteen francs; (2) dSlits, punishable with
imprisonment from six days to five years, and (3) crimes, punishable with death
or imprisonment, etc.

1002

THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE 1003

the Supreme Court. 4 In trying natives, the French (in contrast to the
native) tribunals apply native or Moslem law in cases regarding etat civil,
marriage, succession, donations and wills. 6

According to both the 1912 and 1924 decrees on native justice, natives
in civil and commercial matters may, by common agreement, carry litiga¬
tion before a French tribunal instead of having it tried by a native tribunal.
But the government has ruled that this provision must not be interpreted
to mean that natives have the right to exempt themselves from the jurisdic¬
tion of the native tribunals merely at their request. “The native status
has an indelible character from which the native can escape only by
naturalization.” Under no circumstances can a native escape from a
native law governing the status and capacity of persons, the family rela¬
tions, and the regime of property unless the property concerned has been
registered. 8 But he may make a special agreement with a native,
under the decree of May 2, 1906, by which both exempt themselves from
the native law in regard to such matters as sale and rent. This decree
provides that conventions between natives, made according to customary
form, not contrary to the principles of French civilization, may be drawn
up in French and registered with the government. 7 Cases arising under
such conventions may be taken to French courts.

Since administrators cannot try European cases, the adminstration re¬
quires the services of a comparatively large number of professional judges.
The budget provides for sixty magistrates (including grefliers) for West
Africa, compared with the fifty-seven judges in the Congo, and twenty-
eight judges and law officers in three British colonies in West Africa, of
Nigeria, Gold Coast and Sierra Leone. Despite this large quota, there
are only twenty-four magistrates actually on duty in French West Africa
to-day. The Procureur-general expressed his alarm over the situation in
his report for 1924, by declaring that “the present situation is grave with
danger; positions exacting great judicial experience are necessarily confided
to young magistrates or to functionaries who are full of good will but
lacking in sufficient experience.” If the condition were not remedied, he
foresaw in a very short time “the decline ( carence ) of the judicial system in
French West Africa.” Despite this warning, the number of judges on
duty remained the same in 1926. 8

4 Cf. Vol. I, p. 650.

“Article 29, Decree of November 10, 1903, Recueil, 1904, p. 23.

* Justice Indigene, Instructions aux Administrateurs sur VApplication du De~
cret du A out, 1912, p. 78.

T Decree of May 2, 1906, Recueil, 1906, p. 305.

8 The expense of the judges and the judicial system generally in West Africa
is borne by the general budget, although the expense of territorial administration is
borne by each colony.

1004 THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

This system of professional magistrates, the recruiting of whom is so
difficult, necessarily imposes a limit upon the number of French as opposed
to native tribunals. In no colony are there more than two European
tribunals, and in some colonies there is only one. As a result, Europeans
must travel long distances before they can obtain a hearing. An example
of this occurred a year or two ago when a missionary in the French
Cameroons became the father of a child at a frontier station. Ignorant
of the law in regard to I’etat civil, the father neglected to register the
birth; and the local administrator, upon seeing the new arrival, put the
father under arrest. As the administrator did not have the power to try
him, the father was obliged to journey several weeks to Douala—the seat of
the only tribunal in the colony—where he was fined sixteen francs or fifty
cents! In creating councils of arbitration, presided over by the adminis¬
trator, the French have attempted to reduce these difficulties in so far as
the settlement of disputes is concerned. 9

The French judicial system in the colonies is not the same, however,
as at home. Whereas in France a man being tried for a crime is entitled
to a jury trial, in the colonies he is tried by several judges and some asses¬
sors. In France, a man is entitled to counsel in the preliminary hearing
or instruction. Every person accused of crime must be brought before
the juge <tinstruction within twenty-four hours after arrest. The judge,
similar to a justice of the peace in America, decides whether or not the
man shall be prosecuted. In the colonies, however, the accused is not
allowed to have counsel, as in France, in the Instruction proceeding. There
have been many cases where the citizens have been detained longer than
twenty-four hours; and the tendency has been for the courts to regard as
conclusive as to guilt, the findings of the juge Ainstruction, which are in
some cases based upon alleged confessions sometimes exacted under the third
degree and without legal advice. Consequently, the Colonial Council in
1923 and 1924 requested that the Instruction law of France be extended to
West Africa. 10 It has also passed resolutions asking for jury trial in
criminal cases. The French Government declined these requests partly
on the ground that there were not enough lawyers in French Africa. But
at the same time, the government was opposed to increasing the number of
lawyers, because this would tend to create “an intellectual proletariat in
a new country, where questions of race and religion would be raised un¬
known in France. . .

At present it strictly limits the number of lawyers who may practice
in the African courts. Consequently there are only a handful of European
B Cf. Vol. J T o. 33. 10 Conseil Colonial, October, 1924, p- 186.

THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE

1005

lawyers in West Africa to-day while there are only one or two native bar¬
risters, the leading one of whom is at Dakar. One native, Prince Tovalou-
Houenou, a graduate of the University of Paris and admitted to practice
before the court of appeal in Paris, attempted to practice in Lome, Togoland
—a mandated territory, but was forbidden to do so by the local gov¬
ernment. 11 In 1920, 1921, and 1923, the Colonial Council passed resolu¬
tions in favor of a “free bar” in Senegal. 12 The situation is thus in great
contrast to British West Africa, which has several hundred native lawyers.

2. La Justice Indigene

Native subjects do not as a rule come under the jurisdiction of the
French tribunals proper, but under the regime of La Justice Indigene. In
occupying French Africa, the French made treaties, as we have seen, by
virtue of which the chiefs maintained most of their traditional judicial
power. In 1898, the Governor-General issued a circular in regard to
Senegal attempting to remove the abuses of which, in his opinion, the cadi
courts and the village chiefs were guilty. He declared that cadis should
be invested by the French authorities, that they should receive a fixed
emolument, that all of their decisions should be registered, and that the
administrators should exercise a veto. 13 He declared that a cadi should be
appointed in each province who should act as a court of appeal. The cir¬
cular also provided that the cadis should hand over all fines to the gov¬
ernment.

Because of the treaties, the Governor-General said that the reforms
could be carried out only after making new conventions embodying
these conditions, which was apparently done in Senegal. 14 As a result of
these changes, thirty-six ordinary cadis, nine superior cadis and four pagan
courts of appeal were recognized. 15

Decrees of 1892, 1894, and 1896 also recognized the judicial powers-
of the chiefs in French Guinea, the Ivory Coast and Dahomey except in
the case of serious crimes which were reserved to the French courts. Since
these latter courts scarcely existed, most crimes went unpunished. Con¬
sequently a decree of 1902 restored the criminal jurisdiction of the native
courts over subjects. But if the penalty imposed by these courts exceeded

n Political considerations may have entered into this action, as the Prince was
the editor of Les Continents, a journal in Paris which had attacked French co¬
lonial policy.

™ Conseil Colonial, October, 1923, p. 46.

“Circular of Governor-General Chaudie, of April 12, 1898. P. Meunier,
Organisation et Fonctionnement de la Justice Indigene en Afrique Occidentale
Francaise. Paris, 1914, p. 22.

14 Cf. the text in Meunier, cited, p. 26.

Ibid., p. 28.

1006

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

one year’s imprisonment, the judgment had to be submitted to a Tribunal
d’Homologation composed of two Frenchmen and two natives, located
at the capital of each colony. This tribunal was the object of vigorous
criticism because of its great distance from most native courts, some of which
were three hundred kilometres away. The tribunal also had great diffi¬
culty in passing on native judgments because of inadequate records. The
judges were not, moreover, familiar with native custom in every case,
nor did they take political considerations into account. These criticisms
led to the abolition of the Tribunal of Homologation in 1903.

In a decree of that year, the village chiefs were allowed to retain final
jurisdiction over misdemeanors involving fines of from one to fifteen francs
and imprisonment from one to five days. While the village chief could
conciliate civil disputes, his opinion was binding only with the consent of
the parties. Provincial tribunals, presided over by provincial or cantonal
chiefs, assisted by two notables appointed by the head of the colony at the
nomination of the Procureur-general, were given jurisdiction over all civil
matters involving natives, subject to appeal to the tribunal du cercle or
the administrator. 16 The provincial tribunals had jurisdiction over “cor¬
rectional” matters. “Criminal” cases were now reserved to the European
administrator. The judgments of the native courts in civil and penal
matters could be enforced throughout the country after being viseed by
the proper administrator.

While the 1903 decree did not require the village courts to keep any
records, it obliged the provincial tribunals to send monthly returns of
correctional cases—but not of civil cases—to the administrator.

Whether or not because of lack of proper supervision, these native
courts did not, in French eyes, render justice in a satisfactory manner.
Native chiefs, often judges and parties to a case, imposed excessive fines;
and the French did not believe that native courts were capable of rendering
justice. But instead of reorganizing the system and putting them under
control as did the British in the Gold Coast when confronted by similar
circumstances, 17 the French decided to abolish the judicial power of the
village chiefs. This was done in a decree of 1912. 18 While the village
chiefs were allowed to retain their powers in regard to conciliation, all
judicial authority was vested in tribunals of the Sub-division and of the
cercle respectively. Tribunals of the Sub-division might be presided over
by native judges who, it appears, were in most cases native clerks rather
than chiefs. The tribunals of the cercle remained under the European

“Decree of November 10, 1903. Bulletin Officiel, Ministlre des Colonies, 1903,
p. 444.

Vol. I, p. 804.

18 Decree of August 1 6, 1912. Recueil, 1913, p. 25.

THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE

1007

administrator. The final step in suppressing the power of the chiefs was
taken in a new decree, promulgated in 1924, 10 which put virtually all
judicial power in the hands of European functionaries.

3. The Present System

At present, the system of native justice in French West Africa is
based on the Tribunal of First Degree, usually found in an administrative
sub-division and presided over by an administrator or other official assisted
in both civil and criminal cases by native assessors. The Tribunal of First
Degree has jurisdiction over all civil matters and police and correctional of¬
fenses. 20 The Tribunal of Second Degree, presided over by the Comman¬
dant du Cercle, hears all appeals in civil cases and “police” and correctional
matters from the Tribunals of the First Degree in the cercle. It likewise
has original jurisdiction in “crimes.” The judge of the First Tribunal
should impress upon the parties that they are entitled to an appeal to the
Tribunal of Second Degree, but this right is restricted by the provision of
the decree that the party losing the appeal in a civil case is liable to a fine of
fifty francs. In “repressive” matters the Commandant du Cercle may order
an appeal. A unique feature of the system of tribunals applying to natives
in French West Africa is that the courts charge few if any fees to the
litigants.

The Tribunal of First Degree in Senegal handed down in 1925, 1864
civil judgments and 2867 “repressive” judgments. The civil judgments
related mostly to marriage, debt, land and personal property questions
which would be tried by chiefs in the British colonies. The Tribunals of
Second Degree decided two hundred and ninety-four criminal cases. Of
this number, one hundred and nineteen were appeals, and out of the
appeals, thirty-eight were dismissed. Thus the bulk of the judicial work
is done by the sub-division tribunal in charge of a junior administrator, or
other subordinate functionary', sometimes a clerk or an agent of the civil
service.

In Senegal, there are twenty-two Tribunals of First Degree, one (some¬
times two or three) being found in each cercle, and sixteen Tribunals of
Second Degree, one for each cercle, making a total of thirty-eight courts
where native cases may be tried. Compared with the several hundred native
courts of Sierra Leone and of the Gold Coast respectively, the number of
courts where the natives may seek justice in Senegal is comparatively few.
Under such a system, the local chief continues to try cases out of court,

a Decree of March 22, 1924. Appendix, Vol. II, p. 131.

* It also has jurisdiction over infractions otherwise punished by disciplinary pen¬
alties, when committed by former soldiers and their families, which are exempted
from the indigenat regime by the decree of January 14, 1918. Cf. Vol. II, p. 8.

1008

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

unrecognized and, what is of more importance, uncontrolled by French
authority. The French system means, moreover, a greater judicial burden
upon the administrative official than one finds in a colony where native
courts are employed. The administrative officials in French West Africa—
about five hundred of them—try about twelve thousand cases a year,
or about two hundred and forty cases apiece. In almost every case, the
parties know only the native language of which the administrator-judge
is usually ignorant. He must rely therefore, upon assessors and interpreters
who know French only imperfectly and who in some cases are open to
bribery and under control of local native leaders. 21 Abuses of this nature
are particularly great in the Cameroons where one official told the writer
that interpreters were a worse scourge than sleeping sickness. In one
case, a native came with a grievance against his chief to a local officer who
told him to take his hat off. The interpreter, who was apparently in
control of the chief concerned, told the native that the “White man would
cut his palaver to-morrow.” The native thereupon remonstrated with the
French official who again repeated, “Take your hat off!” The interpreter
thereupon told the native: “The White Man says to get out of the office!”
In the Yaounde district of the Cameroons, the leading Chief is said to
have every interpreter under his control with the result that no native
can complain to an administrative officer against the exactions of the chiefs.
Interpreters are automatically eliminated in tribunals where the chief him¬
self is the judge.

A number of French writers realize that it is extremely difficult for
European administrators to render justice fairly. A student says: “French
functionaries are ill-suited ( inaptes) to settle disputes between natives be¬
cause the mission of a judge pre-supposes a knowledge of the customs, the
usages, and the more or less rudimentary law, and finally the language of
the natives, which they do not always possess and of which, in any case,
they never have more than a superficial knowledge.” 22

Another writer says:

“The native judge knows better than the European those habits and cus¬
toms which constitute the atmosphere in which he has himself been reared.
He speaks the language of the parties before him. Often he knows them
personally and he knows the degree of consideration or of confidence which
each of them merits. He appreciates the nuances which will escape the
foreigner. Thus he has greater chances of discerning the truth out of the
attitude, the speech, or the reticence of the parties. The European magistrate,

21 The abuses of interpreters in Senegal have been the objects of protests in the
Colonial Council, Conseil Colonial, cited, December, 1921, p. 293. Ibid., October,
1923, p. 41; ibid., October, 1924, p. 184.

“ Meunier, cited, p. 4.

THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE

1009

on the contrary, is naturally ignorant of the character, the customs, and the
language of the inhabitants. He is a stranger who has everything to learn.
Obliged usually to recur to the services of an interpreter, he runs the risk
at any moment of being deceived. When after many lessons of which the
parties will have been the victims, he will have acquired the experience which
he lacked at the beginning—promotion, retirement, or sickness will oblige
him to leave; and this experience, with difficulty acquired, will no longer
be of value. Finally, the European in the tropics easily becomes nervous and
irritable, consequently, he finds himself in bad condition physiologically to
settle the difficulties the examination of which above all exacts a calm,
ponderating and impartial spirit. From this point of view, the races less
agitated have the opportunity of making the best judges. ... In the interest
of the Europeans it is better that the native judge should carry the weight
of discontent caused by unpopular judgments.” 23

When the native addresses himself to European tribunals “he almost in¬
evitably becomes the prey of intermediaries of all sorts who exploit him”
especially interpreters and professional letter writers.

The same defects have arisen from investing judicial power in an
administrative official in the French colonies as have arisen in British
territory. It is almost impossible under such an arrangement for a native
to secure justice in a case in which the administrator is, directly or indirectly,
a party. Several years ago, a chief in Senegal, acting under orders, re¬
quisitioned some millet for the administrator from a native farmer. When
the farmer protested that he did not have enough even to feed his family
and that he had already given the millet to the chief at the beginning of
the harvest season, the chief ordered his men to thrash the farmer. The
native could not get a fair hearing in such a case since the judge was the
administrator who gave the original orders. 24

In civil disputes, the native tribunals apply exclusively the custom of
the parties. In case of conflict the custom prevailing at the negotiation of
the marriage contract, or in the absence of the contract, the custom of the
woman, is followed in regard to marriage questions. In other contracts
the custom most generally followed in the place where the contract was
made shall be followed; and in other matters the custom of the de¬
fendant. 25 In executing a civil judgment, the goods of the debtor may be
seized only in conformity with local custom. “Very often the property
of the soil is collective; it is therefore inalienable and unseizable. But
in revenge, all the members of a family and even sometimes the tribe are
responsible for and must honor a debt. It is permissible to depart from

50 A. Giraul, Principes de Colonisation et de Legislation, Paris, 1922, Part II,
Vol. I, p. 495 -

24 Cf. discussion, Conseil Colonial, March, 1924, p. 43.

25 Article 48, Decree of March 22, 1924.

1010 THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

these customs only when inspired by considerations of humanity which
prohibit the seizure of the clothes worn by the debtor and his instruments
of labor.” 28

In criminal matters, the native tribunals may impose (i) a fine up to
the maximum of five thousand francs, (2) banishment for twenty years,
(3) imprisonment for twenty years or for life, (4) death. Life imprison¬
ment and the death penalty cannot however, be inflicted by the Tribunal
of First Degree. These penalties are reserved to the Commandant du
Cercle . 27

Before pronouncing the sentence, the Tribunal inquires what punish¬
ment native custom would impose for the offence, and it must as far as
possible impose a penalty in proportion to the gravity of the sanction im¬
posed by native custom. The court may impose a penalty which seems
to it to be equitable in a case where native custom has not provided a
punishment. 28

Some courts carry out the idea of imposing punishments authorized by
native custom by imposing penalties upon a family for individual crimes.
Recently a native tribunal on the Ivory Coast gave a murderer a long term
of imprisonment and also imposed a fine of five thousand francs upon his
family as blood money, to be paid to the family of the murdered man.
This practice is also followed by the tribunals among the nomadic peoples
of Mauretania. While fines are personal, they may be recovered against
the heirs or the persons responsible for his debts according to custom.

In criminal cases, however, it is almost impossible to follow native cus¬
tom. Many offenses criminal under European law, notably cannibalism,
are not criminal under native law. 20 Other offenses such as forgery are
utterly unknown to native law. Again, native law imposes for certain
offenses flogging, torturing or other inhumane penalties which French hu-
manitarianism does not tolerate.

98 Justice Indigene, cited, p. 75.

” Article 49.

“Articles 49, 50. The Tribunals may also supply the penalties prescribed for
the infractions defined by the “reglements de police” and of administration.

“The decree of 1912 prevented the tribunal from imposing the death penalty
where it could not be imposed by native law, a rule which prevented it from im¬
posing this penalty for cannibalism and ritual murder. These offenses became so
numerous that the government enacted the decree of April 26, 1923, authorizing
the imposition of capital punishment for any murder or attempt of murder com¬
mitted with cannibalism in view. Journal Officiel, 1923, p. 457. In 1925, twenty
executions for cannibalism took place on the Ivory Coast. Since then, this offense
has greatly declined. Unlike British courts, French courts are forbidden to ad¬
minister whipping or flogging as sentences. While capital punishment may be
imposed, requests for pardon almost automatically go to the Pardons Board in
Paris which must confirm the execution before it takes place. Executions in the
French colonies are by shooting and not by the guillotine as in France. It appears
that proportionately fewer executions take place in French than in British colonies.

THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE

1011

4. Lack of Penal Code

When the administrator is thus barred from applying the native penal¬
ties, he has almost complete discretion in imposing punishment. The only
limitation imposed upon the Tribunal of Second Degree is that it can not
impose fines of more than five thousand francs, but it may give life im¬
prisonment and impose the death penalty, subject to the restrictions men¬
tioned below. 30 No penal code prescribes definite penalties for definite
offenses, such as one finds in every country in Europe and America, in the
British colonies and in the Belgian Congo. 31 As a result, an administrator
in one district may impose imprisonment for six weeks for thieving while
an administrator in a neighboring district may impose imprisonment for
six years for the same type of offense. Likewise, a new administrator, suc¬
ceeding an old administrator who punished adultery with a fine of a
hundred francs, may impose a sentence of one year. Under the law, this
is perfectly legal, and a native can not appeal from the decision of the
Tribunal of the Second Degree.

The dangers arising out of such a system have been pointed out, not
only by French students, 32 but by distinguished administrators. Several
years ago, the Governor-General of West Africa complained 33 about the
“mentality” of the judges, which was not advancing as rapidly as other
features in the French administration. “One of the shocking anomalies,”
he declared, “to one who studies the decisions of the courts in the last few
years is the extreme diversity in sanctions pronounced for the same offense.
No rule appears to determine the extent of responsibility and the applica¬
tion of penalties.” In an attempt to limit these abuses, he drew up a
“penal code,” giving a table of offenses with corresponding penalties. But
he had to admit that this classification had “no obligatory character,”
since such a code was not embodied in a decree. This has not as yet been
done. Likewise, the Governor of French Togo declared that the absence
of a penal code had the “grave inconvenience of exposing the delinquent
party to arbitrary judgment.” He continued: “It happens that some
judges, succeeding others after a few months’ interval in the same tribunal,
apply sanctions of an entirely different gravity to the same offenses, com-

“Cf.-Vol. I, p. 1013.

81 Cf. Index—Penal code.

33 Girault, cited, p. 505. Cf. M. Delafosse, “Les Peines,” Depeche Coloniale et
Maritime, January ri, 1923, who emphasizes the need of a code. M. Meunier
says, “Cet etat de choses est d’autant plus dangereux que . . . ce dernier [Pad-
ministrateur] est souvent un homme jeune, susceptible de se laisser griser par les
pouvoirs tres grands qui lui sont confies et, partant, pouvant etre facilement porte
a en abuser.” Justice Indigene, cited, p. 207.

33 Circular of March 13, 1922, on the “Operation of Native Justice.”

1012

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

mitted under exactly the same conditions.” 34 For this reason, a penal
code has been introduced into Togoland. 35

5. Safeguards against Abuse

Three checks have been imposed, the adequacy of which may be judged
after they have been examined, upon the exercise of the French adminis¬
trator’s judicial power. The first is in the form of native assessors who
keep the court informed as to what the native custom is. Each court has
two such assessors, having a “deliberative vote,” which gives them in theory
greater power than in Togoland where their vote is only “consultative.”
The president of the court must secure the vote of one of these assessors
before a judgment can be rendered. These assessors are appointed by the
Lieutenant-Governor in each colony from a list of ten notables nominated
by the Commandant du Cercle. While under the 1912 decree, the custom
applied in each case was local custom, the 1924 decree declared that it is
the custom of the parties in the case which should be applied. Conse¬
quently, the president of the court should vary the assessors in accordance
with the tribe of the parties. But in practice, it proves difficult to find
such assessors. Moreover, this principle does away with territorial in favor
of a personal basis of jurisdiction. 36 The authority of the local unit is
therefore weakened and conflicts appear inevitable. A party to a case can
not challenge the appointment of assessors. These officials have been
charged with receiving bribes. 37

A second check on the First and Second Degree Tribunals takes the
form of monthly court returns. The chief of each sub-division sends to
the Commandant a register of judgments rendered in the past month deal¬
ing with criminal matters. This register contains a summary of the facts
and evidence, the parties, the assessors and the judgment rendered. There
is no control whatever over civil judgments of First Degree Tribunals.
The Commandant in turn, sends to the Lieutenant-Governor a return of the
criminal cases of Second Degree, as well as First Degree, courts. 38 These
are transmitted after examination by the procureur of the republic to the

34 Circular of March 13, 1923, Journal Officiel du Togo, 1923, p. 132.

"Cf. Vol. II, p. 312.

aa The trend of history of Europe has been in the other direction— i.e., from
the personal jurisdiction of feudalism to the territorial jurisdiction of the modern
state.

87 In the circular on Native’ Justice of 1922, the Governor-General declared that
the administrators should make the assessors understand “the social importance
and moral grandeur imposed upon them, and place them on guard against all
temptations and personal defalcations—reminiscences of the still recent epoch when
the venality of native magistrates was the rule.” These assessors are paid sitting
fees. There are assessors similarly chosen by the Lieutenant-Governor for the
Tribunals of the First Degree. Art. 6.

38 Art. 45.

THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE

1013

Governor-General and Procureur-general at Dakar. If dissatisfied with
the return, any of these officials may ask for further information concern¬
ing a case, but none of them has the power to retry these criminal cases
and no native has himself the right to appeal from the Tribunal of Second
Degree. The Procureur may simply bring the case to the attention of a
Chambre de Homologation which will now be described.

6. Homologation

In 1903, a Chamber of Homologation for the whole of French West
Africa was established at Dakar. It came to be composed of a member of
the Court of Appeal at Dakar, two other members (councillors), two
functionaries appointed by the Governor-General, and two native asses¬
sors. 39 All judgments of tribunals in West Africa carrying a sentence of
more than five years automatically came before the Chamber of Homologa¬
tion. Moreover, the Procureur-general could place before it any other
judgment in criminal matters. The Chamber could either annul the judg¬
ment and refer it back to the Tribunal which first heard the c^se, or it
could itself change the sentence. Under this system, the Procureur-general
at Dakar was obliged to go through the court returns of twelve thousand
cases annually, and decide what cases should be placed before the Chamber
of Homologation—an almost physically impossible task.

In the new decree of 1924, an improvement was made by creating a
Tribunal of Homologation for each colony, composed of the president
of the Tribunal of First Instance, administrative officials, and native asses¬
sors. All criminal cases involving a sentence of over three years auto¬
matically come before these tribunals, whereas under the old decree the
period was five. Cases under three years may also be referred to the
Tribunal of Homologation by the Procureur in the colony. The judgment
of the colonial tribunals in these cases is final. The Procureur may also
refer to them civil cases where the native tribunal has manifestly exceeded
its powers. Cases involving imprisonments for over ten years and death
penalties automatically go to the Chamber of Homologation at Dakar.

As a result of this new system, the number of cases before the Chamber
of Homologation at Dakar decreased from four hundred and eighty-seven
in 1924 to one hundred and fifty-nine in 1925, and to fifty-three in the
first six months of 1926. Of these fifty-three cases, eight were placed
before the Chamber by the Procureur-general , while the others came up
automatically or ^office.

39 Chapter IV, Decree of August 16, 1912. For a digest of some judgments,
see Gilbert-Devallons and Edmond Joucla, Jurisprudence de la Chambre d’Homolo -
gation, Goree, 1911.

1014

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

The percentage of judgments annulled by the Chamber at Dakar is

as follows:

Number Number of Percentage of

Year of Cases Cases Annulled Cases Annulled

1923 . 34 ° * 9 ° 56

1924 . 487 356 7i

1925 . >59 57 30

1926 (to June 1). 53 8 15

The percentage of annulations has thus declined under the new system
of colonial homologation tribunals. Nevertheless, the figures for atinula-
tion by colonial tribunals of homolgation, at least for the tribunal in Senegal,
remain high. Thus the Senegal tribunal in 1*925 reviewed seventy cases
of which it annulled twenty-nine outright and virtually annulled five others
—or about half. 40 This percentage of annulations is high doubtless because
the Chamber passes on vices des formes rather than upon the fundamental
principles involved. 41 There are no stenographic records kept of testi¬
mony in any tribunal. When a case comes before the Tribunal of
Homologation, it is not heard de novo; no witnesses are called. The
tribunal merely scrutinizes a dossier j usually written by a semi-literate native
clerk, containing what purports to be a summary of the evidence which is
sometimes nearly impossible to read. No lawyers are allowed to appear,
although memoires may be submitted.

7. Criticisms

Members of the old General Council as well as of the new Colonial
Council have expressed themselves earnestly about this system of native
justice. In 1905 and 1907, motions condemning the system were intro¬
duced, and in 1909, a long motion was unanimously passed by the General
Council, asserting that the system was a flagrant violation of the separa¬
tion of powers and the right of the accused to defend himself. In 1921
the Colonial Council discussed a resolution requesting the right of appeal
from a native tribunal to a magistrate, the adoption of which was post¬
poned at the request of the representative of the administration. 42 In 1923
it passed a resolution asking the right of appeal. 43 Criticisms were also
voiced in 1924, when a long resolution was passed, providing that the pay

40 In Mauretania, only one judgment out of ten was reversed, but this is in an
exceptional colony composed of nomadic peoples who bring few cases before the
tribunals.

41 In the Colonial Council ( Conseil Colonial, March, 1924, p. 44), there were
outbursts when a chief declared that the chamber annulled unfair judgments;
speakers declared that the sole purpose of the chamber was to see that judgments
were not defective in form.

42 Conseil Colonial, December, 1921, p. 290.

43 Ibid, October, 1921, p. 290.

THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE 1015

of native assessors be increased, that native judges be appointed, that in¬
terpreters knowing French be assigned to every police commissioner, and
that natives be allowed to have a lawyer or other defender of their choice. 44

The natives have also piotested against the establishment of native
tribunals by the decree of 1924 for the “subjects” living in the four com¬
munes, hitherto under the regime of the French courts. They did not
wish to fall into the hands of a French administrator unbound by a
definite penal code; nor did they wish to be deprived of the right of appeal
which they held under the preexisting system. In 1924, the Council passed
a resolution protesting against the establishment of such native tribunals,
and asking that the French courts should judge all cases, criminal and civil,
not handled by the Cadi courts, in the four communes, whether involving
citizens or subjects. 45

Evidently the native citizens of the four Full Communes of Senegal,
in thus expressing their preference for La Justice Franqaise, do not believe
that the checks against abuse established by the 1924 decree, whether in the
form of assessors, criminal returns or the system of homologation, are
adequate. In many British territories and under certain cases in the
Belgian Congo, the native has been given the right of appeal. In Nigeria
this right is denied him. The circumstances are, however somewhat differ¬
ent in a territory with a well-established system of native courts with appeal
from a lower to a higher court, than in a territory which has no native
courts but which centralizes judicial power in the hands of European
officers. Under the Nigeria system, the European officer acts as a con¬
troller over native courts more than as a judge, whereas under the French
system the European officer is the judge. Consequently, it would seem that
a right of appeal would be more necessary under the French than under
the Nigeria system. 40

Every British territory in Africa as well as the Belgian Congo requires
administrative officials as well as native courts to follow a penal code
which defines the penalty which they may impose in a given class of cases.

** Conseil Colonial, October, 1924, p. 417. 48 Ibid., October, 1924, p. 505.

Ibid., 1924, p. 417. In 1925, the Dakar native tribunal (first degree) heard
one hundred and thirteen repressive and eight hundred and ninety-nine contra-
ventional matters, of which six hundred and twenty-seven were offenses against
hygiene regulations. The Second Degree Tribunal heard eight criminal cases.
The First Degree Tribunal heard only eight civil cases, while the Second Degree
Tribunal heard none, showing that the subjects (as well as the citizens) go to
the cadi in civil matters. Moreover, these native tribunals in the communes have
experienced great difficulty in enforcing judgments, because of the absence of a
staff to serve summons, etc.

■“ Meunier says, “L’appel possible devant la chambre d’homolgation noe seule-
ment pour le Procureur-general, mais pour I’interesse de tous les jugements rendues
en premiere instance par les tribunaux de cercle, nous semble un frein necessaife
et naturel.” Justice Indigene, cited, p. 207.

1016 THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

Under such a system the individual discretion and the possibility of abuse
is reduced; whereas under the prevailing system in West Africa, as the
Governor-General has pointed out, two administrators may impose widely
differing penalties for the same offense. The French mandate of Togo has
given the native a right of appeal and has established a penal code to control
administrator-judges. Its example is worthy of consideration by other
French territories in Africa.

8. Disciplinary Penalties or the Indigenat
In addition to these judicial powers, the administrators in French
colonies have certain summary powers in regard to “disciplinary penal¬
ties,”—a system called the Indigenat. The government first granted these
powers when France was completing the conquest of her African posses¬
sions to enable administrators to act quickly in the suppression of offenses
for which judicial procedure was supposedly too slow. Under the system
introduced in 1887, the administrator had summary power to punish all
violations of regulations issued by the Governor 47 —a power which was
restricted in 1888 to certain enumerated offenses. The decree of 1903
giving certain judicial powers to native tribunals created conflicts with the
administrator’s summary authority. This conflict was finally settled in
1912 by taking away the powers of the native chiefs. Five years previ¬
ously, an arrete specified twenty-six infractions for which the disciplinary
penalties could be imposed. Thus if a native refused to pay taxes, or
obstructed the public service, or was guilty of any disrespectful or know¬
ingly offensive act toward the public authority, he was liable to summary
imprisonment for two weeks or a fine of one hundred francs,—which
amounted at that time to twenty-five dollars. In administering these
sentences, the administrator 48 is not obliged to hold a trial. If an inter¬
preter, a garde du cercle, or a chief comes into the office of an administrator
and says that X insulted the government, the administrator may give X
two weeks in jail. While the native has no appeal against these impositions,
the administrator responsible for them must record a statement of the
case and the penalty imposed. He must also send a record to the superior
authorities. On the proposal of the procureur, the Lieutenant-Governor
may revise the judgment, in which case the native concerned is released
from prison or his fine returned as the case may be. 49 But as it is difficult
for the Governor to pass upon decisions taken in remote parts of the colony

47 Decree of September 30, 1887 and arrete of October 12, 1888; Roux, cited,
p. 160.

48 Arrete of September 14, 1907, Journal Officiel du Senegal, 1907, p. 501.

Cf. Articles 13, 21 f the Decree of November 15, 1924; examples will be
found of such revisions in the Journal Officiel du Senegal, August 12, 1926, p. 671.

THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE

1017

within two weeks, the native in some cases will have served out his sen¬
tence before an “annulation” can be made.

Natives sentenced to confinement under this system of disciplinary
penalties must be incarcerated in a special section of the regular prisons.

As a result of the summary nature of this system, numerous protests
against the indigenat have been made. In 1909, the General Council passed
a resolution in favor of the suppression of the indigenat system. 60 The
president of the Colonial Council attacked the system in 1924. 61 He asked
how it was that Republican France could invent such a system as the
indigenat and punish “severely and unjustly offenses worthy at the most
of only blame or admonition.” In 1922 a rising took place in Porto Novo
which led to the establishment of martial law. One of the causes of this
uprising, according to an African-edited newspaper, was the refusal of the
government to naturalize a number of educated natives who insisted on
this right primarily to escape the “menace de l’indigenat.” 62

Apparently as a result of these and other criticisms, successive modifica¬
tions in the regime have been made, the first of which has exempted
certain classes of natives from the system and the second of which has
limited the scope of offenses and reduced the penalties which may be
imposed.

The system does not, of course, apply to French citizens, whether white
or black. On November 15, 1924, a new decree was issued which exempts
from the indigenat eight different classes of natives; natives having served
in the war; 63 chiefs, except village chiefs; employees of the administra¬
tion; members of the different deliberative and consultative assemblies; asses¬
sors of tribunals; natives having a decoration; natives holding certain school
diplomas; and merchants paying a license tax at a fixed residence. More¬
over, the Governor-General, upon the recommendation of the Lieutenant-
Governor, may exempt from this regime, “natives who have particularly
distinguished themselves either by participating in the commercial or agri-

80 Proces-Verbaux, Journal Officiel du Senegal, 1908, p. 794.

“A decree of November 21, 1904, was issued to the effect that the internment
of natives was non-justifiable in French tribunals and the sequestration of their
goods could not be pronounced for a period longer than ten years.

The 1924 (Art. 22) decree provides that when a native is guilty of acts not
falling under ordinary criminal laws, and deserving penalties greater than those
imposed by the indigenat, the Governor-General may, at the request of the
Lieutenant-Governor concerned, intern the native in question for a period of years
and sequester his property for a period of ten years. This punishment may also
be imposed upon natives guilty of insurrection or “grave political trouble.” In
place of being interned, such prisoners may be obliged merely to reside in a certain
place. The Governor-General may also impose collective punishments, either in
money or in kind, as can be done in the British colonies. Conseil Colonial, October,
1924, P- 425 -

Quelques Revendications Dahomeenes,” Les Continents, September 1, 1924.

“This class was first exempt in 1918. Cf. Vol. II, p. 8.

1018 THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

cultural development of the country and in a general manner, to works
of public interest, or services rendered to the French cause.”

Commenting on these provisions, the Minister of Colonies declared
that the system should thus be regarded “as a kind of annual promotion
to a superior social state.” 64 This statement illustrates the French phi¬
losophy of colonial government—only those natives who have reached the
European standard or served the French cause should be entitled to the
guarantees enjoyed by French citizens. The names of this privileged class
are published annually at some such occasion as the Fete Nationale, July
14. 55 Thus under the present system, the native elite are exempt, but the
great mass of the natives are still liable to imprisonment and fine with only
a summary hearing.

In 1924, the number of offenses punishable under the indigenat were
cut down from about fifty to twelve. The existing offenses are: (1) ob¬
struction to the collection of taxes and execution of prestations; (2) refusal
to execute work of interest to public order, security or public utility;
(3) refusal to answer a summons from the administration; (4) omitting
to declare a change of domicile in going from one district to another;
(5) refusal to give up information of any public interest; (6) giving
asylum to agitators or offenders sought by the police; (7) committing
any act of a nature to weaken respect for French authority; (8) com¬
mitting any act to abuse the good faith of the French authority; (9) failure
to carry out administrative requisitions in regard to transporting, or
obstructing the execution of public service; (10) illegal wearing of uni¬
forms, etc.; (11) manifestations troubling public peace; and (12) refusal
to receive French money having legal circulation. In theory, these offenses
are of such a nature that they must be punished immediately and cannot,
therefore, be placed before an ordinary court. But they are worded so
broadly that it seems to be possible for an administrator to trump up
some charge against and impose a penalty upon virtually any native he
pleases. Moreover, as soon as the offender has finished his sente'nce, he may
be punished for another offense, at the discretion of the administrator.
Under these powers, he can impose punishments upon natives who refuse
to obey a labor summons, although compulsory labor except for prestations
is not authorized by law. Moreover, natives undergoing a prison sentence
under this system may be obliged to serve out their term in labor for public
purposes. 68 Some natives believe that the French purposely impose dis-

°* Circulaire Ministerielle No. g86 au sujet des sanctions de police administrative
indigene. November 20, 1924.

“ Journal Officiel, January 1, 1926, notes that such a list has been drawn up but
does not publish the names.

6 ® Article 17, Decree of November 15, 1924.

THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE

1019

ciplinary penalties in order to secure a cheap labor supply for the govern¬
ment. Through the indigenat, the administrator may also prevent dis¬
cussion or criticism of the government by the natives, except in such
assemblies as the Colonial Council. Native political organizations
having a critical tendency may be immediately broken up by this power.
This general attitude is reflected in the policy of the government, ac¬
cording to the 1925 report of the Government of West Africa, rigidly
to control the press. As a result, there are* no native newspapers in French
Africa such as one finds in British Africa which vigorously ex¬
press opinions contrary to those held by the authorities. There is only
one native newspaper in the territory. 67 The government bars about ten
foreign papers from French West Africa, most of which are Arab and
Syrian. Likewise, it bars The Negro World and The Gold Coast Inde¬
pendent.**

The 1924 decree reduced in certain parts of West Africa the penalties
which may be imposed under the indigenat, from two weeks’ imprison¬
ment and a fine of one hundred francs to from one to five days’ imprison¬
ment and from one to fifteen francs fine. 59 Fine and imprisonment both
can be imposed only in the case of a second offender. In certain regions
still in a “semi-barbarous” state, administrators may nevertheless impose
the full penalty of one hundred francs and two weeks in jail. 80

As a result of this system, French administrators summarily punish
thousands of offenses every year which in a British or Belgian colony
would go to the courts, or which would not be legally punishable. In
the Upper Volta, 1004 fines and 2881 days’ imprisonment were imposed
in 1924 under the indigenat system—figures which increased in 1925 to
2356 fines and 4177 days’ imprisonment. Of this number the Governor
annulled only eight. 61 Apparently disturbed at the extent to which these
penalties were imposed, the Governor-General ordered the Governors to
check up these penalties closely. Yet it is always extremely difficult to
control the exercise of such wide discretionary powers.

In the circular accompanying the 1924 decree, the Minister of Colonies
implied that eventually the indigenat system in West Africa would be
abolished altogether. While at present the system may be used largely in

"This paper, however, is more conservative than the European newspaper
called A. O. F.

“ Cf. Journal Officiel, 1923; p. 507.

“These are the “peines de simple police” mentioned in Article 11.

“In an arrete of June 20, 1925, the Governor-General ruled that this penalty
should still be applied to the three colonies of Upper Volta, Mauretania, and Niger,
to the Sudan except for six cercles, and to the four cercles in Guinea, five cercles
and one subdivision in Dahomey, and ten cercles in the Ivory Coast.

91 But he made sixty-eight observations.

1020 THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

petty cases and under exceptional circumstances, yet it imposes powers
upon administrators which neither the British nor the Belgian territories
have felt necessary to give, and the exercise of which has without question
antagonized a large body of natives. It is a curious fact that the govern¬
ment has imposed greater limits upon the system in French West Africa
than it has in the two mandated territories of Togo and Cameroons. 82

In the judicial decrees of 1903, 1912 and 1924 the French government
gradually cut down the judicial powers of the chiefs of West Africa on
the ground that these powers had been exercised arbitrarily. So far we
have examined the system which has been substituted for the former native
courts, to determine to what extent it meets the needs of individual justice.
But the question is important from the point of view of reestablishing
the authority of native institutions. Judicial power, it has already been
demonstrated, 63 is the foundation of all government and especially of tribal
authority. 04 Until such power is vested in the chiefs, subject to the rigid
control of European administrators, native institutions cannot vitally
function. Without judicial power, they have little reason for existence.
The French authorities might seriously study the system of native courts
and of native treasuries established in a number of other parts of Africa,
having a social organization similar to that found upon French soil. 88

“ The text of the decree and arreti establishing the system in the Cameroons
is printed in the appendix in Vol. II, p. 379.

“ Cf. Vol. I, pp. 689 ff.

64 Under the judicial decree of 1924, the government may appoint a native presi¬
dent of the Court of Second Degree. But no mention is made of the appointment
of chiefs to this position, and apparently the intention is in case a European shall
not hold the post, to appoint a native functionary, regardless of whether or not
he is a chief.

M Cf. Chaps. 41-43.

CHAPTER 62

FRENCH LAND POLICY
1. Native Land Customs

Having examined the benefits which the French system of justice con¬
fers on the native, we shall now discuss another of the benefits of European
occupation—security of property, and particularly of land tenure, which
is advanced as a justification for European control. The native concep¬
tion of land in French Africa differs in no respect from the conception held
by natives in British West Africa. The head of the tribe or family is
usually the guardian of the land, which he distributes to individuals or
to families for their use. Among the Toucouleurs and the Peuls of the Futa
region, the Almany had control over the land. Among some peoples,
such as the inhabitants of Ziguinchor, the residual rights in the land be¬
longed to God, who delegated his power to a religious chief. In the
Ivory Coast, among the Dimini people, the land belonged to the mythical
founder of the tribe who, while he could grant the use of land to new¬
comers, could not alienate it. His rights are now exercised by separate
land chiefs who merely administer the land as representatives of the
founder of the tribes. In the Bour kingdom, the control of the land was
not in the hands of the Sine but in those of the Grand Diaraf, his minister,
who collected a tithe of millet from its cultivators. At the conclusion of a
study of the customs of the peoples in the Sudan, M. Delafosse says:
“One of the most outstanding principles [in the Sudan] is that there
is not an inch of land without a master, not an inch over which a pro¬
prietor and the greater part of the time, an occupier, does not make his
rights prevail. Upon this point, peoples of the north and south, both
sedentary and nomadic, are all in agreement, and this is undoubtedly why
the Moslems themselves are little inclined to adopt the rule of the
Maleki law, which admits up to a certain point that vacant land can be
‘sans maltre.’ Moreover, all of the natives of the Sudan are unanimous in
admitting that, if the chief of the political unit is the proprietor of the
native soil, it is only as the administrator of the territory and the legal
representative of the group to which in the last analysis all the rights to
the soil belong. Thus, among the Moslems as well as among the animists,
1021

1022

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

the chief can cede no lands on his own authority, except those which he
exploits himself and which constitute in a sense his private property.

“From the native point of view, it is therefore illegal on the part of
the French authority to consider any lands however small as domain of
the French state, and to grant concessions either to companies or indi¬
viduals. ... If it is a question of granting an agricultural, mining or
forest concession over a certain area, the colony or the French State
cannot do so without violating the traditional rights of the native, unless
a preliminary agreement is made with the proprietors or occupiers of the
land.” 1

2 . French Land System

In occupying West and Equatorial Africa, the French Government
entered into a number of treaties with several native sovereigns guarantee¬
ing their rights in the land. 2 Elsewhere, the country was occupied by right
of conquest. In order to regulate the land regime over both protected
and conquered territory, the French Government soon issued a number
of decrees, which, in the case of the Ivory Coast and Dahomey (1900)
provided that while the “terres vacantes et sans maitre” belonged to the
State, 8 natives could not alienate their lands to outsiders without govern¬
ment consent. In 1901 the Guinea land decree provided that while vacant
and ownerless lands belonged to the State domain, “in the protectorate
which has been placed freely under the sovereignty of France, all land
belongs to the chiefs as representatives of the native groups” and “in
the whole of the protectorate territories, the land which constitutes in
fact native property can only be ceded to individuals by way of sale or
leave in their own name by the cantonal or provincial chiefs, or the almanys
and with the consent of the governor.” 4 Following the federation of
West Africa, these different decrees were consolidated in the decree of
October 23, 1904, 5 which makes the customary distinction in civil law
between the “public domain” 6 which consists of inalienable public land

*M. Delafosse, Haut-Senegal-Niger, Vol. Ill, pp. 14-15. The same view is
taken by E. Maguet, “La Condition Juridique des Terres en Guinee Fran^aise,”
Afrique Franqaise, March, 1926, Renseignements Coloniaux, No. 3. This writer,
an administrator, states, “Le domaine prive de l’fitat est trcs restreint, en raison
de l’absence presque complete de terres vacants et sans maitre.” He maintains
that France cannot legally claim title to land the ownership she recognized in
tribes before 1904.

a Cf. Vol. I, p. 917; Vol. II, p. 215.

‘This is taken from the French Civil Code, Nos. 539, 713, which applies the
same rule in France.

‘Decree of March 24, 1901, Bulletin des Lois, 1901, Vol. 62, p. 1852.

5 Re cue'll, 1905, p. 15.

a Under the French land laws, the domain belongs to the “State” and not to
the colony. A literal interpretation of this article would mean that land revenues
would therefore go to the home rather than the local budget. This interpretation

FRENCH LAND POLICY

1023

such as roads and lands bordering on seas and rivers, and “private domain’’
which the State may alienate. It then declares that lands vacant and
ownerless belong to the State. But, according to article 10, “lands
forming the collective property of natives, or which the native chiefs hold as
representatives of native groups, can only be ceded to individuals after
approval by arrete of the Lieutenant-Governor in Council of Administra¬
tion.’’ On the other hand, the Lieutenant-Governor may grant concessions
of not more than two hundred hectares each. Concessions up to two thou¬
sand hectares are made by the Governor-General, at the request of the Lieu¬
tenant-Governor; above this figure they are made by decree.

The terms of purchase are usually fixed by auction. The difference
between the French and the British practice is that the French grant
freehold titles (pleine propriete ) after the fulfilment of certain develop¬
ment conditions, whereas the British usually grant leaseholds subject to
revisable rents. 7 Under the French and Belgian system, the unearned
increment therefore goes entirely to the private concessionaire; under the
British system, part of it goes to the local government (and therefore
indirectly to the natives).

Unlike the British land system, the French system grants concessions
to natives as well as to Europeans. The procedure is the same, but the
concessions to natives are of course smaller than to Europeans while the
developmental conditions are less rigorous. In practice, few native conces¬
sions are granted. 8

From the provisions of the above decree, it appears that originally the
French Government introduced into their possessions in French Africa a
regime which recognized the existence of native lands. While vacant
land, if it existed, belonged to the State, the existence of native land was
also recognized, and this land could be disposed of by the native authority
subject to administrative control—a system which is similar to that which
exists in the Gold Coast, Sierra Leone, and Southern Nigeria. But the
local administration (supported by local court decisions) soon attacked
this doctrine. In 1907, a case arose in which one native claimed to have
rented his land to another native in Rufisque. The second native declined
to pay the rent on the ground that the land, instead of belonging to the
first native, belonged to the State. The Court of Appeal for West Africa

has not, however, been followed. See Glrault, Legislation Coloniale, cited, Part
Two, Vol. II, pp. 96 ff. In 1908, the general council of Senegal adopted a resolu¬
tion asserting the rights of the colony to the domain as opposed to those of
the State. Journal Officiel du Senegal, cited, 1907, p. 561.

1 Cf. Vol. I, pp. 302, 487.

* Cf. Governor Poiret’s circular, of June 27, 1923 (French Guinea), “au sujet
de la Reconnaissance des Droits Fonciers des Indigenes sur les Terrains de Cul¬
ture.” Text in Recueil, 1923, part 2, p. 8.

1024

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

held that the French Government had succeeded to the rights of the Darnel
of Cayor, who formerly ruled over this territory; that the Darnel had
absolute rights over the land; that individual property did not exist;
and hence that the French Government had absolute rights over all the
land not held under title. 9 This decision and others which followed in
1914 and 1915 10 took a limited view of the nature of private property.
Under English law, private property may be jointly owned, which would
thus include family property 11 —a definition which the French courts refuse
to accept. In declining to recognize the distinction between private and
public land clearly set forth in the 1904 and earlier land decrees, the
French tribunals reduced all native occupiers to the position of tenants
at will. A commentator stated in 1904 that the purpose of this decision
was to give the administration the exclusive right to make concessions to
Europeans. He added: “One may nevertheless hope, especially if the
Administration is controlled by extreme prudence, that with the different
corrections which we have proposed, the decisions of the Court of Appeal
will not produce the disastrous effects the germ of which they carry; be¬
cause it is beyond doubt that the unreasonable application of these deci¬
sions may overturn ( bouleverserait ) the native population and make it
the irreconciliable enemy of France.” 12

The French Government did not heed this warning, as the Lebou land
question shows.

3. The Lebou Land Question

Before 1800, the Lebou people formed part of the kingdom of the
Darnel of Cayor. In 1765, this king made a treaty with France in which
he ceded the Peninsula of Cape Vert, the present site of the city of
Dakar, and the domicile of the Lebou tribe. The French did not attempt

8 Recueil, 1907, p. 78. (Part III.)

10 Ibid., 1914, p. 233. Ibid., 1916, p. 75.

The French courts in Madagascar have accepted the opposite doctrine, saying
that certain lands having been divided by the Malgach sovereigns among their
subjects, and having, moreover, been made the object of numerous acts of occupa¬
tion and exploitation, create, to the profit of the occupant, according to native
legislation before the conquest, a veritable right of property. Court of Appeal of
Tananarive, September 18, 1907, ibid., 1907, p. 26.

11 Cf. Vol. I, pp. 761, 817.

“Dareste, “Le Regime de la Propriete Fonqiere en Afrique Occidentale Fran-
Saise,” Recueil, 1908, p. 1.

M. Dareste also said: “Si on introduit brusquement dans cet etat social la
conception romaine du Code civil, que ce soit pour en faire beneficier des europeens,
ou l’Etat fran<;ais, ou meme les indigenes contre leur gre, on s’expose aux plus
graves mecomptes et aux plus dangereux froissements. . . . L’Etat n’aura-t-il pas
une dangereuse tendance k s’attribuer, a titre de terres vacantes et sans maitre,
les terres non cultivees, qui pourtant, comme on 1’4 vu plus haut, sont considerees
par les tribus et les families comme faisant partie de leur patrimonie ?” Ibid.,
pp. 16, 20.

FRENCH LAND POLICY

1025

to occupy and administer this peninsula until 1859. 13 Meanwhile, in
1795, the Lebou people revolted against the exactions of the Darnel of
Cayor and established an interesting republic under a Serigne. When
the French first came to Dakar in 1857, merchants and functionaries pur¬
chased land from the Lebou chiefs, and for a time land speculation took
place. Gradually, however, the government took the position that by
virtue of the treaty of 1765, all of the lands of the peninsula belonged to
the State. Consequently, it attempted to stop all sales by natives. Since
the government owned the land, it was under no necessity, according to
this theory, to compensate the Lebous for lands taken for government pur¬
poses, and it could sell what land it liked to private interests. 14 But the
government unconsciously admitted the unsoundness of this position by
recognizing the validity of the purchases made from the Lebous by private
individuals. The Lebous, however, who are a vigorous people, would not
submit to the pretentions of the government, and from 1857 down to
the present, the question of the Lebou lands has been in the air—a question
which has been studied by at least ten government commissions. If the
government contention is accepted, it will not be obliged to pay compensa¬
tion for lands upon which Dakar stands. 18 If the Lebou contention of
ownership is recognized, the tribe will become tremendously wealthy from
the unearned increment created largely by the French occupation.

In an attempt to compromise the issue, an agreement was made on
June 23, 1905, between the Governor of Senegal and five chiefs and elders
presumably representing the Lebous, in which the Lebou chiefs agreed
to put the Bougnioul and Tound lands from which the Serigne had derived
funds which he used for tribal purposes in the hands of the French Govern¬
ment as part of the public property. This was done “in recognition of the
regular organization of the French administration in the peninsula.” The
agreement said that as a result of this administration, the Lebou tribe now
occupied a position no different from other natives who enjoyed the
rights of French citizens. Therefore, the Lebous could not expect to re¬
tain to their exclusive profit a patrimony common to all. In return for this
cession, the French Government undertook to erect a native village on

u Cf. Vol. I, p. 909.

14 An arreti of 187 said that, “Whereas there exists on the newly annexed
territories vacant land suitable for cultivation, and whereas the method of grant¬
ing concessions should be determined, and whereas the natives who possess the
land to-day under local custom have no regular titles of property, and whereas
it is a good thing to favor the establishment of private property in the colony, the
vacant lands may be conceded to persons who apply for them.” On June 28, 1884,
a committee reported that individual property rights in Dakar arise only out of
government concessions (or prescription). Nevertheless, the State should not
contest the ownership of lands bought by Europeans from natives in the past.

“For the British practice, cf. Vol. I, p. 757.

1026 THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

the Tound land and to increase the salary of Alpha Diol, as cantonal chief,
from twelve hundred to three thousand francs a year so that he could
properly entertain strangers. To compensate for revenues hitherto derived
from the land, the government also promised to set aside annually eighteen
hundred francs to constitute a Lebou tribal fund for the poor, and to pay
Alpha Diol an annual sum of twelve hundred francs for the ceremonies of
the tribe. The total annual payments under this agreement would thus
amount to between four thousand and five thousand francs. At present,
the Dakar budget appropriates annually five thousand four hundred francs
for the Lebou tribe.

It soon appeared, however, that the signers of this convention did not
represent the Lebou people and had acted without authority, and that one
of the signers who had been guilty of speculation in tribal land signed this
agreement to get out of trouble. At any rate, the Lebou people disputed the
position of the French Government before the court in 1907. 18 They
argued that the treaty which the French had made in 1765 with the Darnel
of Cayor did not apply as the Lebous had become independent of the
Darnel in 1803, and as the government did not effectively occupy the
territory until 1857. Moreover, the treaty of 1765 had never been con¬
stitutionally ratified. The Court of Appeal decided against all of these
contentions, saying that the revolutions of 1790 and 1903 did not modify
the rights of France, that it was a revolution directed against the Darnel
and not against France, and that France had never recognized the inde¬
pendence of the Lebous. Even if she had, treaties must be respected.
Treaties, moreover, were diplomatic acts the validity of which the tribunals
could not question.

Following these decisions, the Governor-General declared: 17 “The
State is the proprietor of all the territory not only of Cayor but of Cape
Vert [and presumably the whole of French Africa], exception being made,
it is well understood, of only the parcels upon which individuals have
acquired rights of definite property by way of administrative concession or
in virtue of a title consolidated by prescription. 18

“The natives are and remain simply holders at precarious title and
enjoy rights, recoverable in principle, at the pleasure of the authority.”

Disturbed by the operation of the land regime which might convert the
natives of West Africa into a landless class—a regime similar to that
which exists in British East and South Africa—Governor-General Clozel

18 Re cue'll, 1907, p. 97. ” Circular of March 16, 1907.

“The French Civil Code provides that an occupier acquires title by prescrip¬
tion after thirty years’ occupation (Article 2262) but the court ruled that the Code
did not apply to natives and that they could not therefore acquire title by prescrip¬
tion.

FRENCH LAND POLICY

1027

authorized the appointment of a Land Commission in 1915 to study
the question and see what modifications in the regime should be
made. 19

In a circular written in regard to this Commission, the Governor-
General frankly admitted that the decrees of 1904 had recognized the
existence of native lands. He declared that native land tenure was neither
individual nor alienable; the native conception of property did not conform
to the French Civil Code but it “resided in a group which never disap¬
pears.” There was a conflict between this conception and the judicial
interpretations of the French courts which should be reconciled. He
therefore proposed that legislation be enacted defining the limits of the
term “terres vacantes et sans maitres” and the means by which a native
could become a private property owner. He also believed that collective
property of the natives should be protected and its “integrity” guaranteed.
He declared that French West Africa was so large and the population
so sparse that village properties should thus be established without injuring
the domain of the State “which should be fairly considerable in order to
permit the play of concessions and to insure the work of coloniza¬
tion. . . .” 20 In the course of its investigations, the Commission took up
the Lebou question; and during several sessions in 1916, the Lebou people
pointed out that the Serigne could not dispose of the collective land of the
tribe without the consent of the Council of Twelve Notables. Only five
such notables signed the Agreement of 1905. Moreover, family lands
could not be ceded without the consent of the family concerned.

At the same time, the government was taking Lebou land for the pur¬
pose of constructing a military camp. Fifty-five hectares were taken for
this purpose in 1916. 21 Despite protests that these lands were under culti¬
vation, the Lebous received no compensation. At the end of the War,
the military authorities also wanted lands for an aviation camp, and in
1919 and i'920 the government held inquiries to determine what lands were
“vacant and ownerless” for this purpose. The government finally decided
to take over some eighty hectares of land at Ouakam occupied by the
Lebous, but for which they held no title. As the Lebous were cultivating
it, the government offered to pay them a total of forty thousand francs,
thirteen thousand francs to go for the fifty-three hectares taken in 1916,
and twenty-seven thousand francs for eighty thousand hectares now taken.
It appears that the market value of the land was about three million francs.
Declining to take the money, the Lebous challenged the registration of the

“ Arrete of October 23, 1915, Journal Officiel, cited, 1915, p. 712.

*° Circular of October 23, 1915, Ibid., 1915, p. 710.

“ Arrete of April 26, 1916; ibid., 1916, p. 293.

1028 THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

land by the government in the Dakar tribunal.” This body decided in
favor of the State on April 21, 1923, basing its decisions on former judg¬
ments of the Court of Appeal. A year later the Lebou chief opposed
the registration in the name of the State of two other parcels of land the
ownership of which the Lebou tribe claimed. In a judgment of March 22,
1924, the Tribunal of First Instance at Dakar ruled that since the Lebou
community was not a “public moral personality” nor since it had not been
recognized by the government as a society or a professional syndicate,
it had no standing in the court and could not therefore object to this land
registration. 2 *

This judgment was severely criticized by a leading French jurist who
declared that judges trained in the Roman law which was individualist in
land matters found it difficult to conceive of a group existing under native
law. According to this judgment, "Every native institution before the
conquest, whether traditional or secular, was abrogated and destroyed by
the sole fact of the application of European law. ...” The writer adds:
“Merely to state this theory demonstrates how absurd it is. . . .” This
judgment constitutes “one of the most striking examples of this failure to
recognize the law and the customs ( tendances ) of native races, which
contains in it the germ of a veritable provocation to insurrection.” 24

Meanwhile, the Lebous had appealed to the General Council. In
1918, they said that the government had taken over the property of Lebous
who were away fighting in the French army. Natives ignorant of French
did not know that the government had taken their land. In reply to this
petition, the Council expressed the regret “one time more” that the land
system made spoliation possible—a fact which “had been pointed out many
times in the midst of this Assembly. ... If it is true that the sovereignty
of the State has been substituted for the absolute power of the former
sovereign of Cape Vert it is important, in the interests of a democratic
colonization policy, to respect the former rights of individuals. . . .” 2 “
In 1924, the Council adopted a resolution insisting that in every part of
the Colony it is established that “property exists in fact, sometimes under
the collective or family form, somewhat analogous to the Domain direct
and Domain utile of old French law.” 26

21 For the protest of the Lebous, basing their rights to the land on a treaty of
1830, see Ouest African Frantais, March 24, 1923.

31 Farba Faye c. Domaine de l’fitat, Recueil, 1924, p. 106. {Part III.)

“ P Dareste, “Les collcctivites indigenes devant les tribunaux frantais.”
Recueil, cited, 1925, p. 1 (Doctrine).

* Conseil General, 1918, p. no.

* Conseil Colonial, 1924, p. 461. At the same session, when a commission ap¬
proved a concession for an agricultural station on condition that native land rights
be respected, the government representative declared: “There are no rights of
third parties since the land is the property of the Colony.” At this, the president

FRENCH LAND POLICY

1029

On June 25, 1925^ the government attempted to regularize the situation
by making another convention with the Lebou chiefs in which the latter
agreed to surrender their claim to the “Tound” lands at Dakar, on condi¬
tion that the government erect a native village. But in 1926, the
government decided not to build the village. Instead, it issued an
arrete 27 returning the Tound land to the Lebous. The division of the
land will be made by a commission of four functionaries, the chiefs, and
three Lebou notables from each quarter. Each native possessor will receive
a personal right of occupation, transmissible to his heirs, free of rent, pro¬
vided he constructs within five years one or more houses on his land
conforming to the conditions imposed by the sanitary and building laws
for the first zone of Dakar. Upon the completion of such construction,
he will receive an individual title.

While the Lebou land question appears to have been settled by this
compromise, the Land Commission of 1915 which was to study the
whole land question never reported, apparently because of the exigencies
of the War.* 8 The principle enunciated by the government and sus¬
tained by the courts still remains unassailed: namely, that all the
land for which no native can produce a government title belongs to the
State. 19

So far the government has not exercised this power to expropriate
natives over wide areas in the country, but merely in the towns. Under
the law it may, however, alienate lands in the form of agricultural conces¬
sions, the demand for which is becoming strong. 80

of the Council said he hoped the administration would not resort to methods which
"while legal were of doubtful honesty." Another speaker said that the land decree
"was an instrument of spoliation for anyone who knew how to use it.” Ibid., p. 70.
At the same session, members of the Council protested against the action of the
administration in moving natives off their lands at Kaolack without compensation.
Cf. ibid., pp. 107, 347. One speaker told of two Frenchmen who, learning that .the
government had decided to create an isolation zone between Dakar and Medina,
sold their property which lay within the zone to some natives. After they pur¬
chased the property, the government told them they could not use it because it lay
within the isolation zone. Ibid., pp. 126-7. A chief at this session said that while
he was confined in prison on a false charge, the Administration gave away his
family land to another chief who in turn divided it among a number of natives.
Ibid., p. 501.

"Arrete of March 4, 1926, ibid., 1926, p. 420.

“A number of careful studies on native land tenure were, however, submitted
to the Commission.

"In 1923, the Governor-General had instructed the Lieutenant-Governor to
register the land needed by the government for the port of Dakar. But the Lieu¬
tenant-Governor thought that the natives should first be given a "just and equitable
compensation” for this land. To this suggestion, the Governor-General replied:
“You have lost sight to a certain extent of the superior rights which the State may
demand on land tenure in French West Africa.” Circular of February 27, 1923.

"Cf. Vol. II, p. 23. The policy is now to pay a small indemnity called de-
guerpissement, for land which the State wishes.

1030

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

4. Private Titles

While the government has taken no steps to protect collective native
property, it has taken steps to give certain individuals security. Two years
after the land decree of 1904, the French Government issued another decree
providing for the registration of property in Africa under the Torrens
system. 31 Once titles are granted by the government, all previous claims
are automatically extinguished, and if the real owner has been deprived of
his property, his only recourse is to sue for damages. The Torrens system
does not exist in France. 32 But it was introduced into the African colonies
in order to attract capital which would otherwise not be available for
investment owing to uncertainty. Moreover, the system gave the natives
an opportunity to convert property held under native law into property
held under French titles. 83

If a property holder wishes to register his land, he makes a request to
the Receiver of Domains, who publishes the request in the Official Journal
for three months, during which time any parties also claiming the property
may register their opposition to registration. In case someone thus opposes
the claim, the case goes to the Tribunal whose decision is final. 34 Under
this system, the rights of an illiterate native receive scanty protection. The
■notice containing the demand for registration is published in French, a
language which most natives cannot read, and is posted for only three
months. The real owners of the property may be temporarily away, or they
may not see the notice for other reasons. At the end of three months, the
property is, nevertheless, registered in the name of the “demander”; and
the only recourse of the owners is to sue for damages—a course which in
the case of natives is of little real value. The establishment of some form
of land insurance to cover such cases might remedy these defects, but is now
impracticable. Once in possession of a title, many natives continue to
dispose of their property in accordance with customary law—which soon
creates a state of confusion. 35 At this state of native society, any system
containing the present possibility of abuse appears to be unsound. The

81 Decree of July 24, 1906, Recueil, 1907, p. 7.

“Here the regime of “transcription” prevails. Law of March 23, 1855, Code
Civil Petite, p. 823.

33 Article 58 of the Decree of July 24, 1906, says, “Dans les parties de l’Afrique
occidentale frangaise oil la tenure du sol par les habitants ne presente pas tous les
caracteres de la propriete privee, telle qu'elle existe en France, le fait, par un ou
plusieurs detenteurs de terres, d’avoir etabli, par la procedure de l’immatriculation,
1’absence de droits opposables a ceux qu’ils invoquent a pour effet, quels que soient
les incidents de la dite procedure, de consolider leurs droits d’usage et de leur
conferer les droits de disposition reconnues aux proprietaires par la loi frangaise.”

34 If the state wishes to make use of any property, it first registers it in the name
of the State. If no opposition is sustained, the Tribunal grants a title to the State.

35 Cf. Governor Poiret’s circular, cited, Recueil, 1923, p. 10.

FRENCH LAND POLICY

1031

General Council in 1910 unanimously voted that the 1906 decree should
be repealed in favor of the Civil Code, one member denouncing the registra¬
tion system as a “veritable act of spoilation.” 38

In 1*918, the General Council passed another resolution stating that the
registration system made “spoilation” impossible. 37 The resolution said that
since many natives did not know how to read, the mere publication of the
notice in the Journal Officiel seemed insufficient.

The extent to which natives have taken advantage of the privilege of
registration under the 1906 decree was determined by an investigation made
at the end of 1915. During the preceding nine years, a total of 1267 titles
had been thus issued to natives, covering a total area of about 1220 hectares
having a value of about 7,500,000 francs. Two hundred and fifty-one of
these titles took the form of concessions from the government; but most of
the remaining titles were granted to natives under the registration proce¬
dure. These figures showed that the natives took advantage of the right of
registration chiefly in the cities—either so that they could sell to Europeans,
or prevent the land from falling into the hands of the State. The report
stated that “the mass of rural property, agricultural or pastoral lands re¬
mains in its primitive state of collective property.” Many city natives also
registered land so that they could borrow money on it. In Dakar and Coto¬
nou, about three and a half million francs were advanced on such property.
When land is once registered, it becomes impossible for the real native
owner, if he is a different person from the native who has registered the
property, to recover it. Likewise, the new owner may dispose of this
property without any administrative control.

There are two main reasons for the failure to impose French property
conceptions upon the natives of West Africa. The first is the ignorance
and the indifference of the average native to European methods and con¬
ceptions. The second has been the attitude of the State. The fact that
practically no natives in the rural districts have requested registration -of
their property would seem to show that for the present the family or
communal system is generally satisfactory. As long as individual security
continues to exist, despite the fact that ownership may rest in a group,
the present system of property among the natives is not a handicap to
production. The expense of registration and the complicated procedure
operates against the use of the system by natives outside of the cities.

In 1923 Governor Poiret of New Guinea pointed out the weaknesses
of the Torrens system 38 which in his opinion tended to destroy the primi-

Journal Officiel, 1910,. p. 9. •

” Conseil General, 1918, p. 109.

38 Recueil, 1923, Part 2, p. 7.

1032

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

tive native society. It was only gradually that private property could be
safely developed. He declared that the real native farmers wished an
individual title recognizing a right of user, particularly against Europeans
who might otherwise haul them before a French court, the procedure of
which they were ignorant. The Governor believed that the existence of na¬
tive rights in the land should be established by the native tribunal, presided
over by a French administrator. He shall make a careful inquiry of the col¬
lective and individual rights of the property in question, and then make a
declaratory judgment of the rights of such and such a native as the represen¬
tative of such and such a family. It would seem that this procedure is less
formal than that of registration under the Torrens system; that it pays
more attention to family and tribal rights; and that the act establishing
these rights does not extinguish claims of other natives who may contest
these rights before the native tribunal in the future.

Apparently as a result of the studies of the 1915 commission (which
never made a formal report on account of the War), and of Governor
Poiret’s suggestion, the French Government introduced a new system of
land titles in 1925, 39 which is to remain in effect for five years. In the
report to the President in regard to this decree, the Minister of Colonies
recognized that the registration regime had not been a success. The new
decree imposes upon the native applicant for title the burden of proving
ownership under native law. The procedure is more simple and less
costly than under the former system. The new decree provides that titles
issued under it have merely the same validity as contracts made under
the decree of 1906 relating to native conventions, 40 and that the native
tribunals (i.e., the administrators) may decide disputes in regard to such
titles. Moreover, such titles may not be granted if the land in question
is demanded by the State. It appears that while the 1906 decree is still
in force henceforth the government will issue titles of this rather than
of the Torrens type to the ordinary native applicant. The new decree,
therefore, offers greater protection to the unlettered native than did the
old system. But since the new titles lack definiteness, banks will not accept
them as the basis of loans. During the first six months during which this
decree was in effect in Senegal no applications for these new titles were
made.

® Decree of October 8, 1925, Journal Officiel de la RSpublique Franqalse, 1925,
p. 9878. In his report the Minister said that the 1906 regime “n’a pas rec,u des
indigenes tout l’accueii qu'on en escomptait, par suite, semble-t-ii, des difficultes
qu’offre pour eux la complexity de la procedure etabli et des frais qu’elle entraine
et, par suite, aussi des dispositions parfois contraires a leurs habitudes sociales.”

*° Cf. Vol. I, p. 1003.

FRENCH LAND POLICY

1033

5. The State and the Unearned Increment

The second reason why natives have not had their property registered
has been the attitude of the State. It appears that the original purpose
of Article 58 of the Decree of 1906 was to make it possible for owners
under native law almost automatically to convert their property into
ownership under French law. But the policy of the State now is to
prevent the registration by natives of property which may be needed for
government purposes.

Under the registration decree, it was originally provided that natives
wishing to register their property should go first to the mayor or adminis¬
trator and receive a certificate, after public inquiry, which established the
conditions under which the property in question was held. Upon the basis
of such certificates, registration would later be made. From the beginning,
however, the government attempted to restrict the granting of these certifi¬
cates, complaining that administrative officials were issuing them too freely.

Moreover, the Administration and the court have taken the position
that these temporary certificates are administrative acts, the validity of
which the courts cannot support against the government. Whether or not
these shall be recognized depends upon the Administration alone. 41 The
policy now is not to grant titles to natives, even if they own the land
concerned under native law, if it is land which the State wishes to use,
or which the natives do not effectively occupy.

Two motives have prompted the government in taking this interpreta¬
tion of the law. The first is to save the government expense in taking
over land at market rates—which would mean that the unearned increment
would go to the natives, and not to the government. In a circular of
May 8, 1907, the Governor-General of West Africa said: “It is our duty
to favor the constitution of individual property so that the populations of
French West Africa may secure the credit which they need. But- this
important innovation should not be accomplished at the expense of the
superior interest of the State or of the Colony.” Consequently, he thought
that certificates should not be granted when the interests of the State or Col¬
ony were involved. “It would be regrettable if the proprietor-State were
placed under the necessity of buying back lands at a price sometimes extreme¬
ly high, after having registered such lands in the name of natives. . .

41 Court of Appeal, Arret of December 29, 1916. The Council on Adminis¬
trative Matters (May 9, 1918) ruled that the certificate was invalid because of the
opposition of the state. Cf. P. Dareste, “Note sur le Developpement de la Propriete
Privee Indigene en Afrique Occidentale,” Congres de /'Organisation Coloniale,
Marseilles, 1923, Vol. II, p. 218.

1034

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

The second motive is to secure land without compensation for Euro¬
pean colonization. A government circular says: “For a long time yet the
natives will be too small in number and will lack the ability to develop the
country. . . . Consequently, to realize our ends, we must make an appeal
to European colonization and its capital. But nothing discourages this
colonization more and irremediably compromises its development than to
permit land speculation by inopportune measures. But this would be the
result of accepting the native position in regard to land.” In 1922,
another circular declared 42 that France could not abandon the exclusive
possession of the land to the natives who occupy only an infinitesimal part
of it and who are incapable of developing it. The administration wishes to
insure the best return from the soil in creating new sources of production,
“and it desires to associate in this work all those who show themselves
capable of collaborating in it, both natives and Europeans.”

The purpose of the administration should be to diminish the extent
of fallow land. When a request for a concession is made, the government
should hold an inquiry as to the native rights involved. Natives holding
titles in accordance either with custom or written law should be protected.
But the examination of these titles should be “severe and rigorous.” This
statement apparently means that a native must hold a title from the
French Government if his property is to be respected, since there are few
if any tribes who issue titles under customary law.

Although the French system of land tenure thus stands in marked
contrast to the British system in West Africa, it bears certain resemblances
to British policy in parts of East and South Africa. While in South
Africa, Rhodesia, and Kenya the British Government has attempted to
relieve native insecurity caused by this system through the establishment
of communal reserves, the French in West Africa have attempted to
grant the “elite” security by granting them individual titles. The British
system pays more attention to the group in contrast to the French system
which emphasizes the rights of a certain class of individuals.

In the 1922 circular quoted above, the Governor-General stated that
the chief in some tribes had divided up lands among his people; and it was
legitimate that the French Government should now do the same thing—
another indication that the French administration conceives itself to be the
literal successor of the traditional rulers of the people. If native institu¬
tions are to be respected and native authority developed, it would seem
that some control over the land should be returned to the chiefs and the
groups which they represent.

0 Circular “Au sujet de la mise en valeur du Domaine,” Journal Officiel, 1922,
p. 102.

CHAPTER 63

NATIVE OBLIGATIONS
1. The Tax System

Except for Togoland, 1 the French follow a head tax system, the rate
of which, while it may vary according to district, is the same for all
individuals within the district. This tax applies not only to all men but
also to all women and children above the ages of eight, ten or fifteen
depending upon the cplony. 2 Natives in the military service, students, the
aged without means, etc., are exempt. In the Upper Volta, a colony shut
off from outside markets, the rate varies from two and a half to eight
francs, while in the Niger Colony, where the natives have even less oppor¬
tunity of making money, it varies from one to six francs. But in Dahomey,
Senegal, and the Sudan, the head tax varies, according to region, from one
to sixteen francs a year.

In many colonies such as Senegal, Mauretania, the Niger and the
Sudan the French Administration also imposes taxes upon animals which
affect practically every family among nomadic tribes, 3 and, so far
as goats are concerned, virtually every sedentary family in West Africa.
Those natives granted the privilege of carrying arms must pay a tax
amounting to some thirty francs, while every native trader is subject to a
“patent” tax ranging from seventy-five francs to fifteen hundred francs;
and if he sells liquor, to a “license,” the rate of which depends upon the
size of the business. The caravan bands of the Niger and Sudan are
likewise required to pay for the privilege of doing business. The per
capita poll tax in French West Africa is twice that in the French man¬
dates, and it is considerably higher, taking into consideration the internal
value of the franc, than in British West Africa. 4

*Cf. Vol. II, p. 319.

*The Colonial Council of Senegal passed a resolution increasing the age of
exemption from eight to twelve, a resolution which the Governor-General refused
to approve. The age was then fixed at ten. Conseil Colonial, December, 1921.
p. 393. In Dahomey, the age is sixteen. In the Sudan, the age is eight.

a In Mauretania a zekkat tax, fixed at one-tenth of the value of the animals and
an achour tax, which is a tithe of products grown (excepting gums) are imposed.
Tribes paying these taxes are exempt from the head tax.

4 Cf. Vol. I, p. 944.

1035

1036

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

In the assessment of taxes, the Service of Direct Contributions follows
two methods. As far as French citizens in the colonies are concerned,
whether white or black, individual tax rolls are prepared and individual
receipts given—the “systeme nominatif.” 6 In taxing ordinary native sub¬
jects, however, the “numeric” system is followed. Each village chief
estimates the number of taxpayers and animals in his village, a figure
which the Commandant du Cercle checks and which is inserted together
with the total tax due according to these figures in a register. The
village chief is responsible for the collection of this sum, for which he
receives a rebate and a receipt. 6 In Senegal at the beginning of the year,
the chief is also given sheets of tax tickets, equalling in number the taxes to
be collected. At the end of the year, he is supposed to return the unused
tickets. These tickets do not constitute individual tax receipts in the
proper sense of the word. They do not contain the individual’s name; and
they are easily destroyed. No individual tax roll or individual records of
these receipts are kept. An administrator on tour may ask a native to
show his ticket. It is understood that the ticket system used in Senegal has
not been employed in the other colonies for a number of years.

In these colonies the heads of families bring the sum which they owe
to the village chief who turns it over, in their presence, to a government
tax collector who gives him a receipt for the lump sum. If after paying
their tax the people of a village wish to leave, they obtain a laisser passer
from the administrator on which the fact is mentioned that they have paid
their tax.

In Africa any system of taxation in which the chiefs participate may
easily become the cover for illegal exactions. The French system of
imposing lump sums upon villages is no exception to this rule. Chiefs have
been accused of collecting taxes from natives without giving tickets. 7
Difficulties also arise when chiefs fail to report deaths or emigration be¬
cause they wish to retain the percentage they obtain upon the total sum
due when the village was originally assisted. 8 The abolition of these

“While in Senegal a citizen pays twelve francs personal tax and a six per cent
tax on the rental value of property which he occupies, in the Sudan, each citizen
is subject to a head tax of forty francs.

* Cf. Vol. I, p. 991.

7 Conseil Colonial, December, I9ZO, p. 394.

8 One recent French traveller comments on this system of assessment in French
equatorial Africa as follows:

“II nous parle egalement du recensement perime, qui date de quatre ans;
d’apres l’equel sont taxes les villages, dont les habitants continuent k payer pour
les morts (tres nombreux par suite de la recurrente) et les fugitifs dont le nombre
s’accroit chaque annee, de sorte qui’il risque de ne rester bientot plus que les
vieux, les impotents et infirmes, les niais, qui devront supporter, de par le fait
des morts et des desertions, triple et jusqu’a quadruple charge, k payer pour les
morts et les absents. . . .

NATIVE OBLIGATIONS _1037

percentages, a step taken already in other territories, is deserving of con-
sideration. 8

Despite the fact that taxes in Senegal are in theory exacted only from
children above ten, chiefs are accused of exacting taxes from younger
children because of the difficulty of correctly determining their age. 10
According to a government circular of June 6, 1921’ (Senegal), the chiefs
also steal from the government since the tax tickets returned to
the government at the end of every year is lower by many thousand francs
than the tickets which remained unused, judged by the tax money col¬
lected. 11 Since the French have been able to work out individual military
recruiting tables, it should also be possible to introduce a system of indi¬
vidual tax rolls and receipts based upon these tables as far as the men are
concerned. 12

A number of natives have criticized the French system on the ground
that the tax does not take into consideration capacity to pay. At the 1924
session of the Colonial Council, a leading chief criticized the head tax
which he declared was unpopular, and advocated in its place a tax upon
native farms based upon the old native tithe. 13 In 1921, the Finance
Commission of the Council also pointed out that while the administration
granted indemnities to French functionaries having families, it taxed natives
with large families more heavily than bachelors simply because of the taxes
upon women and children. 14

Despite the fact that this opinion came from a body dominated by
natives, it would appear that the ordinary native measures his wealth by the
number of wives and children in his possession. From this standpoint a
tax on individuals fits into his conception of ability to pay.

2. Prestations

In addition to taxes proper, each native in a French colony in Africa
is subject to an annual labor tax called the prestation. Based upon the
same principle as in many European countries, this tax requires a certain
number of days of free labor for government purposes every year. The
only legal basis of this exaction before 1912 was an arrete authorizing
the administrators to punish those who refused to perform work required

“ ‘Si le recensement etait refait, dit-il, si chaque village etait taxe d’apres le
nombre reel et actuel de ses habitants, il serait on ne peut plus facile de faire
rentrer I’impot, qui n’a rien d’excessif et que chaque indigene consentirait volontiers
a payer. Personne ne songerait plus a s’enfuir.’” Andre Gide, “Voyage au
Congo,” Chapter VII, Nouvelle Revue Fran^aise, April 1, 1927, p. 488.

* Cf. Vol. I, p. 458.

V Conseil Colonial, December, 1921, p 394. Cf. ibid., p. 242.

u Ibid., p. 395.

“The difficulty of giving individual receipts to women and children is an
additional reason for abolishing the tax upon them.

” Conseil Colonial, October, 1924, p. 309. 14 Ibid., December, 1921, p. 249.

1038

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

for public purposes with disciplinary penalties. In 1912, an arrete putting
the system of prestations on a more direct legal basis was promulgated. 15
In 1918, the Governor-General authorized the Lieutenant-Governors of
each colony to apply the system. 16 While the number of days which may
be imposed for such work in France is four, in the colonies of West Africa
the maximum is twelve. 17 In West Africa, prestation labor may be used
only for the maintenance of means of communication, such as roads, bridges,
etc., and for the cleaning of wells, and work on telegraphic rights of way,
in accordance with programs annually approved by Administrators and by
the Governor of each colony. In French Equatorial Africa, prestations
may also be used for the “establishment” as well as the maintenance of
roads between villages and markets and for the construction of administra¬
tion buildings when the difficulties of communication make the use of
local material necessary. Only “adult” men are liable to prestations, while
certain classes of natives, such as native functionaries, are exempt. More¬
over, a few natives may redeem this labor tax by a money payment fixed
by the Lieutenant-Governor. In Senegal the Colonial Council has secured
this right of redemption for every native. 18

In most British colonies the natives are obliged to work four weeks out
of the year 19 for the purpose of maintaining village roads and paths, under
the theory that this is a traditional obligation which their chiefs had
enforced under native law. The period under which British natives may
thus be required to work as a rule without payment is two or three times
as long as the period demanded of French natives under the prestation
system. In British colonies, this unpaid labor is not used for the main
roads, but is employed locally under the chiefs acting under very little
supervision. The whole system, as we have seen, 20 has been subject to a
number of abuses, which make the abolition of the system desirable. In

18 Arrete of November 22, 1912, Journal Officiel du Senegal, 1913, p. 71, and
circular, ibid., 1913, p. 949.

w Arrete of September 23, 19x8, ibid., 1918, p. 476.

17 Until 1921, the number of days in Senegal was twelve; the Colonial Council
reduced it to four in 1922, but the administration intervened, and it was fixed at
eight. Conseil Colonial, November, 1922, p. 45. In Senegal, an automobile owner
must do or pay for four extra days of prestation on the theory that he uses the
roads more than a pedestrian. In the Upper Volta, the number of days varies from
six to ten; on the Ivory Coast it is twelve; in Dahomey, it varies from eight to
twelve. In Sudan, the number of days is ten. The prestation regime in Maure¬
tania and the Niger is regulated by a special arrete of December 20, 1918.
Journal Officiel, 19x8, p. 679.

It appears that before 1925, women in Equatorial Africa were obliged to per¬
form prestation work; but the obligation was abolished in the arrete of January 7,
1925, printed in “Regime des Prestations en Afrique Equatoriale Frangaise.”
Bibliotheque Administrative, No. 5 (1925), Brazzaville.

18 The same rule is now followed in the two French mandates, cf. Vol. II, p. 320.

19 Cf. Index, Communal Labor. 30 Cf. Vol. I, p. 370.

iNATIVE OBLIGATIONS

1039

French colonies prestations are imposed on the native, not as a traditional
obligation, but as a duty of the subject to France. The work is under
the strict control of the French administrator who draws up annually a
program of works to be executed. Prestation labor is used for the main¬
tenance, and sometimes, if illegally, for the construction of main high¬
ways—for work which in British colonies is usually performed by paid
labor and under the direction of the Public Works Department. French
natives ordinarily have been obliged to keep up village roads by unpaid
labor in addition to furnishing prestations.

The desire to use prestation labor is increased by the fact that the
construction and maintenance of roads in French territory is usually taken
care of, not by the Public Works Department, but by the local administra¬
tion. Thus about nine-tenths of the thirty-five thousand kilometers of
roads in French West Africa have been built by political officers. Since
little provision is made in the colonial budget for the payment of
labor for this work, these officers inevitably rely upon prestations. In
Senegal, prestation labor in 1923 consumed 4,969,840 days which decreased
in 1924 to 3,762,841 days. While in French West Africa it is illegal
to use such labor for construction work, there are many examples of this
having been done as an examination of the minutes of the Council of
Notables in the cercles of Dagna, Cayor, Dipupulou, Ziguinchor, and
Sehiou and Bignon will show. 21 Thus, according to the annual report
for the Ivory Coast for 1924, the “creation, thanks to prestation labor,
of a system of automobile roads now covering the whole colony has had
important political consequences.” In one case, chiefs “came and offered
men to finish a section of the road” and these men worked for twenty-
eight days in December “without accepting any payment or indemnity for
their efforts.”

The greatest effort, however, was put forth in the construction of a
military aviation field which required 331,763 man-days. For three
months, natives were obliged to clear land covering an area six meters
wide and two thousand four hundred kilometers long, all of which was
done by the “good will of prestation labor”—which is unpaid. While
there were a few volunteers, most of the natives did the work only “be¬
cause it was imposed upon them.” These fields are used by the aviation
authorities only a couple of days a year. To maintain these fields, two
hundred and forty thousand man-days a year are necessary. The report
says that this work “which is much the most important effort we have

21 1 .e., the road from Tivaoana to the frontier and the road from Meckhe to
Pekesse were constructed by prestation labor, according to the Plan of Campaign
of the Administrator in the cercle of Cayor.

1040

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

ever demanded of our people is an irrefutable proof of the help which the
Colony has never refused to give to the military authorites.” In Equatorial
Africa, prestation labor should in principle be used within the village;
and no rations are provided during the prestation period, unless labor is
obliged to work more than one day’s march or thirty kilometers from
home. 22 Likewise, it should not be called out during the harvest season
since this would interfere with agricultural work.

Despite these general safeguards, abuses have occurred which have been
described by the Governor-General of Equatorial Africa as follows: “One
of the great reproaches which may be made against the prestations as
generally organized, is that they have or appear only to have been exacted
in the sole interest of the Administration; this is undoubtedly one of the
most common reasons for the repugnance of the natives to executing these
works. The construction of government posts, the establishment of im¬
portant means of communication, the maintenance of telegraphic rights of
way, for example, cannot give the natives employed on such work the
impression that they are working for themselves. . . . On the other hand,
the activity of district commissioners and of European officials gen¬
erally manifests itself in the vicinity of their residence. The works
affected by prestation labor are therefore numerous around government
posts. . . . All of these circumstances lead the natives to see in prestations
nothing more than corvees of no benefit to themselves, and they are incited
to run away from the white man in order to escape from exactions and
to establish themselves in regions more distant from European centers and
transport lines.” 23 For these reasons, the Governor-General declared that
the prestation system should be restricted to cleaning up and establishing
paths between native villages.

Members of the Colonial Council of Senegal have frequently pointed
out that natives have been obliged to work far beyond the period set by
law, that such labor has been called out during harvest time and that
rations have not been given despite the fact that the work was performed
long distances from home. 24 In one case, the administrator forced natives
to swim to an island to cut timber instead of furnishing them with canoes,
as a result of which three natives were drowned. 25 Extreme bitterness has
marked the comments upon such incidents. One speaker declared that the
deaths of a few natives now were only a drop in the bucket to the adminis¬
tration alongside those killed by the Kaiser’s army. Another native de¬
clared that “acts such as these, when repeated again and again will drive

72 Arrete of January 7, 1925, Article 3.

“ Regime des Prestations, cited, p. 7.

** Conseil Colonial, November, 1922, pp. 39, 41.

* Ibid., October, 1923, p. 49. Cf. also ibid., October, 1924, p. 309.

NATIVE OBLIGATIONS

1041

the natives to revolt against the French Authority for which legions of na¬
tives died at Champagne, Verdun, Alsace and in the Dardanelles. . . 20

In 1922, a member read a declaration to the Colonial Council saying that
administrative officials deceived the Governor as to their actions. In the
same year, the Colonial Council voted a resolution asking the administra¬
tion to inquire into the abuses of the prestation system and to impose
punishments if necessary. 27

The burden of prestations does not bear evenly upon the population.
For example, in the town of Kaolack in Senegal, the local population is
subject in theory to prestations, but the public work is nevertheless done
by outside farmers who are forced to leave their fields and to come to
Kaolock for a week at a time, so that the local inhabitants will be available
for European employment. 29 Each chief has complete discretion in fur¬
nishing prestation labor, and may therefore send forth the same men twice
or three times and leave those friendly to him undisturbed. In the absence
of prestation rolls, such as exist in Uganda, 20 the administration has no
means of checking this type of abuse.

A discrimination also exists in the fact that a few privileged natives
may redeem this labor obligation by the payment of what in some cases is
a nominal sum. In 1922 the Senegal Administration proposed that the re¬
demption price in the four communes should be four francs a day—which
was about the market wage. This sum would, however, have increased the
taxes of those who did not choose to work by thirty-two francs a year. A
motion to reduce the rate to two francs a day was defeated by the vote of
the chiefs, but in 1925 it was eventually fixed at this sum. 30 As a result,
the natives in industry escape this obligation by the payment of only about
half the wage that the prestation labor could earn on the market. More¬
over, the government allows each commune to retain for its local budget
all sums received from redemption fees. So far, however, because of other
resources, none of the four communes has imposed the prestation tax on its
inhabitants, with the result that in Senegal the system weighs only upon
the subjects in the country. In 1*921, the Colonial Council obliged the
government to accept the principle that all natives in Senegal could redeem
their prestations. 31 Elsewhere in French West Africa, only a few classes
have this privilege. Political administrators and chiefs do not have the
technical training necessary for the construction of roads even though
culverts and bridges are taken care of by the Public Works Department.

“ Cornell Colonial, October, 1923, p. 49. * Ibid., November, 1922, p. 44.

“IbiS., October, 1923, p. 50. * Cf. Vol. I, p. 584.

30 Conseil Colonial, November, 1922, p. 51, and Deliberation of November 13,
192 . 5 -

11 Ibid., November, 1921, p. 245.

1042

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

The road system in Senegal is noticeably bad. According to members of
the Colonial Council, prestation laborers take four days to do what
voluntary workers could accomplish in two.

Because of the many difficulties connected with this system, members
of the Colonial Council in Senegal have proposed that the prestations be
abolished in favor of a tax. 32 The French Administration opposed this
suggestion, apparently on the ground that the labor supply would then be
inadequate. 33

3. Requisitions

It is the practice of French administrators to requisition food and
grain from the natives in the vicinity for a number of purposes. In con¬
structing the Congo-Ocean Railway, as well as the Cameroons exten¬
sion, 34 the laborers required immense quantities of food which natives
in the surrounding districts are obliged to grow. According to law, these
requisitions should be paid for. But complaints have been made that in
practice natives must furnish these supplies free. 35 In 1924, the Colonial
Council passed a resolution that the government should no longer requisi¬
tion millet, but that it should buy it on the open market. It was charged
in some cases that to fill his requisition, the native was obliged to sell his
grain reserve and then buy millet for his family at twice the price which
he had received from the administration. 36

4. Compulsory Labor for Public Purposes

In addition to prestation labor, which is unpaid, the government may
oblige natives to perform service in return for payment. In practically
all French colonies, it is the rule for the government to impress natives
as porters. Likewise, forced labor in return for payment may be used in
the construction of railways, ports, and similar enterprises. Sometimes
conscription is openly imposed upon the native population by decree. Thus
in 1926, a decree was enacted providing that the natives in the “second
contingent” conscripted for the Colonial troops in Madagascar could be
obliged to supply labor for the government for a period of three years.
This work will presumably be devoted to public purposes. 37 In a report
upon this decree, the Minister of Colonies said that this labor would
develop the colony and would also do the natives good.

The Madagascar plan was applied to French West Africa at the end
of the year. In a decree of October 31, 1926, the government provided

33 Conseil Colonial, October, 1924, p. 307. 83 Cf. the next page.

34 Cf. Vol. II, p. 321. 85 For the abuses in the Cameroons, cf. Vol. II, p. 321.

Conseil Colonial, October, 1924, pp. 288, 221; ibid., October, 1923, p. 48.

37 Decree of June 3, 1926, Journal Officiel de la Refublique Fran^aise, 1926,
p. 6454. For the system of military conscription, cf. Vol. II, p. n.

NATIVE OBLIGATIONS

1043

that the men in the “second portion” of the conscripted troops could during
a period of three years be called upon to participate in works of general
interest necessary to the economic development of the colony. 33

In other parts of French Africa, the government, when it wishes to
secure labor for public purposes, usually instructs local officials to recruit a
certain number of men—ten thousand a year in the case of the Congo-
Ocean Railway. 39 A less formal method of obtaining such labor is illus¬
trated by the announcement of a district official at the meeting of the
Council of Notables in the cercle of Tambacounda, in which he told the
chiefs to furnish one hundred men in November and fifty men in December
for the purpose of repairing the road bed of the Thies-Niger Railway. 40

The Upper Volta, inhabited by the Mossi people, has been a reservoir
of labor upon which French railway construction has heavily drawn. Since
the people of this colony have been isolated from the markets of the world,
they have been obliged to seek employment abroad in order to pay their
taxes. They are, moreover, good workers. If allowed to live their own
life, these people, who have a strong social organization, would probably
advance under proper encouragement as far as any other natives in Africa.
But because of their qualities, thousands of them are called upon to labor
a thousand miles from home—which is a disintegrating influence in their
tribal life. Between 1921 and 1925, the Upper Volta furnished the
Thies-Kayes and the Ivor}' Coast railways with nearly forty-nine thousand
men. In 1924, the Upper Volta Colony in addition employed men for a
total of 312,814 man-days, not including prestation labor and other local
labor. The government had considerable difficulty in recruiting these men
because of the low wages and high death rate, particularly on the Ivory
Coast Railway. As a result of the intervention of the Governor of the
Upper Volta, wages were raised to one and a half francs a day, and rations
improved. 41 The mortality rates for the men working on the construction
of the Ivory Coast Railway are as follows:

Morbidity Mortality per looo

Year Effectives % Per Month Per Year

*923. 3.49* 1-90 3-5 42

*924. 2,300 2.34 3.7 42.4

1925. 2,057 2.82 2.5 30

84 Journal Officiel de la Republique Fran(aise, 1926, p. 11852. The text of the
Madagascar decree is printed in the appendix, Vol. II, p. 176.

The decree was promulgated in French West Africa in an arrete of May 23,
1927, Journal Officiel, 1927, p. 431.

** Cf. Vol. II, p. 258. w Minutes of October 16, 1925.

41 Another dispute between the Upper Volta and Ivory Coast Governors was
over the refusal of the latter to pay one hundred francs to the family of every man
who died on the way home, the Governor interpreting the arrete concerned to mean

1044 THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA

While the rate was 12 per cent per thousand lower in 1925 than in
1923, it was still three times the rate of the Bas-Congo Railway. 42 The
most serious situation in Africa exists in the Congo-Ocean Railway in
Equatorial Africa where the death rate in 1925 was reported to be as high
as six hundred per thousand. 43

While labor employed on long-time jobs such as railways, is, as a rule,
supposedly paid, abuses frequently occur in regard to the remuneration for
other work. A member of the Colonial Council recently complained that
the administrator in a certain district obliged the natives to work on the
roads during the whole planting season—several months—for which period
he paid them a lump sum of fifteen francs. 44

To the visitor it appears that the labor exactions of the French Govern¬
ment are more severe than those of the British Government in neighboring
colonies. This condition is due partly to the condition of the franc and to
the present financial system under which French West Africa is financing
the construction of public W’orks out of current revenue. Under such a
system, the administration is tempted to economize on labor costs. It
is doubtful, however, whether the policy in the long run will be as cheap
as a policy in which labor is voluntary and well-paid. At present the
French administrators in West Africa requisition labor as they wish, sub¬
ject to none of the legislative safeguards set up in British East Africa and
Belgian Congo. 46 Consequently, many of them have become accustomed
to rely upon the corvee for all of their labor wants, with the result that
the establishment of a voluntary labor system becomes more and more
remote. 46

that it should be paid only for men who died at work. The Governor-General
finally intervened, and required payments in the former case to be made.

43 The problem of feeding men under such employment is discussed by A.
Gauducheau, “Sur la nourriture naturelle de l’homme d’apres 1 ’observation
d’usages alimentaires exotiques primitifs,” Bulletin de la Societe de Pathologie
Exotique, Vol. 18 (1925,) p. 368.

The medical attention given to labor (including Kru labor) employed by the
government as well as private enterprise is discussed by G. Bouffard, “Protection
Sanitaire de la main d’ceuvre indigene en Cote d’Ivoire,” Bulletin de la Societe
de VOuest-Africain, April 5, 1925, p. 439. This Bulletin is printed in the volume of
the Societe de Pathologie Exotique, above cited.

48 Cf. Vol. II, p. 258.

44 Conseil Colonial, November, 1922, p. 41.

45 Cf. Vol. II, pp. 499 ff.

"The recruiting of labor for private enterprise is discussed on p. 27, Vol. II.

The general effect of this whole policy has been described by Mme. Lucie
Cousturier, in a report to the Minister of Colonies, after an investigation in regard
to native family life in West Africa, as follows:

“Ce mal [des indigenes] qu’ils exposent comme une plaie, c’est le desespoir
d’ameliorer leur situation vis-a-vis des etrangers. Or, parmi les obstacles k cette
amelioration, les uns citent 1’administration fran^aise, les autres citent les institu¬
tions indigenes, et ils n’ont peut-etre pas tort, ni les uns ni les autres, car actuelle-
ment rien dans le joug familial ou metropolitain, n’est favorable aux noirs pour la

NATIVE OBLIGATIONS

1045

concurrence iconomique, tout au contraire, est favorable aux trafiquants de toute
nationality frangais, anglais, amiricains; grecs et syriens particulierement.

“Le capitalisme des etrangers leur permet de recueillir de raraasser les moindres
sommes que les noirs, communistes, laissent ichapper et de les drainer sans retour
vers leurs establissements mitropolitains. Car drainer ne serait rien, le pillage
meme par les implantes ne serait rien. . . . Malheureusement les blancs, enrichis
aux colonies, n’y deversent rien; ils y vivent dans une avarice sordide et emportent
leurs capit aux amasses pour les dipenser dans leur mitropole respective.

. . . “II en resulte que toute activite des blancs en A.O.F. ne s’exerce que dans le
sens de la succion. Les ports et autres centres commerciaux creis en A.O.F.
aspirent la sive indigene mais ne la refoulent pas; ils ne sont pas tels qu'un coeur
qui doit recevoir le sang contenu dans un organisme et le lui restituer sous un
aspect nouveau et vivifiant; ils sont tels qu’une blessure ouverte de laquelle la vie
s'echappe k jamais.

“C’est pour cela que je n'ai pu trouver de veritable abondance et vitality que
dans les regions montagneuses, les moins facilement accesibles, chez les Tomas,
les Guerzis, indemnes de la concurrence de nos mercantis, tandis que dans les
regions proches de nos voies de communication les plus friquenties et les plus
rapides, fluvi ales ou ferries, les ressources indigenes s'epuisent le plus profonde-
ment. II est done k prisumer que les magnibques travaux projetis, qui devraient
assurer dans un avenir rapprochi, la productivity intense des terres les plus
lointaines, ne serviront, si on n'y prenrf garde, qu’a faire disparaitre la population
plus vite." This section of the report is printed in Les Continents for October i,
1934.

^ THEOLOGY LIBRARY

SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY AT CLAREMONT
CLAREMONT, CALIFORNIA

23-262-002

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Full text of "The Native Problem In Africa.Vol 1."

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